ChazInMT

Given the Wiki page formula's here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter

How do I determine the distance I would need to place a 29" ball out to the point where it would be .5 degrees or 30 Arcminutes in angular diameter? I'd like to be able to talk about the difference in size between a "Supermoon" an "Minimoon" to people and would like to be able say if you put a 29" diameter ball "X" far away and changed it into a 34" ball, could you tell the difference.

I stink at math. Thanks for the help.

On the surface, it doesn't seem complicated, but how do elements from a supernovae form into chunks bigger than atoms so we can scoop them off the Bering Sea floor on a TV show? If you think about it, when the elements are formed in a supernovae explosion, it happens in an instant, and it would seem that they would not be nice and orderly in how they are created. Intuition says that the elements are formed at random even on the molecular level, and in the next instant, they are blown into a vapor spreading out at near light speed. So how do the elements coagulate into chunks???

OK, we here on Earth like to think that being the center of the Universe and all, that any planetary system that develops out there must be in alignment with our Earth so any planets which orbit it will pass in front of the central star so we can see it. Obviously this is not the case, Is anyone here smart enough to figure out, given even odds that planets will be in any orbit around a star: What are the odds that the orbit of an Earth sized planet 93 Million miles from its Sun sized star, would be aligned in such a way that we would see it transit its star from 500 ly away?

I mean seriously??? If someone has a stupid 2012 question, I think it is possible for them to search the web for it and they'd get 700 hits in Yahoo Answers alone.

Can We Ignore Them??? If anyone asks, just ignore them like their asking how many cups of flour does it take to make a class G2V star.

Start Here!!!!

If the Earth is tilted 23° from the Sun, and the Moon is orbiting on a plane that is 5° tilted from that, how could the Earth, Moon and Sun line up here in December? I mean If the Axis of the Earth right now is such that the South Pole is "Pointing" at the Sun, and the most that the "Tilt" of the Moon can compensate is 5° that would still put the Moon 18° below the line between the Earth and Sun.

Quite obviously I'm missing something, And I thought I had this pretty well thought out.

Is anyone really smart enough to figure this out and explain it???

I'm guessing I'm going to get a lot of half baked, nonsense answers to this.

I logged into a web site the first time and IE asked if I wanted it to remember the password, at the time I thought No, but now, I'd really like it to auto fill and remember. Any ideas on how to do this? I can't find the button!! (and no, I ain't sending you any of my passwords to try out! : P )

I logged into a web site the first time and IE asked if I wanted it to remember the password, at the time I thought No, but now, I'd really like it to auto fill and remember. Any ideas on how to do this? I can't find the button!! (and no, I ain't sending you any of my passwords to try out! : P )

This came up recently and I'd like to get a better consensus on what we consider "Bigger". To me when we talk about the size celestial bodies it is the Volume that matters. Everything is basically a sphere, so to just discuss things in terms of Diameter seems to be short sighted and not really understanding of what is real and important.

A Basketball and Tennis ball are fairly good stand ins for the Earth/Moon size relationship. Who would say that 4 tennis balls are equal to a basketball in size? So to say that the Earth is 4 times bigger than the Moon is, to me, sort of silly. It would be like saying an elephant is twice the size of a man because and elephant is 12 ft tall.

The difference in the Volume of the Earth and Moon is 50 times.

I give you that the Earth has 4 times the Diameter of the Moon, but to say it's 4 times Bigger, or Larger would not be accurate.

We could talk in terms of Mass when discussing whats bigger in space, but I feel that since we're never going to go into space and lift anything, it wouldn't be a good way to discuss "How much bigger" is one object from another.

What say you???

And by bigger, I mean how many suns would it take to fill it up?

This question was kind of asked earlier by master_of_my_romaine, I want to have it expounded on. I am wondering, if Pluto were ideally placed in orbit between the Earth and Venus such that Earth and Venus had equal pull on it, and it was in a nice circular orbit on the ecliptic, (not all catawampus like it is now) about how long would it last before either being cast out of the solar system or thrown into the sun? I have no idea how to make calculations like this.

It is my understanding that the current arrangement of planets given their sizes is about all a solar system can handle. In the early stages of the solar system there were many other planets, but they were all tossed out or in by the gravity of the others.

BTW if yer not smart enough to answer this seriously, don't just guess, unless you want to look stoopid, and I know yer out there, so I suppose I'm prepared for the worst.

I have a feeling that even the smartest among you will have a tough time with this. Sharpen those slide rules!!