d=r*t
I was reading CNN.com this morning with my bagel and came across this article on a gamma ray burst in a galaxy far far away. I enjoyed physics a lot in school and would sometimes think about the fleck of dust we are in time and space compared to the grand scale of our universe. Nothing like some easy thinking with your peanut butter and bagel on Monday morning.
The Star was 7.5 billion light years away.
And a light year is 5.9 trillion miles.
44,250,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away.
That is quite a ways, but it is still only halfway to the edge of our universe.*
To give a sense of scale, the most distant space probe, Voyager 1, was about 14 light-hours away from Earth in the week ending March 9, 2007. It took that space probe 30 years to cover that distance. As it leaves our solar system to explore, well, more space, it is traveling about 17 km/s or a smoking 38,000 mph (which would give Voyager 1 a nice 5k PR of .294 seconds, eat it Bekele.) Traveling at that speed, it would take Voyager 1 a scant 1.3284E^17 years or 132,000,000,000,000,000 years to get to the star that we just detected exploding. Who is up for a road trip? I will buy the food if you buy the gas.
Here is this weeks training. Decent week. Took it pretty easy to recover from New Bedford and will pick it up a bit these next two weeks before pulling the ripcord.
Monday 17
Training Run 11:40:00 AM - 10.00 mi @ 1:09:26 (6:56 pace)
Training Run 4:35:00 PM - 7.20 mi @ 53:17 (7:24 pace)
Tuesday 18
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 7.20 mi @ 52:44 (7:19 pace)
Training Run 5:35:00 PM - 7.00 mi @ 56:14 (8:02 pace)
Wednesday 19
Training Run 6:05:00 AM - 5.00 mi @ 36:11 (7:14 pace)
Running Workout 6:45:00 PM - Aerobic Capacity Intervals - - 8.00 mi
Thursday 20
Other 9:25:00 AM - 0.00 @ 8:00:00 (8:00:00 pace)
Training Run 6:45:00 PM - 7.00 mi @ 51:44 (7:23 pace)
Friday 21
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 7.20 mi @ 50:38 (7:01 pace)
Training Run 5:30:00 PM - 10.00 mi @ 1:09:32 (6:57 pace)
Saturday 22
Running Workout 8:15:00 AM - Fartlek - - 20.00 mi @ 2:07:51.00 (6:23 pace)
Sunday 23
Training Run 8:10:00 AM - 14.00 mi @ 1:38:25 (7:01 pace)
TOTALS Running: 108.6 mi
That’s all I got.
*Astrophysicists think
Comments
Great post Ryan. Your analysis really puts those distances in perspective.
I also thought the sub-prime link you posted last week was priceless!
(So was "eat it Bekele")
Posted by: Paul | March 24, 2008 12:43 PM
Paul,
Glad you enjoyed the subprime link. The last exchange with Norway was a riot.
Norwegian Municipality: You said the AAA ‘good ones’ were a sure thing.
Banker: I fucked up.
Norwegian Municipality: This security was insured, what about the insurance.
Banker: Are you kidding me, there is no way they have enough to cover this mess. They fucked up.
Norwegian Municipality: What do I tell my constituents?
Banker: Tell them you fucked up.
Posted by: ryan | March 25, 2008 8:13 AM