[meteorite-list] comet holmes

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:15:05 -0500
Message-ID: <025a01c8173b$5a3d3850$b92ee146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Jerry,

    In a century or two, the "lightminute" will become
a common measure of distance. Say you're working
on Titan, at the Hydrocarbon Pipeline Base at the foot
of the skyhook that pumps it up to static orbit, and you
realize that next month you'll have to budget for a long
phone call to your wife's parents because it's their 100th
wedding anniversary. It's not cheap to call The Old Folks
At Home (back on "The" Moon, as they still call it) and
your wife is going to blab endlessly, you know that.

    The charge rate of the call will contain lightspeed
connection times, a surcharge per lightminute. You
recall vaguely that Saturn and Earth are both on the same
side of the Sun right now; that helps. You get online and
check the current surcharge on a call to "The" Moon.
At least it's nowhere as bad as the surcharge to Mars.

    The lightminute is the most "comfortable" unit to use
inside the solar system, whether you're communicating or
not. Just as today anyone who moves around a lot knows
that a mile is 5280 feet (and a kilometer is 3280* feet; isn't
that handy?), in 200 years all traveled persons will know a
lightminute is 18,000,000 kilometers. Only pedants will
object that it's really 17,987,547.5 kilometers. Hey! Close
enough! For everything but the landing, anyway.

    It's a lot more convenient to think of the Earth's distance
from the Sun as 8.5 lightminutes, or Mars' close approach
is just over 3 lightminutes (and Venus' closest just under
3 lightminutes or Jupiter at 39 lightminutes). AU's are too
big. Miles and kilometers are too small. The lightminute
is juuuuust right.

    And if you're IN a spacecraft making a routine trip in
the solar system and covering 2,500,000+ kilometers a day
for days on end, you're covering a lightminute every week
and wishing you had the price of a high-boost ticket on a
hyperbolic orbit liner knocking off a lightminute or more
every day. Oh, yeah, those big numbers we use today look
very impressive in print (and that's why we use them), but
in constant everyday conversation? I don't think so.

    The "lightminute" has a future! It's either that, or a new
common-use unit like the kilometer: the gigameter. So, a
lightminute is 18 gigameters. But because the gigameter
doesn't tie to time (and communication) like the lightminute,
I think the lightminute will be the winner.


Sterling K. Webb
---------------------------------------------------------------------
* 3280.8399 feet, you pedants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: <lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu>
To: "Jerry" <grf2 at verizon.net>
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 11:32 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] comet holmes


Hello Jerry:

Based on Starry Night, the Shuttle was about 360km away at closest and ISS
about 390km away. At 300,000 km/sec (speed of light), we are talking about
1/1000 of a second for light to get from there to here. Not sure how far
apart they were, but do not think that it was very much different than
that.

Larry

On Wed, October 24, 2007 8:50 pm, Jerry wrote:
> What's the time interval for light transmission from this distance to
> earth? Jerry Flaherty
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>
>


______________________________________________
Meteorite-list mailing list
Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Thu 25 Oct 2007 03:15:05 PM PDT