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.

Why Optimism Makes Us Sad | Are We Better Off Being Pessimists?

Feeding the Cheetah Triplets | Magic of Disney's Animal Kingdom

View All

Ken Griffin: From Starting a Hedge Fund in His Dorm Room to Billionaire Investor

Which brings me to a quote that describes the ethos of Citadel: “Things may come to those who wait, but only those things left by those who hustle.” Now, here’s what I really love about this quote. Who said this? I went off to Harvard to study economics…

Making Grilled Cheese at the Bottom of the World: A Day in the Life of a Scientist | Continent 7

My name is Paul. This is lunch in Antarctica. Everyday welcome to the kitchen, sits next to the science disc. I live on cheese toasties, so we make that’s lunch. My puppy here, three or four a day. It’s got a bit of cheese here. You can either use this or…

Functions continuous on all real numbers | Limits and continuity | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy

Which of the following functions are continuous for all real numbers? So let’s just remind ourselves what it means to be continuous, what a continuous function looks like. A continuous function—let’s say that’s my Y-axis, that is my X-axis—a function is …

Great Schism part 1

In previous videos, we talked about the dramatic turnaround in the 4th century in terms of how Christianity was treated in the Roman Empire. As you enter into the 4th century, it’s persecuted by Diocletian, but then Constantine takes power. He’s sympathet…

Watch this before learning Japanese | The common mistakes beginners do when learning Japanese)

Please don’t do these mistakes if you’re a beginner learning Japanese. Hi guys, it’s me Dy. If you’re new to this channel, I’m half Japanese and you know I grew up talking Japanese, and Japanese is my mother tongue. Today, we’re going to talk about the m…

David Letterman Goes to India | Years of Living Dangerously

[Music] I wonder how many people you can get in one of these. It’s like you’re outside of a sporting event or something is about to take place, because you have people arriving and coming and going. I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve seen guys at Gr…

This Is A Light-Nanosecond!

More Articles