OT: Pluto

[A String]

Should we still call Pluto a planet? If you haven't read about the controversy, here it is:

 

Click Here

[Trucks]

I was reading about this the other day... I only came to one conclusion.... By me calling it or not callng a planet does it change what it actually is.. What its made of... Where it is.. How it travels round the galaxy... Nope not at all. Im on the "Couldnt give a flying monkeys" side of the fence Think i'll just call it pluto and not worry too much about which box I need to put it in.

[The Big G]

lee has a fair point but for hundreds of years we have called it a planet and no real ill has come of it so if it aint broken why fix it?????

[Warthog]

Whether it's a planet or a moon it's still Pluto...

[Trucks]

Warthog... You could put the scientists out of their misery by taking a mission out there and blowing that sukka out of space! Then its just space dust!

[A String]

I suppose the question is, do you continue to call it, something it's not. We are used to calling it a planet so we are comfortable using that term. Should we call it a planet because that's what we are used to or do we give it a proper classification, grit our teeth and teach our kids what it actually is.

 

I feel that, if it doesn't fall under the class of "planet" it shouldn't be called a planet.

[Trucks]

Ok I see where your coming from. If it isnt a planet we shouldnt teach kids that it is... What classifies a planet anyway? Why is it called a planet... Who came up with the word Planet and what does it mean... Im so clueless on the matter I have no sensible answer

[Trucks]

What would it be called if it wasnt classed a planet?

[A String]

Pluto is actually a KBO (Kuiper Belt Object).

 

If you want to get right into it, there is a great article on Wikpidia that will answer most questions:

click here.

[Trucks]

Cheers craig.... Problem being that after reading that im actually more confused as to whether it should be classed as a planet or not. I quite like the idea that a planet would have to have become spherical under its own gravity.. Which would mean Pluto was a planet... AND part of the KBO. But that would also mean their are alot more planets in the solar system also.

 

Maybe rather than re-classifying Pluto as a minor planet we should re classify the larger planets as Major Planets. Then we would have 8 Major planets, a bunch of planets, and a bunch of minor planets.

[Justus A. Picker]

This is a trick question! Before we can properly classify Pluto we first have to come to a consensus on the definition of "Planet". Given that the definition is apparently undergoing "review" by people that do that sort of thing the answer today is immaterial.

[Shoes]

It's a rock.

 

I listened to Quirk & Quarks a short while ago and basically it amounts to adding a handfull of additional orbital devices if we want to keep Pluto as a planet. Several are closer, larger and just as unlikely to inhabit.

 

There are so many other objects out there that are larger and in our local system that it seems strange to exclude them solely on the basis of their entrapment by the gravitational attraction of huge planets. Titan is firkin huge. It just wandered the wrong way and might otherwise have developed its own orbit and been a planet by itself.

Too bad, so sad .. you're just a moon my friend.

 

So .. To Planet or Not to Planet?

 

We're creatures of culture and somewhat bound by ancient notions that we're continually challenging. Planets, Gods, Politicians are all trees in a forest of greater meaning.

The meaning is our collective destiny and perhaps we need a newfound faith, milestone or catalyst to launch a new era or age of enlightenment. One that saves us.

 

Keep Pluto

Change the definition

Add the new planets

Rebuild the callendar with more weekends

And shoot the damn psychics and astrologists

[Trucks]

Originally posted by Justus A. Picker:

This is a trick question! Before we can properly classify Pluto we first have to come to a consensus on the definition of "Planet". Given that the definition is apparently undergoing "review" by people that do that sort of thing the answer today is immaterial.

Youre right buddy!! The govt will throw our answers out of the supreme court on grounds of being based on outdated information

[Guitarzan]

interesting stuff for sure.

but i will get back to you when i have made my decision on its status.

[Dreamer]

http://www.animationalley.com/images/Disney/Societydogshow.jpg

 

 

"What is Pluto really? Well... why don't you discover yourself..."

[A String]

They are making a decision this month and announcing it in September. We will see...

