for the kin of the night
once in a blue moon
Guess what? it's a blue moon. yeah - there is such thing as a blue moon. As all pagan's know, the Gregorian calendar is not exactly spot on - which is why we get leap years. Usually, there are twelve full moons per year, but every now and then there are thirteen, and the extra one is termed a Blue Moon - and tonight (November 21st) is such an occassion.
When i was at school, my science teacher was explaining the different phases of the moon, why the moon looks bigger when its close to the horizon (incidently - he was wrong; he said it was a mirage effect caused by the athmosphere, just like how a spoon looks bigger in a glass of water. in fact experiments in still photography have proven that the moon appears to be the same size no matter where it is in the sky - the moon only seems bigger on the horizon because of an optical illusion, not a mirage - two different things), and also he explained why the moon sometimes appears red or crimson.
I asked what causes a blue moon, and he said there's no such thing as a blue moon - the phrase "once in a blue moon" refers to something that NEVER happens.
When I was a teenager, like many teenagers I thought I knew more than my teachers. By the time I was 20, i was dissapointed to learn I was right all along - my teachers were idiots.
I recall having an arguement in a class, frantically making chalk sketches on the blackboard, trying to explain the theory of relativity to a physics teacher who had somehow got it all wrong.
He had been spouting that old sci-fi myth that if you go into space real fast, thousands of years will pass back on earth. Basically, he was saying that if you travel through space to proxima centauri at the speed of light, it will take you four years to get there, and four to get back. you will be eight years older, but back on Earth, everyone you knew would be ancient history.
That's not how it works.
Okay, let's say you were travelling at half the speed of light. according to Einstiens law of relativity, time would slow down for you - from your point of view it would only take two years to get there - you will have aged only two years. However, back on Earth eight years would have passed years will have passed. by the time you get back, everyone you klnew would be sixteen years older, and you would only be four years older. if you were able to travel at the speed of light, you would get there instantaneously - no time at all it seems. But back on Earth (and on Proxima centari for that matter) four years have rolled by.
speed causes time to slow down - at the speed of light, it stops completely - but that only affects the person or object travelling at speed - it has no distortion on the rest of the universe, and it will not allow you to travel thousands of years into the future.
My poor physics teacher couldnt get his head around that at all. someone somewhere had misunderstood the concept, so he (like many other student teachers) had been told that travelling at the speed of light will propel you thousands of years into the future - and
When i was at school, my science teacher was explaining the different phases of the moon, why the moon looks bigger when its close to the horizon (incidently - he was wrong; he said it was a mirage effect caused by the athmosphere, just like how a spoon looks bigger in a glass of water. in fact experiments in still photography have proven that the moon appears to be the same size no matter where it is in the sky - the moon only seems bigger on the horizon because of an optical illusion, not a mirage - two different things), and also he explained why the moon sometimes appears red or crimson.
I asked what causes a blue moon, and he said there's no such thing as a blue moon - the phrase "once in a blue moon" refers to something that NEVER happens.
When I was a teenager, like many teenagers I thought I knew more than my teachers. By the time I was 20, i was dissapointed to learn I was right all along - my teachers were idiots.
I recall having an arguement in a class, frantically making chalk sketches on the blackboard, trying to explain the theory of relativity to a physics teacher who had somehow got it all wrong.
He had been spouting that old sci-fi myth that if you go into space real fast, thousands of years will pass back on earth. Basically, he was saying that if you travel through space to proxima centauri at the speed of light, it will take you four years to get there, and four to get back. you will be eight years older, but back on Earth, everyone you knew would be ancient history.
That's not how it works.
Okay, let's say you were travelling at half the speed of light. according to Einstiens law of relativity, time would slow down for you - from your point of view it would only take two years to get there - you will have aged only two years. However, back on Earth eight years would have passed years will have passed. by the time you get back, everyone you klnew would be sixteen years older, and you would only be four years older. if you were able to travel at the speed of light, you would get there instantaneously - no time at all it seems. But back on Earth (and on Proxima centari for that matter) four years have rolled by.
speed causes time to slow down - at the speed of light, it stops completely - but that only affects the person or object travelling at speed - it has no distortion on the rest of the universe, and it will not allow you to travel thousands of years into the future.
My poor physics teacher couldnt get his head around that at all. someone somewhere had misunderstood the concept, so he (like many other student teachers) had been told that travelling at the speed of light will propel you thousands of years into the future - and
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