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.

Subtracting fractions with unlike denominators introduction

Live from Mars 360° | National Geographic

View All

Abiotic factors and an organism's range | High school biology | Khan Academy

So, let’s talk a little bit about abiotic factors for an organism’s range. Before we even get into it, let’s just think about what these words mean. In other videos, we’ve talked about how abiotic means non-living, while biotic would refer to living. So, …

Investigating Shadiness | Water & Power: A California Heist

[background noises] [music playing] [printer printing] [music playing] Some people gave a tip to Public Citizen, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization, about what appeared to be some shady water deals going on in Central Valley of California. T…

Mentoring New Photographers | Sea of Hope: America's Underwater Treasures

So, is lighting the whole secret down there? Yeah, I think one of the best things, um, to do underwater is to sort of meter for the background, the ambient, and then maybe underexpose that just a little bit. It kind of creates a nice, richly saturated bac…

Threads That Speak: How The Inca Used Strings to Communicate | National Geographic

(Wind blowing) (Solemn music) (Engine humming) When you work with archaeological objects, you are like entering the world of your ancestors. (Mysterious music) I like to think that in a way, they talk to us. (Mysterious music) A Quipu is an accounting dev…

The Theme System Journal

Hello internet! If you didn’t already know, I’m a big fan of the yearly theme: a broad rainbow above your goals to help direct you on part of your journey through this life. And yes, I know exactly how that sounds. But if you’re intrigued and/or wondering…

Constant-pressure calorimetry | Thermodynamics | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy

Calorimetry refers to the measurement of heat flow, and a device that’s used to measure heat flow is called a calorimeter. An easy way to make a calorimeter is to use two coffee cups. So at the base here, we have one coffee cup, and then we can also use a…

This Is A Light-Nanosecond!

More Articles