Thursday, December 25, 2008
Gone again
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Lady vs. Handbag
How do you spot a tool bag in space?
Track the tool bag |
Losing a tool bag can be inconvenient, but when you're 212 miles above the Earth it's a whole different matter.
Last week American astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper was forced to watch her tools - reportedly worth £70,000 - float off when the backpack-sized bag slipped out of her grip.
The accident happened as she was cleaning grease off her gloves while fixing a gummed-up joint on the International Space Station's solar panel. The bag went into orbit and has become a "must see" among some competitive stargazers in recent days.
You can calculate precisely where something will be in space at any given time thanks to Newton's first law of physics. It states that any object moving in a straight line tends to remain in such a state unless acted upon by an external force.
This also applies in space, the only difference being things move in an orbit. And because space is so vast and empty, a tool bag is unlikely to be knocked off its course by anything else.
THE ANSWER Precise location can be plotted using Newton's first law of physics Size of space means it's unlikely to be hit by anything else or be anything else |
As scientists know information like the size of the tool bag and where it was lost, it is possible to do the orbital calculations to determine where it will be and when.
A computer model has been developed for the tool bag (see link below answer box). But finding its exact location in the sky depends on your location on Earth. For example, it will appear lower in the sky from the north of England and Scotland than the south.
Equipped with your latitude and longitude coordinates, the model will calculate the time to see the tool bag, the altitude it will be at and the magnitude, which specifies its brightness compared with stars. Usually the bag has a negative magnitude, say astronomers, meaning it is one of the brightest objects in the night sky apart from the moon and planes.
But before that you will also need the right equipment - binoculars or a telescope and "even then it will be difficult to see," says Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society.
But the typically large distances between things in space also means it's unlikely anything else will be in the same position at the same time, says Robin Scagell, of the Society for Popular Astronomy. So what you track will almost certainly be the tool kit.
Burn up
"Most people have been playing too many computer games and think space is full of chunks of rock and debris, but it isn't," he says.
"There are things out there, but they are likely to be meteors the size of a grain of coffee and many miles apart. Even if they did hit the tool bag they would have little impact."
WHO, WHAT, WHY? A regular feature in the BBC News Magazine - aiming to answer some of the questions behind the headlines |
What you will see is another matter. The bag will have no structure or shape but will look like a faint star whizzing through the sky. But it will be easily distinguishable from a plane because it won't have red and green navigation lights.
"It will be a speck of light which will not be visible to the naked eye," says Dr Massey. "I wouldn't waste too much time looking out for it. Looking at the actual space station where the bag was lost is far more interesting."
Disclaimer: It could equally as easily have been a gentleman.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Way to tick off
I am calm
Calm down
I am calm
Calm down
I am calm
Calm down
I am calm
Calm down
I !#$%* am %^&* calm
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The shoemaker and the elves
You don't have to look too closely to notice all the things that happen in the cover of the night while you sleep. The anonymous early morning set of emails concerning local news, half price shoes, flat screen televisions and a new fortune should you provide the number of your bank account, that you sleepily check and delete. All those leaves you crushed on your way home have assembled themselves neatly into a hill on the grass and there's no crackle in your step on your way out this morning. You find a line of sparkling white toilets with raised seats, quite unlike the careworn washroom you grumbled about yesterday.
