42 The Douglas Adams Thread...

[Kathy Ellen]

This is going to be a chitchat thread for members to talk about Adam's "Life, the Universe and Everything." Feel free to chat about anything to do with Astronomy, Oceanography or everything:wah: Also feel free to wander off topic:-6



Rap and OpenMind had a nice discussion about sci fi 'stuff.' To kick off this thread, with their permission, I'm quoting their posts from my astronomy picture thread....





Posted by Rap...



I love landforms too and agree that the study of rocks (lithography) is amazing.



I also believe there is life 'out there' but we are just in one small corner of the universe which is forever expanding.



I was having a play on your astronomy site earlier today and was interested to find that dark energy repels matter which explains the expansion of the universe as the dark energy moves away from the matter the universe contains. I then wondered about what the universe is expanding into. Do you suppose there is a vast nothingness outside of the universe for our universe to forever expand into? I wonder if there are other universes out there and if so, what are they all expanding into? Do they touch each other? Could two universes collide and coalesce into one universe? Perhaps the other universes are alternate universes where other choices are made to change events.



Some of this is fan fiction but I think the ideas are relevant as we don't know what is outside the universe.



Do other people wonder about this stuff? Maybe it's just me being weird. :-3





Posted by OpenMind...



Here's a thought for you, Rap.

I have considered the possibility that the universe is just one small cell in the body of another being. Could be a mouse or it could be sentient.



Posted by Rap...





Lol. Glad it's not just me. :wah:



Have you been watching Men in Black 2? :wah:

I love that bit at the end where Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) kicks open a forbidden door to reveal that a much larger locker located in an enormous alien version of Grand Central Station, contains the human world.



I also liked the original Men in Black film, in the final scene of the film, the camera pulls back into the sky through space past our solar system, past millions of stars, ultimately revealing that our galaxy is contained within a spherical container resembling a marble. The container is then picked up by an alien hand which throws it, hitting another 'marble' which also contains a galaxy, in what resembles a game of marbles. Both marbles are then picked up by the hand and placed into a bag full of galaxy-containing marbles.



Both endings are really clever and really make you think about 'what if'.



Men in Black III is due to commence filming in September 2010.



We don't know how big or small the universe is in comparison to things outside of it.



Was it in Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy that a super invasion force planned to attack our planet and take over? However, when the entire invasion force arrived they were all swallowed by a small dog. :wah::wah::wah: So size obviously DOES matter. :yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl



I like to think 'outside the box' about these things. So few people seem to do that though. I don't understand how Corrie and Eastenders can be so fascinating *yawn* to so many people and yet they aren't interested in what goes on in our universe or in our oceans or how all the cycles of life are connected. I was reading today about the recent floods in Pakistan which have been made worse by deforestation and climate change. The water is so much more interesting than the soap.

[Kathy Ellen]

I had a wonderful astronomy teacher in high school. One day he was trying to explain to us 'knuckleheads' how large our universe was. Actually, he told us that we probably had many universes.

His explanation that will stay with me all of my life was that if you walked along the beach and picked up every grain of sand along only one beach, each grain of sand representing a galaxy, that is almost how large our universe may be. I developed a great love for science due to this man. He was one of my high school teachers who opened up my eyes and helped me to care about life, the universe and everything. I will forever be thankful to these dedicated teachers.

I search for comets, satellites, ufo's....yada...yada quite often. I love to sit outside when it's quiet and just stare at the heavens looking at the beauty of life. Unfortunately, I don't often find quiet and peace any second of the day due to the party boys next door. Things will change when the weather gets cold...they'll hibernate:wah:

[JacksDad]

Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking.

So Long And Thanks For All The Fish.

:)

[OpenMind]

Kathy Ellen;1329381 wrote: I had a wonderful astronomy teacher in high school. One day he was trying to explain to us 'knuckleheads' how large our universe was. Actually, he told us that we probably had many universes.