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by A String:

I suppose the question is, do you continue to call it, something it's not. We are used to calling it a planet so we are comfortable using that term. Should we call it a planet because that's what we are used to or do we give it a proper classification, grit our teeth and teach our kids what it actually is.

 

I feel that, if it doesn't fall under the class of "planet" it shouldn't be called a planet.

I hate to say it, but while I agree with you in theory, reality dictates some exceptions. For example:

 

According to Modern Marvels: Nuts, none of the following are nuts:

 

"Almonds & Pistachios...

 

http://www.areclinic.org/images/articles/almonds.jpg

 

http://www.nutsonline.com/images/items/g84.jpg

 

..are drupes and grow more like a peach."

 

"Peanuts..

 

http://www.irteb.com/herbal/images/peanut.gif

 

"..are a legume. And botanically speaking more pea than nut."

 

"Brazil nuts? Pine nuts? Cashews? Sorry, none of them meet the botanical definition."

 

But that doesn't keep a multi-million dollar industry and its' consumers from referring to any hard shelled seed as a nut.

 

And this can be brought on-topic, too.

 

Leo Fender screwed up the naming of his amplitude modulating electrical circuit and the frequency modulating mechanical device on most strats. As a result, 50 years of guitarists tend to refer to the former as a vibrato on their amps and a tremelo on their guitars, when in fact it's the other way around!

 

Seems to me we have plenty of obvious places in which words are used incorrectly. Planet has never been properly defined, so calling Pluto a planet isn't necessarily wrong. And even if it is ruled a non-planet, it may take generations to change its' common identification.

[Big Red 67]

Interesting to think about. Considering that I am a speck on a rock hurdling thru space around a great ball of fire, I have a great doubt that my thoughts about it matter.

 

Now that considered, Pluto is smaller then Uranus, maybe it shouldn't be looked at as a planet. heehee

[Xplorer]

I just typed up a huge response, then promptly deleted it. I'll sum it up...

 

Who gives a f*%k.

[A String]

Originally posted by Xplorer:

I just typed up a huge response, then promptly deleted it. I'll sum it up...

 

Who gives a f*%k.

I suppose it's half because I like astronomy and half because I have a kid now.

 

I find it interesting that there may be a drastic change in the knowledge that we have held, all our lives. Also, I interested in how my daughter is going to be learning things and if she will be learning them differently then I did...

[Xplorer]

Originally posted by A String:

Originally posted by Xplorer:

I just typed up a huge response, then promptly deleted it. I'll sum it up...

 

Who gives a f*%k.

I suppose it's half because I like astronomy and half because I have a kid now.

 

I find it interesting that there may be a drastic change in the knowledge that we have held, all our lives. Also, I interested in how my daughter is going to be learning things and if she will be learning them differently then I did...

Sorry A String, I didn't mean that as a referance to your thread! I think it's important that we have our facts straight, ignorence is not bliss. But like fantasic sound pointed out, it will always be a planet to us. Is that the right way for us to think about the situation? Who gives a f*%k.

[fantasticsound]

She absolutely will be learning things you didn't. I don't know how old you are, but I was part of the last age of lumbering dinasaurs. Kids born in the late 1980's or early 1990's won't have a clue how revolutionary the concept of dinosaurs as depicted in new documentaries (not to mention in fictional movies) are to us. Dinosaurs were drab colored, most were thought to be slow and the idea of tending their offspring was unheard of. Not to mention the possibility of bird-like feathers. Plus, the depth of knowledge most 8 year olds have about different dinosaur names is amazing compared to what we 35+ year olds were aware of at that age.

 

And that's only one area. The information age has completely redefined the dispersal of knowledge. Consider that those born in 1990 are or will be 16 this year. They will never know an era without powerful computers with complex graphical interfaces. They can't fathom how huge an advance CGI effects were when Jurassic Park and T2 were released. To them, seemless digital effects have always been around.

 

There's no way our children will learn the same things we did. So much of our understanding has changed in the past 10 - 20 years about so many subjects.

 

Man, do I feel old all of a sudden.

[I I mjrn]

I'd say that I was B-hind the times & thought that Pluto was a Disney-cartoon dog, F Dreamer hadn't beat me 2 that suggestion.

