As the number of Arabs in Physics 1 inceases, so the number of people being stymied by eloquent thought-processes decreases.
There seems to be a reciprocal relationship.
It is supposed to be a physics room, and as such, lately, I have tried to address this. (Blimey, Akiko, you DO sound pompous at times!)
I am sorry if I do, but last night I had fun asking a question which is very simple to formulate, but a little harder to fathom.
It was:
"What is it that takes the world 24 hours to do, yet takes the Earth a little over 7 minutes to do?"
Chatters in the physics room have asked me how do I define "world", etc, but the crux of the problem lies in realising exactly what those words mean.
Oh, and by the way, to clarify, I mean a specific "event", not sunrise or sunset, etc.
Various theories have been put forward to explain the riddle, including eloquent ones from prominent people, and even one from an actual planetary scientist, but none have provided the answer I was looking for, the simplest one.
The answer that everybody was looking for, and I must admit, several chatters came really close, is this:
New Year.
It takes a total time of 24 hours (one complete day) for the whole of the people in the "world" (people on the planet) to celebrate this, owing to the time zone differences, and yet it only takes just over 7 minutes for actual BODY of the "earth" (the planet itself) to cross the same point in its orbit that it did one year ago (a diameters' worth).
It has been pointed out that I should have been more specific in my definition of the riddle ie, I should have worded it
"What specific event takes the world 24 hours to do, yet takes the Earth a little over 7 minutes to do?", but that would have made the riddle too easy.
Thus the "world" (the people) does it (New Year) in 24 hours, but the "earth" (the planet) does it in 7 minutes or so.
I happened upon this riddle simply because I travel a lot, and started wondering just what the "value" of New Year is, given that everyone celebrates it at a different time.
This "wandering" "piqued" at the "turning" of the Millennium.
Friday, September 30, 2005
RippleTeaser, as opposed to RumpleTeaser
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hey Antking!
You are also close to the answer, but still, no-one has yet given me the event that is defined by the riddle.
Dotcomer ~ Whoops, I nearly forgot. "We" don't need to play chess again - only you do. I am quite happy for a draw to prove my point.
Have you solved this riddle yet?
Lawny: Your answer is better than mine but the riddle is only a play on words, and not a serious scientific poser.
It is a result of my own musings whilst travelling through many timezones, and led me to wonder "How can New Year possibly be the same for everyone with all these timezones?" And I reasoned that the actual planet doesn't take 24 hours, so I calculated how long it would take the planet to cross through the point in the orbit that DEFINES a New Orbit around the sun. Result, 7 min 17 seconds.
Post a Comment