I imaging that it has applications in astronomy. When you want to precisely compute something over the distance of light years, you may want more than just 10 digits for Pi.
As a professional astronomer I can guarantee that distance scale measurements are a little bit less precise than one part over 10^13. Even for most precise measurements, e.g. gravitational waves experiment, 16 digit suffices!
After converting data to (nearly) metric equivalents (1 mil/gal = 2.82 Km/l) I wondered about all that excitement. I expected hybrid cars to have much better efficiency than old fation cars. But my disel engine (a big car on european standars, 1.3 metric tons) go happily around 17 Km/l, 48 miles per gallon near the median of Toyota Prius which averages just 48!
> being the largest antenna and its SET IN THE
ground - how they turn this thing?
Arecibo people do not turn the antenna: they move the suspended receivers, allowing for a (limited) pointing capability. Being the largest and (probabily) the most expensive antenna, they put a lot of care in observing efficiency, so observations are all mixed to never let unoccupied the antenna.
The scheduling software is smart!
Yes! and also in Mid-Est, Africa, Asia, South America, ecc.
We have to remember all those 2m size mirros (acting as magnifyng lens) already orbiting around earth.
No. The Moon is a satellite, because it orbits around the Earth. Yes, the Moon shares the same orbit with us, but the main body (in gravitational sense, which means in mass) is the Earth.
If we look only at the object mass, we would have a lot of planet between the other planets' moons.
If we accept the arbitrary limits of 10E23 grams (IMHO it is by far too low), we have Jupiter's Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede; Saturn's Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus; Uranus' Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Neptunus' Triton and lastly Pluto's Charon.
Also three asteroids (Ceres, Pallas and Vesta) should have the planet status, this time with full rights, because of the independent orbit.
The limit cited is suspiciously low and too near to the new object's mass: can this be a case of freudian error or a plain mistake?
I'm not a planetologist (IMNAP), but I think the limits should read 100,000 billion billion Kg (10E26 grams). If we accept this limits (also arbitrary) nearly all things get OK, leaving only Pluto (1.27E25 g) in the cold.
For some time Pluto has been discussed if should be considered a huge asteroids or a very small planet, but historical reasons had prevailed and it held ith planetary status.
Slashdot Mirror
I imaging that it has applications in astronomy. When you want to precisely compute something over the distance of light years, you may want more than just 10 digits for Pi.
As a professional astronomer I can guarantee that distance scale measurements are a little bit less precise than one part over 10^13. Even for most precise measurements, e.g. gravitational waves experiment, 16 digit suffices!
After converting data to (nearly) metric equivalents (1 mil/gal = 2.82 Km/l) I wondered about all that excitement. I expected hybrid cars to have much better efficiency than old fation cars. But my disel engine (a big car on european standars, 1.3 metric tons) go happily around 17 Km/l, 48 miles per gallon near the median of Toyota Prius which averages just 48!
Arecibo people do not turn the antenna: they move the suspended receivers, allowing for a (limited) pointing capability. Being the largest and (probabily) the most expensive antenna, they put a lot of care in observing efficiency, so observations are all mixed to never let unoccupied the antenna. The scheduling software is smart!
> Probes on Europa?
Yes! and also in Mid-Est, Africa, Asia, South America, ecc.
We have to remember all those 2m size mirros (acting as magnifyng lens) already orbiting around earth.
Sorry, I forgot, are we dealing with NASA or NSA?
It's a pity that for international shipping they will charge 35$ (for a 10$ games is a bargain!). Anyone know a similar europeans reseller?
If we look only at the object mass, we would have a lot of planet between the other planets' moons. If we accept the arbitrary limits of 10E23 grams (IMHO it is by far too low), we have Jupiter's Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede; Saturn's Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus; Uranus' Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Neptunus' Triton and lastly Pluto's Charon. Also three asteroids (Ceres, Pallas and Vesta) should have the planet status, this time with full rights, because of the independent orbit.
The limit cited is suspiciously low and too near to the new object's mass: can this be a case of freudian error or a plain mistake? I'm not a planetologist (IMNAP), but I think the limits should read 100,000 billion billion Kg (10E26 grams). If we accept this limits (also arbitrary) nearly all things get OK, leaving only Pluto (1.27E25 g) in the cold. For some time Pluto has been discussed if should be considered a huge asteroids or a very small planet, but historical reasons had prevailed and it held ith planetary status.
All physical data can be found, for instance, at here& lt;/a> and in the related mirrors, also some pictures are available.