Ever wonder how the bulletin boards get plastered the way they do even though you never see a mob of people having a stapler fight to punch their piece on that precious space. I wish I could tell you that you can catch them red handed in the half lit corridors outside the library late in the evening. But I was there last night, with my posters and my stapler, and there was no one there to fight. So I just tried to be considerate, under no force, and posted my little ads only over events that were over. I roamed the corridors, merrily stapling and solitary. And then I was spotted, by a man with a vacuum cleaner, piling chairs on desks lifted off the carpet. I met his glance and kept moving without a nod. When I step onto the deeper blue fiber in class today, I will know the face behind the cause of the clean carpets. And the carpet cleaner will have solved the mystery of the sign sprouting bulletin boards.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Challa
Chhalla vas nahi oo mere
Chhalla vas meri maan de
Ghallegi tan jange
Ve gall sun chhallia
Khaure keeta kis is ‘te toona
The ring, it heeds me not
The ring, it heeds only my mother
It will leave if she wishes
Listen to me, my darling
I don’t know who cast this spell
Chhalla bambi da paani
Kithhey veh gaye ne jaani
Asan khabar ko na jaani
Ve gall sun chhallia
Teri beri ik uggia ey kanda
The ring, water deep in the well
Who knows where it seeped away
I have no news from it
Listen to me, my darling
On your vine grows a thorn
Chhalla gut ik lammi
Asan supne chummi
Hoi neeyat si anni
Asan dil di si manni
Ve gall sun chhallia
Hun de lai jehrhi deni ey sazaa
The ring, a long braid
I kissed in a dream
I was blinded by desire
But I listened to my heart
Listen to me, my darling
Then punish me as you will
Chhalla boharh ik ‘kalla
Unhe farhia ey palla
Thalle dharat utte Allah
Ve gall sun chhallia
Khaure jandian kinni dunghian jarhan
Es gall da os khud nu nahi pata
The ring, a lone banyan
Where it sprouted it held fast
To the Earth below and God above
Listen to me, my darling
How deep his roots run
He himself does not know
Chhalla ambian kachian
Mattan de koi sachian
Laiey lekhe jo bachian
Terian merian gharian
Ve gall sun chhallia
Langh javan ain na umran khaali
The ring, unripe mangoes
Somebody give me some true advice
Let’s think of what’s left
Of your time and mine
Listen to me, my darling
Lest our lives should go to waste
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Notice for Chubby
Thank you for gracing with presence at lasts
Person awaits comments
Thank yous
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Negative gradient
My life has been taken over by numbers, symbols and loops of stubborn logic. I count my words when I speak, or write. I force my feet to take bigger steps and just get there already. I shove food down my throat and guzzle coffee for sustenance.
I'm on the negative gradient of my function right now and it keeps getting higher in magnitude. For instance, factor in the girls upstairs who decide to have a tete-a-tete at 1 am, but unwittingly share their boisterous enthusiasm with their pretty sleepy and very gruff neighbor downstairs. Add in lack of sunshine, two powerpoint presentations, a not-quite-right research project bordering on a thesis deadline topped with a nitpicking pessimistic attitude like yours truly and your really on a roll.
It's therefore time to open up my parachute, slow my descent, take a nap.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Saturday afternoon snoozefest
As for inputs, food, sleep and physical and mental exercise have been wired in. Since the system is operating on a Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday schedule, the latter two are negligible and may be ignored. States reaching the limits of the operation envelope were damped by home cooked chicken. Disturbance rejection is functioning as designed and pulses of blue spectrum emotions were rejected by a nap and a chocolate brownie.
All states in the universe are stable and running. The system will now switch to the next task.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Hey you :)
Monday, January 28, 2008
Fog
Fog
Churning crunching crushing
Creeping guilty convict
Regret rattling round his neck
Half wish
Half heart
Half tongue
A nostril
And An eye
Conglomerate of halves
Rising as one
Inhaling
Exhaling Lung
Clutching at wholes
To grab his Half
Half nose
Catching Half a cold
A sneeze that went unblessed
Squeezing out one last vapid Half puff
Of a Half tossed Half glowing cigarette
Half a heart
Pockets a Half conscience
Left aside for Half the night
And for his Half tongue
A Half promise
A Grey truth
A White lie
Mocking me with my lost love’s
Last Half wish
Dangling his catch before me
A Half Dead
Dew filled
Tingling Half Sigh
Snickering Half consummate
Slithered away
Claiming for his arid eye
Half a tear
That I didn’t cry.