Sunday, 22 October 2017
To the Moon and Back, Alice
Ever notice how people like to use the moon to measure things on earth?
Here's an interesting fact I read: if you lay out all the yoyo string on the planet in a straight line, it would reach to the moon and back seven times.
Is that helpful? Do you now have a better idea of how much yoyo string is out there? Do you give a shit?
None of us really get much opportunity to visit the moon and develop an idea for how far it is. When I see a full moon in the sky, it looks like maybe it's 5 or 10 miles away. How the hell do I know how far it is by looking at it?
Can't we can use more relatable measures? Like the distance from the dinner plate to my mouth, or from my mattress to the toilet. I know those distances quite well.
If you lay out all the yoyo string on the planet in a straight line, it would reach from my mattress to my toilet and back 400 million times.
Ah, now I get it.
That's a lot of toilet visits.