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.

BREAKING NEWS! The Election's Most Difficult Decision…

Why your ego is (slowly) ruining your life

View All

Time Is But a Stubborn Illusion - Sneak Peek | Genius

What is time? A deceptively simple question, yet it is the key to understanding relativity. It is sort of the reason my hair is going gray. [laughter] When we describe motion, we do so as a function of time: 10 meters per second, 100 miles per hour. But t…

How Bacteria Rule Over Your Body – The Microbiome

Microbes are everywhere, on your phone, in your water bottle, on your hands before you wash them, on your hands after you wash them, and literally everywhere else on top of you too. Microbes are omnipresent at any moment, and there is nothing we can do ab…

The funky -ed irregular verb | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy

Hello, Garans. We’re talking about irregular verbs, that is to say, verbs that aren’t formed like regular verbs. To give you a taste of what regular verbs look like, just as a refresher, let’s take the word “walk.” Let’s put it in the present tense. Now…

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…

We lost $1,000,000+ (Here’s What We Learned)

This has been a horrible year for investors across our stocks, crypto, and venture investments. Our portfolio dipped by over one million dollars. Now, given the situation, we can offer a unique hands-on perspective on what it’s like to lose more money tha…

Compound-complex sentences | Syntax | Khan Academy

Hello Garans, hello Rosie, hi Paige. So in this video, we’re going to talk about compound complex sentences. We just covered complex sentences in the last video, which is where you’ve got a simple sentence or one independent clause, and then that’s accomp…

This Is A Light-Nanosecond!

More Articles