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Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Couple of days ago I was asked, if I know how far is the Sun from the Earth. I realized that I have no idea and I don’t even know if it is half a million, one million, hundred million miles or more. My answer was: “I don’t know” but, after a while, … hey, hey I’m able to estimate the distance between Earth and Sun!
I know that the Sun’s light travels to Earth about 8-9 minutes and I know that the speed of light is about 300,000,000 meters per second. By the way, it’s easier to remember the speed of light in metric system because it’s almost round number (exactly 299,792,458 m/s), in miles per second it is 186,282 (about 671 million miles per hour).
So, let’s calculate: (you can use our Online Speed Calculator - Earth To Sun Distance Calculation)
8.5 minutes is equal to 8.5*60 seconds = 510 seconds (let’s make it 500, will be easier to multiply)
Every second light can travel 300,000 kilometers (1 km=1000 meters).
So, the Sun is 500*300,000 kilometers away from the Earth. That gives us 150,000,000 (150 million kilometers)
which is 93,210,000 miles (1 km is equal to 0.6214).
That was the estimation and what is the exact distance from Earth to the Sun?
As we can read in wikipedia Earth’s aphelion (farthest distance beetwen two astronomical objects) is 152,097,701 km, perihelion (closest distance) is 147,098,074 km and the semi-major axis (average distance) is equal to 149,597,887.5 km. So, as you can see, our calculation is very good and approximation error is small.
Useful tools :
Tags: astronomy
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Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
| Holiday |
2010 |
Other Years |
| New Year’s Day |
Friday, January 1 |
January 1 |
| Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. |
Monday, January 18 |
3rd Monday in January |
| Washington’s Birthday |
Monday, February 15* |
3rd Monday in February |
| Memorial Day |
Monday, May 31 |
Last Monday in May |
| Independence Day |
Monday, July 5** |
July 4 |
| Labor Day |
Monday, September 6 |
1st Monday in September |
| Columbus Day |
Monday, October 11 |
2nd Monday in October |
| Veterans Day |
Thursday, November 11 |
November 11 |
| Thanksgiving Day |
Thursday, November 25 |
4th Thursday in November |
| Christmas Day |
Friday, December 24*** |
December 25 |
* This holiday is designated as “Washington’s Birthday” in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.
** July 4, 2010 (the legal public holiday for Independence Day), falls on a Sunday. For most Federal employees, Monday, July 5, will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. (See section 3(a) of Executive order 11582, February 11, 1971.)
*** December 25, 2010 (the legal public holiday for Christmas Day), falls on a Saturday. For most Federal employees, Friday, December 24, will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. (See 5 U.S.C. 6103(b).)
Source: U.S. Office of Personnel Management: www.opm.gov
A free, printable calendar with marked US Federal Holidays can be found here : Online 2010 Calendar with Holidays
If you wish to view how the World celebrates New Year 2010, see New Year 2010 webcam list – this list lists webcams placed or facing popular places where people celebrate New Year Eve e.g. Times Square (NYC), Trafalgar Square (London), Harbour Bridge (Sydney), Main Square (Cracow), Eiffel Tower (Paris) etc.
Tags: 2010, calendar, holidays
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 24th, 2009
The largest lake in central america is Lake Nicaragua called also Lago Cocibolca, Lago de Nicaragua, Mar Dulce, Gran Lago, Lago de Granada, Gran Lago Dulce, Cocibolca, Granada. The area of lake Nicaragua is 8,264 km2 / 3,191 sqare miles (click on the link to get area converter). Lake Nicaragua is located in southwestern Nicaragua. It drains via the San Juan River into the Caribbean Sea. LN is almost same size as Lake Titicaca which is located on border of Peru and Bolivia (the largest lake in South America). Titicaca surface area is 8,372 km2 / 3,232 square miles. Titicaca Lake is also highest set lake in the world. It sits 3,812 m (12,500 ft) above sea level
Tags: area, nature
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Monday, August 24th, 2009
The tallest man ever (recorded and verified) was Robert Pershing Wadlow (22 Feb 1918 – 15 Jul 1940). He reached 8 feet 11.1 inches 2 m 72 cm in height. His weight was 490 pounds (220 kg).
His great size and his continued growth in adulthood was due to hypertrophy of his pituitary gland which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone. He showed no indication of an end to his growth even at the time of his death. Source: wikipedia.org
The tallest living man is mongolian Bao Xishun (Xi Shun, The Mast). Bao was born in 1951 in inner Mongolia (China). He measures 7 feet 8.91 inches (2 m 36 cm) tall.
Tallest people list: wikipedia.org
John Rogan – Second tallest male in recorded history at 8’9 ½” (268 cm). Tallest African American. (b.1868, d.1905)
Don Koehler – 8′ 2″ (2.49 m), Tallest in World for most of 1970s. Had 5’10″ twin sister. (September 1, 1925 – February 26, 1981)
Zhao Liang – 8′ 1.1″ (2.48 m)
Väinö Myllyrinne – Tallest Finn, standing 8’1″ (247 cm). Myllyrinne was born in 1909 and died April 13, 1963.
Gabriel Estêvão Monjane – Guinness World Records listed him as tallest man from 1988 to 1990 at 8’1″ (246 cm). (b.1944, d.1990)
Talles female list:
Trijntje Keever – Tallest recorded woman at 8’4″ (254 cm). Died in 1633 at age 17.
