h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does this mean that the four states of matter are in fact Earth, Air, Fire and Water, as the alchemists said?

"And that, Sire, is how we know the world to be banana-shaped..."

I suppose you could say that, wow that's wierd!

Earth = Solid
Water = Liquid
Air = Gas
Fire = Plasma

I would have to say I always thought of the world as more of a marrow than a banana.

Fire is not plasma, or maybe just a fraction of what is in a flame is in the form of plasma.

And... Fourth state? Why not first?

Plus, there are more states. (Bose-Einstein condensates for example)

This entry is quite misleading IMO, I have said that in PR.

HELL

The physical body known as the Earth is round, but the world (a construct that exists only in the human mind) is whatever shape the person realising it believes that it should be...For me the world looks something like a frisbee that the dog got hold of.

Cool concept.

Try this one though. If you accept that the planet is an oblate spheroid travelling in its orbit around the sun through space/time and you accept that time is the fourth dimention - then include the suns orbit about the Milky Way Galaxy it could be argued that the world is an interesting spiral tube shape.

On the subject of 4 states of matter I find that, with a 2 year old they are (in no particular order) 1. unknown; 2. out of reach (aka desparately desired); 3. broken and 4. childproof (an as-yet ill-defined and contencious state).

Pretty much the same as for a NASA scientist then.

I would agree there and add a fifth state - money - which , to them does not seem to matter!?

As Dave Barry once wrote: "Dogs howl at the moon for the same reason as NASA scientists; because they can't get up there to pee on it."