OT: The state of American education today?

Rich Grise wrote: ) While reading today's comix, I hit on this one: )

) "By driving at 100 miles per hour in a car, if it were possible, IT WOULD ) TAKE MORE THAN 28 YEARS TO REACH THE NEAREST STAR - PROXIMA CENTAURI!" ) ) Well, yeah, significantly more than 28 years - more like 28 MILLION years!

Quite nearly 28 million years, actually. (By my reckoning it's about 28.3 million years.) So I'm guessing they just dropped that million somewhere.

SaSW, Willem

--
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for any of the statements
            made in the above text. For all I know I might be
            drugged or something..
            No I'm not paranoid. You all think I'm paranoid, don't you !
#EOT

Yeah, probably a typo rather than pure ignorance. If it were true, existing spacecraft could easily do the distance in a few weeks.

I dunno about the accuracy of "typo" here, considering it's hand- lettered. ;-)

But that's probably kinda like "outtakes" in (on? of? from?) an animated cartoon. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

It would take almost 4x that to reach the nearest star.

Actually, it's often called "Sol".

It *is* true. It *does* take more than 28 years to get to Proxima Centauri. ;-)

Horace Connelly is retired, so he probably went to school elsewhere. He graduated in 1956, the peak year for SAT performance.

The Orlando Odditorium is 20 miles from his house. Connelly may have confronted the management about the fact, believe it or not, that Robert Leroy Ripley died on the air in 1949. If word got out, what would happen to attendance? I don't know why else the Syndicate would attempt to destroy his credibility by publishing a false factoid.

Particularly since, even driving at 100MPH, it's unlikely that the car is ever going to leave the surface of the Earth. ;-)

Spehro Pefhany:

Rich Grise:

Depends on what you mean "the nearest" *to*.

-- Mark Brader | "Have you got anything without Spam in it?" Toronto | "Well, there's Spam, egg, sausage, and Spam. snipped-for-privacy@vex.net | That's not got *much* Spam in it." --Monty Python

S. O. L. would do well to answer the subject line.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

Actually, I had noticed that myself when I was double- and triple-checking my arithmetic; I just didn't post it. :-)

Thanks! Rich

It is less a hit on education as it is on whoever proofread the article.

What's a factor of 10^6 to an editor?

Jim

I think they meant "By driving in a car at 100 *million* miles an hour, if it were possible,....".

After all, it is possible to drive in a car at 100 MPH.

Just seems logical to me, and the numbers come out approximately right.

You're welcome, John

John - KD5YI wrote: ) On 3/30/2011 11:09 AM, Rich Grise wrote: )> While reading today's comix, I hit on this one: )>

)> "By driving at 100 miles per hour in a car, if it were possible, IT WOULD )> TAKE MORE THAN 28 YEARS TO REACH THE NEAREST STAR - PROXIMA CENTAURI!" )>

)> Well, yeah, significantly more than 28 years - more like 28 MILLION years! )>

)> Are Florida teachers unionized? )>

)> Thanks, )> Rich )>

) ) I think they meant "By driving in a car at 100 *million* miles an hour, ) if it were possible,....". ) ) After all, it is possible to drive in a car at 100 MPH. ) ) Just seems logical to me, and the numbers come out approximately right.

Yes, the 'if it were possible' was a big hint. I wonder what the time dilation is at a 100 million miles an hour. After all, it's almost 15% of lightspeed.

SaSW, Willem

--
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for any of the statements
            made in the above text. For all I know I might be
            drugged or something..
            No I'm not paranoid. You all think I'm paranoid, don't you !
#EOT

You can make the calculations. I'd be interested in your results.

John

Note that the point of reference is not stated. So, if you choose to answer your own question, take all points of reference into account.

John

It's also quite impossible to drive a car through outer space. :-)

Cheers! Rich

Rich Grise:

"John":

"Willem":

But it isn't possible to drive to Proxima Centauri, so "if it were possible" works either way. And the correction factor of 1,000,000 works either way.

Not much. sqrt(1-.149^2) is only about 0.989, so allowing for time dilation only changes things by about 1.1%.

--
Mark Brader  |  "After that, he spent a long time just reading netnews.
msb@vex.net  |   Sorry, I mean of course that he was debugging his
Toronto      |   terminal emulation code..."          --Lars Wirzenius

Right! There are no gas stations on the way.

(I'm assuming, since I've not made the trip)

Six times zero.