Editing 2707: Astronomy Numbers
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Created by a CAT-LOVING LASER POINTER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
+ | Space is really, really big,{{citation needed}} and the things that are in space can also end up being very big themselves. As a result of this, most quantities in astronomy can vary by huge scales. For example, Earth weighs 10^23 times more than the average human, and the Sun weighs 10^5 times more than that, which itself is 10^12 times less massive than the Milky Way. The same applies to speeds, distances, and time, which can often be measured in terms of light speed, light-years, and millions (or even billions) of years. Because of this, it's a truly unusual occurrence for anything in space to end up in the fairly narrow range of scales of mass, size, speed, or time that humans can easily grasp. | ||
− | + | Ponytail, a scientist apparently researching something related to Earth's orbit, remarks that she finds it “suspicious” when reasonably human-scaled numbers come up. She then extends this paranoia to things that should be measured in regular numbers, such as the weight of cats. The vet (Megan) is seemingly used to this problem (perhaps she gets a lot of physicists) so restates the 12 lb weight of Ponytail’s cat in solar masses, which sounds more correct to the astronomer. | |
− | + | Although the Earth's orbital velocity around the Sun is far above any "normal" scales (around 30 kilometers per second or 108,000 kilometers per hour), Earth has a pretty circular orbit around the Sun so most of this speed ends up being tangential (sideways) rather than radial (towards or away from) the Sun, which is the value relevant for Ponytail's calculations. On January 1, Earth's radial velocity is close to its smallest value because we reach our closest point to the Sun in the first few days of January each year (in 2023, it happens on January 4) so by January 1, it's nearly come to a standstill before it starts travelling away from the Sun again. On the other hand, by April 3, 2023, Earth will be receding from the Sun by almost 500 meters per second or 1800 kilometers per hour, a slightly less normal speed for the average person to encounter in everyday life.{{citation needed}} | |
− | + | 65 miles per hour is approximately equal to 105 kilometres per hour, although the even more typical scientific value (in {{w|International System of Units|SI}} derived units) would be 29 metres per second. 3 × 10^−30 solar masses is approximately equal to 6 kilograms or 13 pounds (consistent with the 12 pounds, or slightly under 5.5 kilogrammes, of the original figure) and is normal, if perhaps slightly overweight, for a cat. | |
− | + | The title text suggests that laser pointers "love chasing" a new cat with a weight of 12 solar masses (an inversion of the typical cat behavior of [[729: Laser Pointer|chasing laser pointer dots]]). Randall has probably accidentally adopted a distant star instead, which astronomers usually take a liking to pointing laser pointers at during both star parties & normal parties they were unwisely invited to. Assuming Randall's 12-solar-mass cat goes through similar life cycles to a 12-solar-mass star, his cat will probably end up living a violent, short life of just a few million years before expanding into a red supercat and exploding as a feline supernova, which might explain why astronomers are so interested in pointing it out. | |
− | + | Another interpretation of the title text is that this may be due to the effects of gravity, which would cause an ordinary object such as a laser pointer to be irresistibly pulled towards the hypothetical cat... along with everything else, up to and including the sun, because said cat would be the most massive object in the solar system by an order of magnitude. In fact, 12 solar masses, when compressed down to a radius of around 36 kilometres, would be a black hole, so making that mass the size of a cat would very definitely qualify as even the laser light is drawn into it. | |
− | On | + | ==Transcript== |
+ | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
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+ | Ponytail: "…And we need to correct for our elliptical orbit. On January 1st, Earth will be approaching the sun at a rate of…let's see… | ||
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+ | 65 miles per hour. | ||
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+ | Weird. Okay." | ||
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+ | Cueball: "Weird?" | ||
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+ | Ponytail: "I get suspicious whenever I see a normal number in astronomy. We're not supposed to have those. Feels wrong. | ||
− | + | Scales should all be incomprehensible." | |
− | + | Earlier, at the vet: | |
− | + | Megan in coat: "Your cat weighs 12 lbs." | |
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− | + | Ponytail: "Ridiculous, nothing weighs '12'. You must mean 10<sup>-20</sup>? or 10<sup>40</sup>?" | |
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− | : | + | Megan: "Fine. Your cat weighs 3x10<sup>-30</sup> solar masses." |
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− | + | Ponytail: "Okay. Better." | |
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | ||
+ | [[Category:Astronomy]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | ||
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