Zeng Jinlian – Tallest woman at 8’2.75″ (249 cm). Suffered from spine curvature and could not stand at full height. Died in 1982 at age 17.
Jane Bunford – Former world’s tallest woman (until Zeng Jinlian) and possibly the world’s tallest person at the time of her death in April 1922 at 7’8″ (234 cm), but due to a curved spine she could not stand up straight. However, if her spine had normal curvature, she would have stood 8’0 (244 cm).
Yao Defen – Claimant as tallest living female at 7’9″ (234 cm). Not confirmed by Guinness World Records.
Sandy Allen – Listed as tallest living female by Guinness World Records at 7’7¼” (232 cm), until her death on August 13, 2008.
See also:
Length converter
Tags: length, tallest men
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Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
Table below lists all new world records set at 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics Berlin 2009.
Unit Conversions:
100 m in yards = 109.3613
200 m in yards = 218.7227
77.96 m in yards = 85.2581
See also:
Usain Bolt Speed
Length Converter
Tags: length, sport
Posted in Articles | No Comments »
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
This time Usain Bolt with his team did not break world record. The Jamaican team (Steve Mullings, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell) ran 4×100 m men’s sprint relay in 37.32 s.
Current world record was set 37.10 seconds by the Jamaican (Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell) team during Olympic Games Beijing 2008.
Usain Bolt results and speeds at Berlin 2009
(follow links in the table to get speed conversion):
| Event |
Time [s] |
Speed [m/s] |
Who And When |
| 100m |
9.58 |
10.4384 |
Usain Bolt, August 16th, 2009 |
| 200m |
19.19 |
10.4221 |
Usain Bolt, August 20th, 2009 |
| 4x100m |
37.32 |
10.7181 |
Jamaican Team, August 22th, 2009 |
See also:
Usain Bolt Speed
Tags: speed, sport, usain bolt
Posted in Articles | No Comments »
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Anita Wlodarczyk from Poland set new world record in hammer throw women during Athletic Championship in Berlin 2009. New world record is 77.96 m
77.96 meters conversion
77.96 m is equal to 255.7743 feet, 85.2581 yards (click on the link to get conversion to the other units of length)
Tags: length, sport
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Table below shows typical olympic and championship athletic distances (race and walk) in metric system of measurement (meters and kilometers) and their conversion into imperial and us system of measurement (yards and miles). For example, as you can see, 100 meters (shortest outdor sprint distance) is equal to 0.1 kilometer [km], 109.4 yards [yd] and 0.06 imperial mile [mi]; 400 m in yards is 437.4 yd; Marathon distance in miles is 26.667 etc.
click on the links in the table to get conversion into other units of measurement
| Meters |
Kilometers |
Yards |
Miles |
Info/Sport |
| 100 |
0.1 |
109.3613 |
0.0621 |
|
| 110 |
0.11 |
120.2975 |
0.0684 |
Hurdles |
| 200 |
0.2 |
218.7227 |
0.1243 |
|
| 400 |
0.4 |
437.4453 |
0.2485 |
|
| 800 |
0.8 |
874.8906 |
0.4971 |
|
| 1500 |
1.5 |
1640.4199 |
0.9321 |
|
| 3000 |
3 |
3280.8399 |
1.8641 |
Steeplechase |
| 5000 |
5 |
5468.0665 |
3.1069 |
|
| 10,000 |
10 |
10,936.1330 |
6.2137 |
|
| 20,000 |
20 |
21,872.2660 |
12.4274 |
Walk |
| 42,915 |
42.915 |
46,932.4147 |
26.6661 |
Marathon |
| 50,000 |
50 |
54,680.6649 |
31.0686 |
Walk |
See also:
Sport Conversion
Tags: distance, length, sport
Posted in Articles | No Comments »
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
When and what time 4×100 m final men’s in Berlin 2009
The final 4×100 m men’s race is scheduled for Saturday, 22 August 2009 20:50 (Berlin local time – CEST) [11:50 AM PDT, 2:50 PM EDT]
Today (22 Aug 2009) Usain Bolt will run again. This time, together with other jamaican sprinters, in 4×100 meters relay. Is the jamaican team able to break another world record? Current World Record in 4×100 relay sprint was set by Jamaican team (Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell) at Olympic Games Beijing 2008. They ran the relay in 37.10 s. World Championships Record in 4×100 m relay stands at 37.38 as set by American Team (Darvis Patton, Wallace Spearmon, Tyson Gay, LeRoy Dixon) in 2007.
Average Speed in 4×100 m sprint relay men’s:
World Record 37.10 seconds. Speed = 400m/37.10s = 10.7817 m/s (click to convert speed)
Athletic Chamionships Record 37.38 seconds. Speed = 400/37.38s = 10.7009 m/s (click to convert speed)
See also:
Usain Bolt Speed
Tags: speed, sport, usain bolt
Posted in Articles | No Comments »
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
He did it again. Next final race and next world record. August 20th, 2009 Usain Bolt ran 200 m in 19.19 at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics Berlin 2009. He is genius and amazing sprinter.
I think, after his 100 m final race in Berlin when Bolt broke his own record, everybody was sure that he is able to break the record in 200 m race. The question was: how fast he can run? Now, we got the answer. Usain Bolt ran 200 m in 19.19 and his average speed on this distance was 10.4221 m/s. (Click on the link to get conversion into other units of measurement e.g mph, kmh, yd/s)
See also:
Usain Bolt MPH
Speed Unit Converter
Tags: speed, sport, usain bolt
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
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