total solar eclipse on jul 22 2009 and the feat of human scientific progress

just think -
a glowing soccer ball is moving.
across the field is a pea rotating and revolving.
around the pea is pinhead rotating and revolving.

a single cell on the pea is asked to figure out the path of the shadow of the pinhead as it comes in between the soccer ball and the pea.

how amazingly impossible is that?
and it has been done! precisely.
vedic astronomers did. chinese did. aryabhaTTa did it to precision unknown before!
and now we have interactive maps and movies of the event before it has happened!

i think i should just get back to SMS, iPod, iPohone, iWhere, iCan, iAm and the Wii (which i don't have) rather than trying to fathom the tremendous scientific progress we have made.


don't miss these amazing link -

amazing comparative sizes of celestial bodies - keeps things in perspective! http://www.co-intelligence.org/newsletter/comparisons.html

interactive map of the eclipse - very good! - http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2009_GoogleMapFull.html


from wikipedia - also very good - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_22,_2009

http://www.iiap.res.in/solareclipse1

--sj

like it? then become a fan of the blog

solar ecplise of jan 26 2009

here is the NASA link to get an idea how the moon's shadow will travel on earth, on the first solar eclipse of 2009.

what also hits, even after all technical knowledge, is how a small animal called human (smaller than an ant in comparison, can develop system of computation to measure the path, size, timing of the shadow of one heavenly body on another, when no one can have a measuring ruler that large.

that is power of the mind, system of notation, and logical development of science (maths), that one can with certainty predict the path of one almost spherical rotating and revolving orb (moon), around another rotating and revolving orb (earth) which is yet again going around another rotating and revolving orb (sun). just thinking of all this can make the mind start revolving!

hence also is the power of conceptualization. not all things in life can be measured directly. they can be verified later.


like it? then become a fan of the blog