18th gear and getting nowhere...

Odd things that occur in my head when I am cycling...

If the earth is rolling slowly under my tyres at the same speed I am
travelling in the opposite direction it is spinning, in terms of space... I
am getting nowhere...

Hmmmm.

Response to Lloydd
Odd things that occur in my head when I am cycling...

If the earth is rolling slowly under my tyres at the same speed I am
travelling in the opposite direction it is spinning, in terms of space... I
am getting nowhere...


If you're in the UK, ISTR the speed of the earth's rotation is roughly
500mph; if you can keep that up on your commute, chapeau!



--
Mark, UK
"Yes, there's surface noise; but life has surface noise."

"Lloydd" wrote in message
...
Odd things that occur in my head when I am cycling...

If the earth is rolling slowly under my tyres at the same speed I am

The earth isn't rolling slowly, unless you think taking 24 hours
for a round the world bike trip would be on the slow side :-)

"Lloydd" wrote in message
...
Odd things that occur in my head when I am cycling...

If the earth is rolling slowly under my tyres at the same speed I am
travelling in the opposite direction it is spinning, in terms of space...
I am getting nowhere...

Hmmmm.

The earth (at the equator) is spinning at over 1000 mph, it's travelling
round the sun at 67000mph, the sun is travelling around the centre of the
galaxy at 558000 miles per hour and our galaxy (the Milky Way) is travelling
(along with every other galaxy) away from the centre of the universe at the
speed of light, 12 million miles per minute.

So, no. You are not getting nowhere. You are one of the fastest thing in
the universe. Even when you are going up hill. Relatively speaking :-)

Tom

you got all that from monty pythons 'galaxy song' didn't you...

"Tom" wrote in message
...

"Lloydd" wrote in message
...
Odd things that occur in my head when I am cycling...

If the earth is rolling slowly under my tyres at the same speed I am
travelling in the opposite direction it is spinning, in terms of space...
I am getting nowhere...

Hmmmm.

The earth (at the equator) is spinning at over 1000 mph, it's travelling
round the sun at 67000mph, the sun is travelling around the centre of the
galaxy at 558000 miles per hour and our galaxy (the Milky Way) is
travelling (along with every other galaxy) away from the centre of the
universe at the speed of light, 12 million miles per minute.

So, no. You are not getting nowhere. You are one of the fastest thing in
the universe. Even when you are going up hill. Relatively speaking :-)

Tom

On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:20:38 +0100
"Lloydd" wrote:

Odd things that occur in my head when I am cycling...

If the earth is rolling slowly under my tyres at the same speed I am
travelling in the opposite direction it is spinning, in terms of
space... I am getting nowhere...

The Earth isn't just spinning on its axis, it's also orbiting the
Sun, which is moving within our galaxy ... so where is the fixed point?
I suppose logically you could take it to be the centre of the
universe, the bit of space that everything is expanding away from after
the Big Bang, but as far as I'm concerned it might as well be me -
everything that I perceive is relative to where I experience it from,
so I am the centre of my own universe.

Response to Rob Morley
The Earth isn't just spinning on its axis, it's also orbiting the
Sun, which is moving within our galaxy ... so where is the fixed point?
I suppose logically you could take it to be the centre of the
universe, the bit of space that everything is expanding away from after
the Big Bang, but as far as I'm concerned it might as well be me -
everything that I perceive is relative to where I experience it from,
so I am the centre of my own universe.

http://www.salon.com/comics/opus/2007/08/05/opus/


Makes you fink, though, dunnit.



--
Mark, UK
"Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you
what you think it is you want to hear."

On 2008-07-17, Lloydd wrote:
Odd things that occur in my head when I am cycling...

If the earth is rolling slowly under my tyres at the same speed I am
travelling in the opposite direction it is spinning, in terms of space... I
am getting nowhere...

The Earth rolls rather fast. You'd need to be riding west at about
1000mph.

Even normal aeroplanes don't go quite that fast-- it takes a few hours
longer to fly to Japan than the amount you need to put your watch
forward by.

Concorde on the other hand did go faster, so could arrive in America
"before" you left and overtake the terminator.

"Lloydd" wrote in message
...
you got all that from monty pythons 'galaxy song' didn't you...


I've got to admit that's how I remember the speed of light
"12 million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is"

Tom

On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:20:38 +0100, "Lloydd" wrote:

Odd things that occur in my head when I am cycling...

If the earth is rolling slowly under my tyres at the same speed I am
travelling in the opposite direction it is spinning, in terms of space... I
am getting nowhere...

Hmmmm.

Let us say your speed is 20mph.

The speed of the earth's surface, relative to it's axis, is about:
(24901.55/24) * cos A, where A is your latitude

20 = 1037.5646 cos A

Cos A = 0.192759

A = about 88.8955 degrees.

The diameter of the Earth is about 7926.41 miles

Your location is about 76.394 miles south of the north pole, or about
76.394 miles north of the south pole.

Unless I have made a mistake in my calculations.