Travel

Today is the last day of less than 11 hours of daylight for this winter.  It will be October 16^th before it drops below this length again as it heads toward the shortest day of the year.

Although different methods have been used to keep track of it, time inexorably passes, one of the few things in our world that never changes.

I mentioned to a friend a week or so ago that I had no concept of endless space, or infinity.  I maintained that I can understand space being vast, but I cannot think in terms of never-ending.  My mind wants to wonder what is at the end of space?  My friend stated she had no problem understanding an endlessness concept.  Am I alone?

We all know that the earth travels around the sun.  How far do we travel in this manner?  Although subject to mathematical calculation problems it is approximately a 585 million mile yearly orbit.  Divided by 365 provides a 1.6 million mile daily trip.  That’s in the neighborhood of 67,000 miles per hour, and you thought you only went 50 miles on your hour long trip to Grandma’s house.  In this manner the earth travels its own diameter about every 7 minutes.  The earth’s orbit around the sun is not a circle, but more of an oval.  Strangely, in the northern hemisphere, we come about 4 million miles closer to the sun in winter than in summer.

As well as our season giving trip around the sun each year, the earth also revolves once a day providing us with our accustomed day and night cycle.  At the equator any given spot is moving at about 1,040 miles per hour.  All other points south or north of there travels at the same revolution speed of once a day, but the miles per hour are less, proportionate to their distance from the equator.

Beginning with our 50 mile trip, and adding 67,000 miles for our annual movement, and say another 500 miles for our daily spin, we find we moved about 67,550 miles in that hour.  All that for about 2 gallons of gas.  I spent $3.63 a gallon for that today, so for $7.26 it’s all quite a bargain.  Let’s go to Grandma’s.