Quote:
Originally Posted by ngc3314
One of the students didn't think anything was odd on finding
that Moon was closer than Seattle. I mean, that's what the
calculator said, so it must be right...
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A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail asking:
Quote:
How many miles is it from earth to the moon?
I'm asking you because my Uncle says the distance is shorter than
the distance from San Francisco to Los Angles. So can you please
e-mail me back with the correct answer?
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(My web page on the Moon gives the distance in kilometres only,
and that in a table that someone reading the text might skip over.)
Quote:
I start many of these same classes with Fermi's question about the likely
number of piano tuners in New York City, to set the tone for estimating.
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Do you have a "real" number to use as a check? Or is the "real" number
irrelevant? I would think the number would be impossible to know unless
(as I suspect) piano tuners have to be licensed in NYC, and you can
look up how many licenses are current.
-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/
"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"
"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves