The Distance of the Sun to Earth is called an Astronomical Unit
I took a bus in on Monday and arrived with plenty of time before class. Being as I am such a cool person, it seemed logical to walk all the way from the bus stop to school. At one point in my walk, I noticed that the front of my skirt (marked by a tied drawstring) was, frankly, nowhere near the front of my body. Which sounds like I'm trying to say the skirt fell off. But I'm not trying to say that. I'm trying to say that it twisted itself. A lot.
On any normal day in the year, my first reaction would have been to twist it back to its proper position before even thinking about it. Only, no day this summer will be a normal day because my mind is under the influence of numbers. The mass of the Sun is approximately 2 x 10^30. An artificial satellite will take 83 minutes to complete its orbit around Earth. When the Earth is closer to the sun (the Earth's orbit is elliptical so it is, at times, closer or farther from the sun) it moves faster in its orbit than when it's far away. And I thought, "I wonder how many degrees my skirt rotates a minute!"
Distance: 22 blocks + 2.5 avenues = approximately 27 blocks or 13.5 avenues.
Time: 30 minutes.
Number of rotations: the skirt completed 3 full 360* rotations around the axis of my body.
So, for about every street I walked, my skirt rotated approximately 40*. Or, my skirt rotated at a rate of 36* a minute.
Of course, my hips are more elliptical than circular and that probably makes some sort of difference. But in conclusion, I need to stop wearing skirts that are too big.
On any normal day in the year, my first reaction would have been to twist it back to its proper position before even thinking about it. Only, no day this summer will be a normal day because my mind is under the influence of numbers. The mass of the Sun is approximately 2 x 10^30. An artificial satellite will take 83 minutes to complete its orbit around Earth. When the Earth is closer to the sun (the Earth's orbit is elliptical so it is, at times, closer or farther from the sun) it moves faster in its orbit than when it's far away. And I thought, "I wonder how many degrees my skirt rotates a minute!"
Distance: 22 blocks + 2.5 avenues = approximately 27 blocks or 13.5 avenues.
Time: 30 minutes.
Number of rotations: the skirt completed 3 full 360* rotations around the axis of my body.
So, for about every street I walked, my skirt rotated approximately 40*. Or, my skirt rotated at a rate of 36* a minute.
Of course, my hips are more elliptical than circular and that probably makes some sort of difference. But in conclusion, I need to stop wearing skirts that are too big.
posted by BrownsvilleGirl at 5:41 PM
dina i love you but ur on crack!!! i was wearing a skirt the other day that actually fell off- i started walking out the door and it kinda slipped from its precarious position on my hips. b"h i caught it before it led to any embarassing moments-and it led me to the same conclusion as you. the problem remains how to find skirts that both fit the waist and cover the knee
Once, my skirt blew upward when I was walking over a subway grate and a train passed underneath. Such pleasant things, these skirts. :)
Did you know that I'm always under the influence?
...Of Earth's gravitational pull!
That was terrible, I know...
radians my dear. We measure angles in radians. Also i don't understand the thing about the artifical satelite.
I don't really get the artificial satellite thing either, but it's my professor's language choice.