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It's no wonder we're always so goddamned tired. I had one of those fitness bracelets that tells you how many steps you've walked in a day. That got me wondering just how far do I travel in a day? I know how far I walk. I know how far I drive on any given day. Then I started thinking.
The Earth rotates once a day. The speed varies according to your latitude but, near the equator, it can reach 1,000 miles an hour. Our planet, meanwhile, orbits the Sun, one orbit a year. That adds another 67,000 miles an hour.
Now you might not know this but our solar system, our sun and its planets, orbits the Milky Way about once very 250 million years. That orbit adds 514,000 miles an hour and for an incredible 250 million year stretch per go. At the same time our galaxy, the Milky Way, is said to be moving through the universe at a respectable clip of 1,340,000 miles an hour.
That comes out to 1.9 million miles an hour, give or take 23,000. Ever think you might see 23,000 miles an hour as a rounding error?
10 comments:
I think I'll just have a short rest. Wake me in twenty?
Surrender to the soothing arms of Morpheus, UU4077.
Many times I spiralled to earth's surface at two and three hundrend miles an hour. It was beautiful thing.
Is that from the original Blade Runner?
Isn't putting on a fit-bit kind of like strapping your own private hamster wheel to your wrist?
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Yes, Ross, I suppose it is. And, the best part, is that you fork over good money for the privilege.
Hey, you just nailed why time travel is ... difficult. Once we solve the 'moving through time' thing (easy peasy eh?) we gotta solve the 'moving through space' thing to get back over those billions of kms.
;-)
My sons didn't much like the original Blade Runner. If you want to earn a pilot's licence, spirals are a requirement.
When I got my private pilot's licence many, many moons ago I was told that in the U.S. instructors didn't even have to have experienced putting a plane into a spiral and recovering. In Canada, it's all part of qualifying for your private pilot licence. Not too difficult in a Cessna 150/152 though. Damn stable little aircraft.
I'm not sure that's the spiral being referred to in that line.
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