His explanation that will stay with me all of my life was that if you walked along the beach and picked up every grain of sand along only one beach, each grain of sand representing a galaxy, that is almost how large our universe may be. I developed a great love for science due to this man. He was one of my high school teachers who opened up my eyes and helped me to care about life, the universe and everything. I will forever be thankful to these dedicated teachers.

I search for comets, satellites, ufo's....yada...yada quite often. I love to sit outside when it's quiet and just stare at the heavens looking at the beauty of life. Unfortunately, I don't often find quiet and peace any second of the day due to the party boys next door. Things will change when the weather gets cold...they'll hibernate:wah:


If our universe is only as big as a grain of sand, how do we fit into it? It's lucky the grain of sand is on a beach or we'd possibly die from trying to breathe a vacuum. Just imagine all those heads and feet sticking out.:-3

[spot]

You're confusing Universe and Galaxy, perhaps. Sagan's comparison was the ratio between the grain and the beach approximating that between a galaxy and the universe.

Adams provides the question to which the answer is 42: "What do you get if you multiply six by nine". The implication is that the inherent number base of the universe is 13. I'm still thinking about that one.

[OpenMind]

spot;1329398 wrote: You're confusing Universe and Galaxy, perhaps. Sagan's comparison was the ratio between the grain and the beach approximating that between a galaxy and the universe.

Adams provides the question to which the answer is 42: "What do you get if you multiply six by nine". The implication is that the inherent number base of the universe is 13. I'm still thinking about that one.


6 x 9 is 54 in my maths book. The question was something like, "What is the answer to life, the universe and everything?"

[spot]

It's 42 if you do the sum in base 13 though.

[OpenMind]

spot;1329433 wrote: It's 42 if you do the sum in base 13 though.


I had to look it up. The coincidence with the base number 13 was not intended. Douglas Adams purposefully gave the wrong answer for the base 10 just to raise a laugh. It was afterwards that buffs realised that 6 x 9 is 42 to base 13. Of course, if he had said 6 x 7, then they would have had to look for the solution to 3A. That would have spoilt the show.

[Bryn Mawr]

spot;1329398 wrote: You're confusing Universe and Galaxy, perhaps. Sagan's comparison was the ratio between the grain and the beach approximating that between a galaxy and the universe.

Adams provides the question to which the answer is 42: "What do you get if you multiply six by nine". The implication is that the inherent number base of the universe is 13. I'm still thinking about that one.


No, no, no - the book explained quite carefully that the program terminated early and hadn't finished it's calculation.

[Clodhopper]

the book explained quite carefully that the program terminated early and hadn't finished it's calculation.


...which is why the white mice wanted Arthur Dent's brain, wasn't it?

spot: Does the Universe make more sense mathematically in base 13?

Kathy Ellen: Liked the story about the grains of sand. It's the best analogy I know of, because we can all visualise a sandy beach. And thinking of analogies:

General question: I sort of think of dimensions as being a bit like a Russian doll, with us living on the surface of the third doll (ie in three dimensions) out of a total of 11 dolls, perhaps as many as 13... Is this a reasonably good analogy?

[OpenMind]

Clodhopper;1329593 wrote: ...which is why the white mice wanted Arthur Dent's brain, wasn't it?

spot: Does the Universe make more sense mathematically in base 13?

Kathy Ellen: Liked the story about the grains of sand. It's the best analogy I know of, because we can all visualise a sandy beach. And thinking of analogies:

General question: I sort of think of dimensions as being a bit like a Russian doll, with us living on the surface of the third doll (ie in three dimensions) out of a total of 11 dolls, perhaps as many as 13... Is this a reasonably good analogy?


If the universe is sperical, you would only need 1 dimension - r.

[Clodhopper]

If the universe is sperical, you would only need 1 dimension - r.


Ug. Clodhopper troglodyte from primitive tribe. Please explain. Him three dimensional and aware of time (if time is a dimension).

Clodhopper go back to naughty corner and bash head on wall. Ug.

[Clodhopper]

Clodhopper very dumb.

[OpenMind]

Oo arrr.