January 21, 2000

Humongous! Distances in the Universe

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts for space."

 "The hitchhiker's guide to the universe", Douglas Adams, 1979

Assignments:

Look at HW#1
Start reading Chapter 4.1 and 4.2 of your text "From Earth to the Universe"
Introduction:
Announcements:
1. Distributed next week's lab
2. Bring Calculators to lab, class (not obs labs)
3. Extra Credit Problems: Card collection scheme.
4. Remember to start working on HW #1 (on Monday is best, probably), and read Chapter 4 sections 1&2.
5.How to get to our web page
6.Yesterdays lunar eclipse (on board diagram with distances in miles)
Question: 11:05:00 ET beginning of total eclipse on earth. If there was an astronaut on the moon, when would he have said the eclipse started? Now, remember that space is terribly empty!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Answer:
Speed of light: 186,000 miles per second, or
~300,000 km/sec
or: (Use simble c from now on)
c=2.99792458 x 108 m/s

For class purposes: 
c=2.998 x 108m/s

The Ultimate speed! Nothing moves faster!

ET call home. (Astronaut Buck "Dreamy" Weaver.)

Demo with laser & creamer.

So how long to California with Sat-phone? 3.59 x 10^7 m X 2

 Actually, a good starting point!
Do the math...

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