Posted by Rhona (195.92.168.170) on November 05, 2002 at 23:37:18:
Talking of big numbers etc brought the following Python song up from the depths of my brain...one that gets me to work in the mornings. (those of you that know it can hum along!)
"Whenever life gets you down Mrs. Brown
And things seems hard or tough
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you've had quite enough...
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, and revolving at 900 miles an hour.
Its orbiting at 19 miles a second, so its reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that you can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm at 40 thousand miles an hour
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy itself contains a 100 billion stars,
Its a 100 thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle 16 thousand light years thick
But out by us, its just 3 thousand light years wide.
We're 30 thousand light years from galactic central point
We go round every 200 million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and exanding universe.
(8 bar break!)
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go,
The speed of light you know,
12 million miles a minute
And that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth.
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth."
Its amazing what you can remember when it has a tune.
Congrats on the site, Seumas - looks good.