Comments on: Heliocentrism Day! http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/ I am an astronomer, writer, and skeptic. I likes reality the way it is, and I aims to keep it that way. My real name is Phil Plait, and I run the Bad Astronomy blog. Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:21:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: SUPER M http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11616 SUPER M Fri, 17 Feb 2006 01:52:41 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11616 I mean world I mean world

]]> By: SUPER M http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11615 SUPER M Fri, 17 Feb 2006 01:51:50 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11615 why not make that a warld record cake? why not make that a warld record cake?

]]> By: The Centipede http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11614 The Centipede Thu, 16 Feb 2006 22:42:41 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11614 Mmmm... California-sized cake... y'know, we could just get around the whole scale and eccentricity issue if someone good with a frosting pen can write "sizes and shapes are not to scale" real small in one corner. Then as long as Pluto's perihelion is inside Uranus' mean orbital distance, we're good enough for government or engineering work. Mmmm… California-sized cake… y’know, we could just get around the whole scale and eccentricity issue if someone good with a frosting pen can write “sizes and shapes are not to scale” real small in one corner. Then as long as Pluto’s perihelion is inside Uranus’ mean orbital distance, we’re good enough for government or engineering work.

]]> By: DJ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11613 DJ Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:23:02 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11613 Yes! Let's bake a cake of our solar system. Just remember that if you want to properly represent the planets and their orbits, do the following: To represent the sun at the center of the cake use a walnut. Pluto then will be 1/5 the diameter of the period at the end of this sentence - use whatever you can find. Based on these Walnut/Dust Spec dimensions, to include Pluto's orbit, bake a cake about 22 acres in size (average diameter about 240 meters). Place Pluto at the edge of the cake, roughly 120 meters from the walnut. Place Earth about 3 meters out from the walnut. Use something the size of the period at the end of this sentence. The other planets range in size from Mercury the dust spec, to Jupiter the single bb pellet of buckshot like that which VP Cheney generously donated to the interior of his hunting buddy. When the tenth planet becomes official, the diameter of your cake will have to be tripled, and if you want to include the farthest reaches of our actual solar system your cake will need to be larger than the state of California. Have fun with that. Yes! Let’s bake a cake of our solar system.

Just remember that if you want to properly represent the planets and their orbits, do the following:

To represent the sun at the center of the cake use a walnut. Pluto then will be 1/5 the diameter of the period at the end of this sentence - use whatever you can find.

Based on these Walnut/Dust Spec dimensions, to include Pluto’s orbit, bake a cake about 22 acres in size (average diameter about 240 meters). Place Pluto at the edge of the cake, roughly 120 meters from the walnut.

Place Earth about 3 meters out from the walnut. Use something the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

The other planets range in size from Mercury the dust spec, to Jupiter the single bb pellet of buckshot like that which VP Cheney generously donated to the interior of his hunting buddy.

When the tenth planet becomes official, the diameter of your cake will have to be tripled, and if you want to include the farthest reaches of our actual solar system your cake will need to be larger than the state of California.

Have fun with that.

]]> By: Wes Davis http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11612 Wes Davis Tue, 14 Feb 2006 22:05:35 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11612 Irony at work. 17 Feb is the day recognized that Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the inquisition. His crime, among others, was that the lights in the sky were actually suns, around which other worlds revolved, and that Copernicus was right. Irony at work. 17 Feb is the day recognized that Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the inquisition. His crime, among others, was that the lights in the sky were actually suns, around which other worlds revolved, and that Copernicus was right.

]]> By: Nigel Depledge http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11611 Nigel Depledge Tue, 14 Feb 2006 21:41:14 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11611 That works better if you happen to know that the French onomatopoeia for "bang!" is "pan!".... That works better if you happen to know that the French onomatopoeia for “bang!” is “pan!”….

]]> By: Nigel Depledge http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11610 Nigel Depledge Tue, 14 Feb 2006 21:40:11 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/02/12/heliocentrism-day/#comment-11610 My god, that's it!!! There was no Big Bang! It was a Big Pan!!!!! My god, that’s it!!!

There was no Big Bang! It was a Big Pan!!!!!

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