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Thursday Morning Ramble "Normal"
15 years ago
For more of your favorite Overlord please visit: http://heisyourleader.blogspot.com/
Just some food for thought today, I'm afraid. Looking at things from the bottom up, instead of the top down, for a change. A little something that will hopefully turn your perception of the normal and everyday a little on its head.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
You are currently sitting directly under a column of air 300 miles tall.
At sea level, the weight of the atmosphere exerts 14.7 pounds per square inch of force.
Right now, your body is under approximately 10 tons of pressure.
Even though you're sitting still to read this, you're moving through space at an astounding speed.
The spin of the Earth on its axis is roughly 1,041 miles per hour.
The orbit of the Earth around the sun is approximately 69,360 miles per hour.
The sun, and therefore the solar system, is moving across the galactic plane at a speed of 43,200 miles per hour.
The solar system is moving vertically in relation to the galactic plane at a rate of 15,624 miles per hour.
The solar system is orbiting the galactic center at a speed of 446,400 miles per hour.
The Milky Way galaxy moves through space at a speed of 1,339,200 miles per hour.
Right now, you are hurtling through space at a rate of 1,913,785 miles per hour.
That's roughly 531 miles per second.
This is "normal."
Douglas Adams said it best:
“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”
Consider for a moment the choices you have made in your life. Consider for a moment the millions of choices made by people every day that only impact your life in the seemingly smallest, insignificant, and disconnected ways. Consider that so-called "random" events and choices going back for hundreds, thousands, millions of years have had a direct impact on your life today. Cause and effect, the question "why?", following the dominoes. A "random" series of events since the beginning of time has impacted your life. Given the size of the universe, the odds of people existing are quite good. However, the odds against you existing, you, as an individual, exactly as you are now, are incalculably astronomically high. You are a statistical anomaly. Nigh on an impossibility. If one were so inclined, you could probably call it a scientific miracle.
EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that in my sleepless daze I made the (obvious) mistake of not considering the vectors involved in my calculation of the rate of movement of a stationary human being, and that if the vectors overlap it would be inaccurate. However, if my understanding of the difference between the two is correct, while it may not be an accurate velocity, I believe it is still an accurate speed. In any case, the individual figures are accurate, and I believe my point is still proven.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
You are currently sitting directly under a column of air 300 miles tall.
At sea level, the weight of the atmosphere exerts 14.7 pounds per square inch of force.
Right now, your body is under approximately 10 tons of pressure.
Even though you're sitting still to read this, you're moving through space at an astounding speed.
The spin of the Earth on its axis is roughly 1,041 miles per hour.
The orbit of the Earth around the sun is approximately 69,360 miles per hour.
The sun, and therefore the solar system, is moving across the galactic plane at a speed of 43,200 miles per hour.
The solar system is moving vertically in relation to the galactic plane at a rate of 15,624 miles per hour.
The solar system is orbiting the galactic center at a speed of 446,400 miles per hour.
The Milky Way galaxy moves through space at a speed of 1,339,200 miles per hour.
Right now, you are hurtling through space at a rate of 1,913,785 miles per hour.
That's roughly 531 miles per second.
This is "normal."
Douglas Adams said it best:
“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”
Consider for a moment the choices you have made in your life. Consider for a moment the millions of choices made by people every day that only impact your life in the seemingly smallest, insignificant, and disconnected ways. Consider that so-called "random" events and choices going back for hundreds, thousands, millions of years have had a direct impact on your life today. Cause and effect, the question "why?", following the dominoes. A "random" series of events since the beginning of time has impacted your life. Given the size of the universe, the odds of people existing are quite good. However, the odds against you existing, you, as an individual, exactly as you are now, are incalculably astronomically high. You are a statistical anomaly. Nigh on an impossibility. If one were so inclined, you could probably call it a scientific miracle.
EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that in my sleepless daze I made the (obvious) mistake of not considering the vectors involved in my calculation of the rate of movement of a stationary human being, and that if the vectors overlap it would be inaccurate. However, if my understanding of the difference between the two is correct, while it may not be an accurate velocity, I believe it is still an accurate speed. In any case, the individual figures are accurate, and I believe my point is still proven.
its rather interesting because you actually have a velocity in every direction except down. up, left, and right. because there are no such things when you are looking from a point in every direction.
X3
Sometimes, when I'm in a bit of a wise-cracking mood, I've responded to "What's up?" with "There is no such thing as up. Up is an illusion caused by your position relative to the nearest gravity well." I can be real annoying with the science-talk sometimes. XD