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	<title>Comments on: A cosmic Idle moment</title>
	<atom:link href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/</link>
	<description>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.</description>
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		<title>By: Gary Ansorge</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/comment-page-1/#comment-20735</link>
		<dc:creator>Gary Ansorge</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Sep 2006 17:17:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/#comment-20735</guid>
		<description>Sent the link to all my friends. Now they can stay awake too,,,

GAry 7</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sent the link to all my friends. Now they can stay awake too,,,</p>
<p>GAry 7</p>
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		<title>By: Evolving Squid</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/comment-page-1/#comment-20736</link>
		<dc:creator>Evolving Squid</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:35:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/#comment-20736</guid>
		<description>&lt;i&gt;Just remember that you&#039;re standing on a planet that&#039;s evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,&lt;/i&gt;

The Earth is approximately 25000 miles in circumference at the equator.  Thus, a point on the equator revolves around the Earth&#039;s axis at about 1000 mph. At the latitude of London (51 degrees), the circle traced out by London is about 16000 miles, so London revolves at just shy of 700 mph, so the song&#039;s interpretation is probably a reasonable, rounded figure.

&lt;i&gt;That&#039;s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it&#039;s reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.&lt;/i&gt;

According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/IlanaEpstein.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; the Earth moves at about 30 km/s in its orbit, or about 19 miles a second.

(skipping a bit)
&lt;i&gt;Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It&#039;s a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it&#039;s just three thousand light years wide.
We&#039;re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.&lt;/i&gt;

Being pressed for time, I&#039;m not going to look those up, but the numbers seem accurate enough for the purposes of the song.

&lt;i&gt;We go &#039;round every two hundred million years,&lt;/i&gt;

According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/StacyLeong.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; the cosmic year is about 230 million years.  The song is close enough for government work.

back to the skipped bit...
&lt;i&gt;The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the &#039;Milky Way&#039;.&lt;/i&gt;

Hard to say what it&#039;s referring to here.  In our trip around the galaxy, I get a number of around 600k mph, or about 250 km/s.  That number seems consistent with some references I found, so I&#039;d say that if that&#039;s what the song is on about, the song is wrong.

According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; the galaxy is zipping through space at around 600 km/s (1.3 million mph).  So I will conjecture that the numbers in the song were chosen by &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onager&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;onager&lt;/a&gt;istic guessing.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>Just remember that you&#8217;re standing on a planet that&#8217;s evolving<br />
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,</i></p>
<p>The Earth is approximately 25000 miles in circumference at the equator.  Thus, a point on the equator revolves around the Earth&#8217;s axis at about 1000 mph. At the latitude of London (51 degrees), the circle traced out by London is about 16000 miles, so London revolves at just shy of 700 mph, so the song&#8217;s interpretation is probably a reasonable, rounded figure.</p>
<p><i>That&#8217;s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it&#8217;s reckoned,<br />
A sun that is the source of all our power.</i></p>
<p>According to <a href="http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/IlanaEpstein.shtml" rel="nofollow">here</a> the Earth moves at about 30 km/s in its orbit, or about 19 miles a second.</p>
<p>(skipping a bit)<br />
<i>Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.<br />
It&#8217;s a hundred thousand light years side to side.<br />
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,<br />
But out by us, it&#8217;s just three thousand light years wide.<br />
We&#8217;re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.</i></p>
<p>Being pressed for time, I&#8217;m not going to look those up, but the numbers seem accurate enough for the purposes of the song.</p>
<p><i>We go &#8217;round every two hundred million years,</i></p>
<p>According to <a href="http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/StacyLeong.shtml" rel="nofollow">here</a> the cosmic year is about 230 million years.  The song is close enough for government work.</p>
<p>back to the skipped bit&#8230;<br />
<i>The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see<br />
Are moving at a million miles a day<br />
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,<br />
Of the galaxy we call the &#8216;Milky Way&#8217;.</i></p>
<p>Hard to say what it&#8217;s referring to here.  In our trip around the galaxy, I get a number of around 600k mph, or about 250 km/s.  That number seems consistent with some references I found, so I&#8217;d say that if that&#8217;s what the song is on about, the song is wrong.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way" rel="nofollow">here</a> the galaxy is zipping through space at around 600 km/s (1.3 million mph).  So I will conjecture that the numbers in the song were chosen by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onager" rel="nofollow">onager</a>istic guessing.</p>
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		<title>By: Sticks</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/comment-page-1/#comment-20737</link>
		<dc:creator>Sticks</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:19:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/#comment-20737</guid>
		<description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=11711&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;It was this thread&lt;/a&gt;</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=11711" rel="nofollow">It was this thread</a></p>
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		<title>By: Sticks</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/comment-page-1/#comment-20738</link>
		<dc:creator>Sticks</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Sep 2006 08:01:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/#comment-20738</guid>
		<description>IIRC Did someone on the forum deconstruct that song to see how accurate it really was?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>IIRC Did someone on the forum deconstruct that song to see how accurate it really was?</p>
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		<title>By: Josh Colwell</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/comment-page-1/#comment-20740</link>
		<dc:creator>Josh Colwell</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:57:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/#comment-20740</guid>
		<description>I actually show the movie clip of that song in my astronomy class. It&#039;s a handy way to remember basic dimensions of the Milky Way.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I actually show the movie clip of that song in my astronomy class. It&#8217;s a handy way to remember basic dimensions of the Milky Way.</p>
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		<title>By: The Ridger</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/comment-page-1/#comment-20739</link>
		<dc:creator>The Ridger</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:42:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/#comment-20739</guid>
		<description>I still have fond memories of Yakko Warner&#039;s version...</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I still have fond memories of Yakko Warner&#8217;s version&#8230;</p>
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		<title>By: Rumour Mongerer</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/comment-page-1/#comment-20741</link>
		<dc:creator>Rumour Mongerer</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:06:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/18/a-cosmic-idle-moment/#comment-20741</guid>
		<description>Ah, but work lets me watch .swf files, unlike being able to access YouTube...</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ah, but work lets me watch .swf files, unlike being able to access YouTube&#8230;</p>
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