[ExI] Best and brightest

[Alfio Puglisi]

On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 4:30 PM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 04:35:24PM -0800, Dennis May wrote:
>
> > Ths scale of things in the US is not well understood.  Her brother talked
> > about flying to Miami and driving up to Missouri to see her that
> afternoon.
> >
> > I saw a similar reaction by Japanese engineers and a German friend years
> > ago.  They don't seem to get the idea that some US states are as big
> > as some countries they are used to.
>
> Strange. Same applies to the scale of space. Most people really have no
> feel for the size of our own solar system nevermind the galaxy and
> beyond.
>
> I remember when I flew around the solar system on an emulator on
> a prototype SGI Indigo, trying to hit the Sun, it's very difficult even at
> c.
> (And then, when I flew into the Sun the simulator dumped core).
>

You can do the same now on any PC using Celestia (
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ ), an excellent simulator which includes
spaceflight at whatever speed you want (sans doppler effect...)
Just try to fly outside of our local stellar neighborhood , and then come
back home stopping right on Earth. Basically impossible, since at any speed
necessary for meaningful travel our planet will zip by in the blink of an
eye.

Alfio
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