Comments | shanex: The Science of Rock Music

shanex

The Science of Rock Music

Jan 01, 2009 10:12

Hello, and welcome to “The Science of Rock Music”. Today we will cover the scientific principles discussed in various rock songs. Let’s get right to it ( Read more... )

Comments 8

The "Ted in accounting" line made me laugh. peterchayward January 1 2009, 17:20:19 UTC

Also, of course, it’s impossible to travel at the speed of light,

Well, it's impossible for a person to travel at the speed of light. It's not impossible if you're, say, light.

Re: The "Ted in accounting" line made me laugh. shanex January 1 2009, 23:14:25 UTC

Lacking a specified subject, a sentence can be presumed to refer to either the speaker, or the most recent subject mentioned earlier in context. From that, it's safe to conclude I meant either Freddy Mercury or myself. In either case the statement was factually accurate.

-ATW

cheshyre January 1 2009, 20:39:21 UTC

Although "Don't Stop Me" was written by Freddie, keep in mind that Queen's Brian May was a graduate student in astrophysics until the band took off (finally finished his doctorate last year).

If you aren't already familiar with it, you should check out the Queen song '39, written by May and dealing with the issue of time dilation in long-term space travel.

shanex January 1 2009, 23:17:05 UTC

Yeah, there are a number of songs that have surprisingly accurate physics in them.

For instance, Alphaville (somewhat obscure to most people but one of my favorite bands) seems to make no mistakes in the realm of physics and even, in one song, correctly used light-year as a unit of distance.

-ATW

Europe anonymous January 2 2009, 07:39:34 UTC

How can you possibly manage to listen to any song by Europe enough times to actually learn the lyric?

Are you a masochist or what?

Re: Europe shanex January 2 2009, 19:01:23 UTC

My complete lack of class is a well know trait among my social group. I also like disco. :)

-ATW

(The comment has been removed)

shanex January 3 2009, 01:07:45 UTC

The implication in the sentence is that he wants to bring "you" up to his speed. This isn't a legal proceeding in a court. In song lyrics it's ok to make reasonable presumptions.

Jesus, this thread is turning into quite the nitpicker magnet.

-ATW

Pardon the intrusion sidebernie January 5 2009, 19:53:28 UTC

Interestingly enough, if you head for Venus fast enough (a significant fraction of light-speed) the Lorentz contraction will mean that you're standing rather shorter. Or thinner/flatter, depending on which way you're oriented. At least for a couple of seconds, until you slam into the planet, because you'd be going awfully quickly. You know what? On second thought, never mind.