Which makes me even more B-hind the times!

 

The best idea I can offer legitimately is, 2 echo some others, the idea of what a comet, a planet, a moon or something else is may not B definite...& who says that one can't B-come another by virtue of whatever happens 2 it over time?

A moon that drifts off N2 it's own solar orbit, 4 X-ample.

 

Not 2 draw the discussion 2 far astray but lately my personal "universal" quest has 2 do with the idea of modern physics's string theory & whether there could conceivably B other types of matter types that R analogous 2 other types of musical N-strument forms: pipes, idiophones, etc.

 

I also must mention, FWIW, that I'm more confused whenever I C 1 of those photo-avatars of the young girl that Neil keeps using. It always takes me a moment 2 recall that FantasticSound is axually a mature man with a robust beard.

 

Final thought: 1 area of relevance may B that this could B M-portant since the modern is coming more & more 2 resemble a plutocracy than ever B4.

[Don't worry, Picker, that pun's as political as this'll get!]

[A String]

String theory is an odd beast. I've read several books on it and really can't decide whether to accept it or not. One of those, too good to be true scenarios. I do, however, think it's a really cool theory and it sounds right to me. Although, any time you patch up mistakes by fudging the numbers, you have to wonder just how legit it can be...

 

Neil, I'll be 36 in December.

 

I recall the way things were. It's strange to think that our kids are growing up in a world that is completely different from how ours was, in almost every way.

[I I mjrn]

I don't fully comprhend it either but then the scientists who espouse the several variant theories themselves seem 2 consider it a subject that can't ever rilly B tested N our, or any single universe's, dimensions.

[brief N-capsulization: string theory is X-tra-dimensional; the next step B-yond "wormholes".]

[A String]

It does wrap everything into a nice neat package and it really "feels" right. But it is just a guess.

 

I still love it though, mainly because it brings to life, a lot of the deeper aspects of Physics. When you start getting into the mathematics of higher planes, and quantum mechanics, I find I start drooling. I can't get enough.

 

One of the coolest theories I read, stated that there was only one particle that made up all of existence.

 

This particle moves forward though time and as you observe it (The first time) it may be part of the atom, that makes up the molecules, that make up a part of your left shoe.

 

The particle continues on it's way until it reaches the end of time. Then it begins it's journey back through time, this time maybe becoming part of your right hand.

 

It travels forward and backward, again and again making up all matter.

 

Existence is simply a measurement. Things exist, because we are here to measure them. During this second, right now, that particle is captured in time, in an infinitesimal number of locations giving it all the necessary qualities to become the things around us. A Split second later, it has been recaptured in completely different locations, but the physics of our universe dictate that the particles properties remain constant. ie, a negatively charged ion remains a negatively charged ion.

 

The idea of a string that exists between dimensions but enough in ours that it can become matter is a very cool idea. I think expanding on the idea to suggest that different frequencies play a role in the type of matter that results is also along the right track.

 

Anyway...I digress.

[I I mjrn]

Well, the essence of modern phyics is that we can't simultaneously perceive multiple aspects of anysingle particle & that what we look 4 colours what we find...kinda Buddhistic, eh?

 

I&I just like string theory 'cause it puts strings at the center of thangs!

 

Now 4 that folk song favorite, "Back 2 Pluto".

[Big Red 67]

That one took away a smoke craving!

[Guitarzan]

Originally posted by Big Red 67:

Interesting to think about. Considering that I am a speck on a rock hurdling thru space around a great ball of fire, I have a great doubt that my thoughts about it matter.

 

Now that considered, Pluto is smaller then Uranus, maybe it shouldn't be looked at as a planet. heehee

did you say pluto is smaller than MY anus?

[Big Red 67]

Originally posted by guitarzan:

Originally posted by Big Red 67:

Interesting to think about. Considering that I am a speck on a rock hurdling thru space around a great ball of fire, I have a great doubt that my thoughts about it matter.

 

Now that considered, Pluto is smaller then Uranus, maybe it shouldn't be looked at as a planet. heehee

did you say pluto is smaller than MY anus?

Never!