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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 13, 2016 at 6:11 pm
I set 'em up, you knock 'em down!
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 13, 2016 at 6:15 pm
Ever heard of "Clever Hans"?
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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 13, 2016 at 8:18 pm
(September 13, 2016 at 4:54 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: (September 13, 2016 at 4:23 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: Right. There are 2. I think the other one was hiding in Capricorn until Gawdzilla coxed it out. They're going to name it after him, ya know.
I used to think I was a Capricorn until Carl explained precession.
Which Carl are you referring to and what book?
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 13, 2016 at 8:29 pm
(September 13, 2016 at 11:02 am)Rhondazvous Wrote: We're nearly four times closer to Alpha centauri than to El Sol. So why hasn't that closer star pulled us out of orbit?
TEACH The Controversy!!!
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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 14, 2016 at 8:40 am
It's funny how we talk of suns being light years away, yet if you travelled to either sun at the speed of light it would take the same amount of time to get there.
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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 14, 2016 at 8:43 am
(September 14, 2016 at 8:40 am)Little lunch Wrote: It's funny how we talk of suns being light years away, yet if you travelled to either sun at the speed of light it would take the same amount of time to get there.
Fortunately, if you travel near the speed of light, much less time passes for you, the traveller, than on Earth!
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 14, 2016 at 9:21 am
(September 13, 2016 at 11:02 am)Rhondazvous Wrote: We're nearly four times closer to Alpha centauri than to El Sol. So why hasn't that closer star pulled us out of orbit?
Ummmm. . . see that big giant yellow thing in the sky? That's the sun. It looks so big, and feels so hot, because it's close to us.
Bae, it's nice to learn numbers, but you gotta think practically, too--- do you really expect that little tiny speck in the night sky to have a more dominating pull on the Earth that that huge, huge thing in the daytime sky? Doesn't make sense, right?
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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 14, 2016 at 9:24 am
(September 14, 2016 at 8:43 am)Alex K Wrote: (September 14, 2016 at 8:40 am)Little lunch Wrote: It's funny how we talk of suns being light years away, yet if you travelled to either sun at the speed of light it would take the same amount of time to get there.
Fortunately, if you travel near the speed of light, much less time passes for you, the traveller, than on Earth!
And if you're lucky enough to be a photon, you get to have NO time pass, which means that from your perspective, the sun you came from and the skin you get absorbed into are touching. And if space is an illusion in one frame of reference, it must be an illusion in ALL frames of reference.
Or something.
(insert geometrical crayon drawing here)
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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 14, 2016 at 9:25 am
(This post was last modified: September 14, 2016 at 9:26 am by Alex K.)
As I always like to reiterate, the rest frame of a photon is not a mathematically well-defined frame of reference that is valid in relativity. I consider the collapse of all of space to an infinitely thin sheet from this vantage point as a mathematical pathology.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?
September 14, 2016 at 10:14 am
(September 13, 2016 at 8:18 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: (September 13, 2016 at 4:54 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: I used to think I was a Capricorn until Carl explained precession.
Which Carl are you referring to and what book?
St. Carl of Sagan. He explained that the zodiac had rotated since the days the dates were laid out, resulting in a "one-off" error on everybody who is currently alive.
http://www.livescience.com/4667-astrological-sign.html
Quote:You will most likely find that once precession is taken into account, your zodiac sign is different. And if you were born between November 29 and December 17, your sign is actually one you never saw in the newspaper: you are an Ophiuchus! The eliptic passes through the constellation of Ophiuchus after Scorpius.
Now you really have something cool with which to start that conversation!
Check out your “real” zodiac sign below and see what the sky looked like on your birthday by going to the Birthday Sky application.
Capricorn - Jan 20 to Feb 16
Aquarius - Feb 16 to Mar 11
Pisces - Mar 11 to Apr 18
Aries - Apr 18 to May 13
Taurus - May 13 to Jun 21
Gemini - Jun 21 to Jul 20
Cancer - Jul 20 to Aug 10
Leo - Aug 10 to Sep 16
Virgo - Sep 16 to Oct 30
Libra - Oct 30 to Nov 23
Scorpius - Nov 23 to Nov 29
Ophiuchus - Nov 29 to Dec 17
Sagittarius - Dec 17 to Jan 20
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