Know your gravitational binding energy from a hole in the ground

Or, how to blow up the Earth and learn about gravitational binding
energy and the Nordtvedt effect along the way!

The final is a practical exam. Be sure to pick up one of the
following from the campus bookstore before class:

The total continuous solar energy output for 5 days, 3 hours, and 34
minutes and a really big hyperbolic mirror, or

1.4 million-billion 30 megatonne thermonuclear warheads (on backorder
from LeMay & Co.), or

950 billion metric tons of antimatter (on backorder from Fermilab, but
it'll be a while at 1.5 nanograms/year).

http://home.alltel.net/trapezium/Essays/EarthBind.htm

Marvin the Martian is counting on YOU!
--
Dave

"Dave Typinski" wrote in message
news
Or, how to blow up the Earth and learn about gravitational binding
energy and the Nordtvedt effect along the way!

The final is a practical exam. Be sure to pick up one of the
following from the campus bookstore before class:

The total continuous solar energy output for 5 days, 3 hours, and 34
minutes and a really big hyperbolic mirror, or

1.4 million-billion 30 megatonne thermonuclear warheads (on backorder
from LeMay & Co.), or

950 billion metric tons of antimatter (on backorder from Fermilab, but
it'll be a while at 1.5 nanograms/year).

http://home.alltel.net/trapezium/Essays/EarthBind.htm

Marvin the Martian is counting on YOU!

No way in hell will I ever understand the math, but that's still pretty
cool. The Marvin the Martian wav file makes it all worthwhile.

Oh, and I forwarded it to my daughter, the math teacher.

"John Nichols" wrote:


"Dave Typinski" wrote in message
news
Or, how to blow up the Earth and learn about gravitational binding
energy and the Nordtvedt effect along the way!

The final is a practical exam. Be sure to pick up one of the
following from the campus bookstore before class:

The total continuous solar energy output for 5 days, 3 hours, and 34
minutes and a really big hyperbolic mirror, or

1.4 million-billion 30 megatonne thermonuclear warheads (on backorder
from LeMay & Co.), or

950 billion metric tons of antimatter (on backorder from Fermilab, but
it'll be a while at 1.5 nanograms/year).

http://home.alltel.net/trapezium/Essays/EarthBind.htm

Marvin the Martian is counting on YOU!

No way in hell will I ever understand the math, but that's still pretty
cool. The Marvin the Martian wav file makes it all worthwhile.

Oh, and I forwarded it to my daughter, the math teacher.

Thanks! Glad someone might find it useful.

The odd thing about math is that it doesn't translate well onto paper.
The math is actually pretty simple, but when you go to write it all
down in a rigorously correct fashion, it really gets cumbersome. It's
a catch-22, though; if you don't write it out in excruciating detail,
nobody knows what the heck your math really /means/, making the whole
exercise worthless.
--
Dave