This Is A Light-Nanosecond!

less than 1m read

·Nov 10, 2024

I trimmed my beard yesterday, so I'm feeling a bit like a baby today. But look at the trimmings! Specifically this one that is 2.4 fortnits worth of beard growth. How do I know? Well, because of this tool I made. This about 5 years ago to free people from the tyranny of standard units. It measures in weird units like beard fortnits, the typical length of beard grows every 2 weeks.

It's also got light pico seconds, how far light travels in a trillionth of a second. If you didn't get one 5 years ago but you're subscribed much later this year, three boxes from now you'll get one in a special Legacy box we're making. The entire ruler is exactly one light nond long. This is how far light travels in a vacuum in 1 nond.

Everything I see from this distance, I'm seeing as it was a billionth of a second ago. It's a reminder that you live in the past because light has a finite speed. You do not see things as they are; you see the universe only as it was. Also, you're going nowhere if you fall asleep tonight in the same bed you woke up in this morning. Your average velocity for the day will be zero.

I Just Lost $1.5 Million In Stocks

Invalid | Vocabulary | Khan Academy

View All

Is Dust Mostly Dead Skin?

This is me at the end of college. So anyway, today I’m packing up my room. It is absolutely disgusting. There’s dust all over the place. Unbelievable how much dust this place accumulates; just unreal. 21-year-old me was apparently fascinated by dust, but …

Resistivity experimentally determined

A group of students prepares a large batch of conductive dough, a soft substance that can conduct electricity, and then molds the dough into several cylinders with various cross-sectional areas (A) and lengths (L). Each student applies a potential differe…

we’re living a life we will regret (and it needs to stop)

This video is for those who always feel like they are running out of time, being chased by something and wanting to spend more time on what’s important. Because I’m quite sure this is not your first time management/productivity video. You’ve probably watc…

Tom Blomfield: How I Created Two Billion-Dollar Fintech Startups

When you look around you at all of the structures in place, like the physical buildings, the transportation system, the laws and rules for society, all of these things were created by people. Everyone has a choice to either live in that world and merely f…

What Motivated Soldiers to Be the First to Climb the Siege Ladder?

Being the first on the wall in a siege often meant certain death. It involved battling through to the wall, climbing an exposed ladder or siege tower through a hail of projectiles, only to meet a superior force of defenders upon reaching the top. Neverthe…

Prepping Chestnuts for Planting | Live Free or Die: How to Homestead

[Music] I’m going to show you how to start chestnut trees from seed. The first step is to find a chestnut tree. These are some chestnuts that we harvested. You want to promptly heat treat your chestnuts after harvesting them, or else you lose them to mold…

This Is A Light-Nanosecond!

More Articles