Monday, January 08, 2007

Fly me to a science class...

Fly me to the moon,
Let me play among the stars,
Let me see what spring is like,
On a-Jupiter and Mars

Oh, Franky.

I heard this diddy once to often again this year to let it go without comment - and this is where I can comment freely so I shal make use of the ability.

The moon, although near one star, is significantly no nearer to any star than Earth to surmise that being there would allow you to be 'among the stars'. It is similar to saying that standing in Vancouver and taking one step east allows you to see how they live in Halifax. One step would be unaccountalbly useless. So, therefore, going to the moon to reconoiter with the stars would be equally useless. You would not even be all that much closer to our star, the Sun, because you would orbit the outer path around Earth and therefore take yourself further away at points. To that end, going to the moon would distance yourself from any star. Earth is approximately 150 million km from the Sun. The moon is approximately 400 000 km from earth, equating to about 0.28% of the total Earth-Sun distance? If you were lucky you would be about 0.28% closer to 'the stars' by going to the moon, but then by equal chance you could be equal distance or 0.28% further from 'the stars' by taking the trouble of going to the moon.
If you were to try to suggest that you would be significantly closer to 'other' stars, it is an equally erroneous idea. Proxima Centauri is about 4.3 light years from the Sun (1 light year = 9.46 million million kilometers). It is actually a part of a three star multiple system - alpha, beta and proxima centauri of which Proxima is the smallest, but closest to us, of this integrated stellar package; so Frank could have meant these 'stars' but the scale difference at such great distances negates and significant closeness either from Earth or our Moon.

So, Frank, or whoever wrote your lyrics, dont bother flying to the moon. Stay home, save some money and some fuel, and buy some binoculars to get 'closer' to the stars.

...and.....who would ever care to personally witness a spring on jupiter?

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