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Old 12-February-2004, 08:15 PM
JohnOwens JohnOwens is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Taibak
And for what it's worth, I find that a lot of the older constellations bear a pretty strong resemblence to their names. Granted constellations like Auriga and Cancer are a little wonky, but Taurus, Scorpius, Eridanus, Leo, etc. aren't that bad. I would, however, like to know where the ancients got the idea that bears had long tails....
I recall the story being that whoever put them up there in the sky (Hercules, maybe?) did it by swinging them by their tails, which were stretched out in the process. See, the ancients understood centrifugal force, too! (Though I can't vouch for their knowledge of centripetal force.)
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