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

If the Universe is expanding then which way is the earth moving? If we know where it's heading then do we know when it's going to get there and if we're going to like tit that much when it does?

Don't know the answer to the main question, but just a bit puzzled why we'd be worried about breasts when we get to the ultimate destination......

Thinking about breasts is much less worrying than thinking about the ultimate destination, or anything else come to that. It's the ultimate displacement activity, so to speak.

On the subject of the Earth's direction, in a different sense. Some months ago the result of a survey found that 1 person in 3 in the UK didn't know that the Earth goes round the Sun. When discussing this with my colleagues, at first it produced a shocked reaction - how could people not know something as basic as that? But then we thought 'So what?' To the majority of people it doesn't make a blind bit of difference whether the Earth goes round the Sun or vice versa. We just seem to think that everyone should know this fact.

Mind you, yesterday I saw a news item which included the fact that, apparently, only 44% of Americans believe in evolution as the origin of mankind, amongst other creatures. If that's true, I find it seriously weird and disturbing. Can any Americans confirm this?

I'm british, but that doesn't entirely surprise me, as the southern states (i.e. Bible belt) do still have regular arguments about evolution vs. creation. It was a southern state (I forget which) that passed a statute to set the value of pi to 4. Never mind about reality, the law must be right.

If that comment about pi is true I'd love to read your source; there must be something other than fluoride in southern drinking water.

I don't believe in the creation thing but can any explain why (with all the resorces man has to explore) we still haven't found the missing link???

Believe it or not, there's actually been an answer to that written at:

http://www.chariot.net.au/~cyberius/universe.htm

Though fortunately none of us will survive (at least not in -this- lifetime) to verify the reality.

*sigh*

Though this tidbit of information is disturbing, unfortunately it's not all that surprising, as the Righteous Rulers are slowly erroding any freedoms we may have gained.

The Earth isn't 'moving' as such due to the expansion of the universe, it's just that more space is appearing between us and everywhere else. Well, in fact, gravity tends to keep stuff together, so 'new space' only really comes into effect between galaxies. As for where we are going (due to expansion rather than our motion around the galactic centre, or even our galaxy's motion withing the local cluster, etc.) the answer is: away from everything else. Will we like it? If we as a race are still around, probably not. It would be pretty cold and lonely. Unless we hang around until when (or if) the universe starts to contract again on its way to the 'big crunch' in which case, it will be pretty snug and warm. But we still won't like it 'cause it will eventually get rather cramped.

I like a good tan as much as the next skin-cancer-seeking individual, but I'd still prefer NOT to have the sun sitting in my easychair, thankyouverymuch!

By then, there'll be sunscreen factor 2^267709, so it'll be alright.

It's not quite true to say that they tried to legislate pi=4. What actually happened was a bill was put forward claiming to be a proof of 'squaring the circle' out of which, one presumes, a value of pi could be derived. Unfortunately, the description of the mathematical procedure is so garbled that it would seem that the values 2, 3 and 4 could be assigned to pi,depending on interpretation.

If you want to read the whole bill, plus a lot of discussion about its possible implications for the value of pi (and therefore, one presumes, for the fate of the universe, since the whole of geometry would change if pi changed) then I recommend the following, from the Urban Legends website:

http://www.urbanlegends.com/legal/pi_indiana.html

enjoy.

Oh, and to get back to evolution, don't forget that the state of Kansas has just passed a bill saying that the theory of evolution is no longer taught as part of the syllabus in their schools.

How strange that those who most vehemently deny the possibility of their being descended from lesser primates so frequently behave like babboons.

The fact that pi is being discussed in legislation proceedings at -all- tells me that some politicians have -way- too much time on their hands.

Oh.. And a big HEAR HEAR! to the baboon remark!

*chuckles* ... Oh.. okay, then.

Well, the reason the bill was drafted at all was because the man who 'discovered' the proof involved offered it to the state legislature, saying that if they adopted it as law, the state could use his proof in textbooks without paying him a royalty (which all the other states would have to do). Given that, it's not *completely* dumb for the bill to have appeared.

The fact that a mathematician was expecting a royalty at all suggests that truth had little to do with it.

How would the other states have to pay a royalty? Hmm... If that were true, I'd like to be the individual who decided it was 3.14blahblahyadda

Well, exactly. How many mathematical truths are subject to royalties? That should have tipped them off, but sadly, most people don't know enough about maths to realise when something is just patently nonsense.

The state in question was Indiana (I think). Refer to 'The Book of Heroic Failures' by Stephen Pile, ex-president of 'The Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain'. Does any one out there know if this group is still going, or did it die because Mr Pile's book was too successful?