The scale is due to Faraday's importance, similar to how Buzz Lightyear's breakthroughs in astrodynamics led to the international adoption of an eponymous distance unit, displacing the older parsec which was based on an arbitrary angular parallax measured at Earth's orbital distance from the sun.
Cosmos - With Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Thread starter Greylock Crescent
- Start date
I decided to stick with Cosmos and the episode last week was great. This episode about Faraday wasn't bad, but I was wondering if I was watching a science show or a history show. Yeah it's important to be familiar with some of these people, but I love the show when they talk about the Black Holes, or last week's episode talking about the tectonic shifts. The best part about this episode was talking about the Aurora lights.
Hopefully in the final few episodes, they get into the modern sciences, like where the scientific community is going in 2014 and beyond. A lot of the series was more History than science, yet there is still so many scientific discoveries about the Cosmos that we have yet to explain.
Hopefully in the final few episodes, they get into the modern sciences, like where the scientific community is going in 2014 and beyond. A lot of the series was more History than science, yet there is still so many scientific discoveries about the Cosmos that we have yet to explain.
Wut?
I'm talking about the lightyear, a measurement useful at interstellar distances that is named for Buzz Lightyear, and one which doesn't work out as a nice multiple of any other distance measure.
The previous interstellar yardstick was the parsec, or parallax second, which was the distance you get if a star has a parallax of one arc-second (1/60 of an arc minute, which is 1/60th of a degree), as the Earth rotates 180 degrees around the sun, assuming a few other things about our orbit. In Star Wars, Han Solo famously misused parsec as a unit of time instead of distance. That wouldn't have happened if he'd been using the distance units named after Buzz Lightyear.
The previous interstellar yardstick was the parsec, or parallax second, which was the distance you get if a star has a parallax of one arc-second (1/60 of an arc minute, which is 1/60th of a degree), as the Earth rotates 180 degrees around the sun, assuming a few other things about our orbit. In Star Wars, Han Solo famously misused parsec as a unit of time instead of distance. That wouldn't have happened if he'd been using the distance units named after Buzz Lightyear.
I thought you were talking about Toy Story. I was asking myself what does Buzz Lightyear have to do with Cosmos. 
Is everyone's humor detector broken? gturner's posts aren't funny, but they are obviously supposed to be.
With gturner, you can't be sure.
The important thing to remember with gturner posts is that they are less about honest discussion and more about poking people in the eyes, either with nonsensical unfunnies, or mountains of unrelated details with questionable truthiness.
Well, we are here, so that is proof of something. 
Why are we putting "words" in "quotation marks"? Is this a new "Internet" "fad"?
Seriously, how did people not get that joke? For the record, it made me laugh
Why are we putting "words" in "quotation marks"? Is this a new "Internet" "fad"?
Employee must "wash hands".
Ah, so this has become the "official" gturner "joke" thread then? Good to "know."
Why are we putting "words" in "quotation marks"? Is this a new "Internet" "fad"?
"Yes"
But my point is, many of thier facts aren't and there proof isn't.
Agree. It cracked me up.
I also "laughed".
You mean like all the "facts" that "prove" the Big Bang occured?
Why are we putting "words" in "quotation marks"? Is this a new "Internet" "fad"?
"Yes"
But my point is, many of thier facts aren't and there proof isn't.
I look forward to seeing your detailed takedown of the Big Bang theory--the theory, not the show. The show sucks.
Scientists do not speak of "facts" and "proof," because those imply absolute certainty and science is about acknowledging doubt. "Proof" is something that exists only in mathematics, because only there can you have complete certainty. Scientists speak of evidence that either supports or refutes an existing theoretical model, and they continue to refine their models as new evidence becomes available. Any given model is not a "proven fact," it's just the most reliable model we currently have for codifying and predicting the behavior of the universe. And we keep using it until it fails to fit new evidence, at which point we refine or replace it.
I understood that he was trying to make a joke, it just wasn't funny.
gturner is trying to be like Guy Gardener, and only Guy Gardener gets to be like Guy Gardener.
gturner would have to make much shorter posts to be like Guy Gardener.
Guy Gardener's posts are the Internet equivalent of Burma Shave signs.
You take a fairly pedestrian idea.
Then you turn it into a cuckoo clock.
Natalie Portman gives it a blowjob, and before you know it Russia's invaded Crimea. It's only natural when your legs are that long.
Guy Gardener's posts are the Internet equivalent of Burma Shave signs.
You take a fairly pedestrian idea.
Then you turn it into a cuckoo clock.
Natalie Portman gives it a blowjob, and before you know it Russia's invaded Crimea. It's only natural when your legs are that long.
