the-way-to-the-centre
The-way-to-the-centre

:: The-way-to-the-centre ::

Who? Ian currently spends his days in an office affectionately known as the chicken shed where he designs things and spends time on the web imagining being anyhwere else. Out of hours he can be found living in a two-bedroom semi near Coventry decorated in the 'Scandanavian Style' (i.e. mostly empty). At night, if the sky is clear he is often seen peering through a telescope a faint fuzzy things many light years away.

:: welcome to The-way-to-the-centre :: bloghome | contact ::

[::..scratchings..::]
This is my blogchalk: United Kingdom, Coventry/ Cambridge, English, Ian, Male, 26-30, Astronomy, Archery.


[::..diversions..::]
:: Exploding Dog ::
:: Haiku ::
:: Bob The Angry Flower ::
:: < : Blogging Brits : > ::

[::..syndicate..::]
:: Site Feed ::

:: Monday, June 14, 2004 ::

precision engineering

On April 20th this year NASA launched Gravity Probe B (GP-B) to test Einstein's general theory of relativity. The probe will use gyroscopes to attempt to measure the distortion of space caused by the mass of the earth.
The June issue of Sky and Telescope has some further detail on the construction of the gyroscopes:
[...]These are the most perfect spheres within lightyears, deviating from perfection by no more than the thickness of 40 atoms; only neutron stars rival them [...] The [gyroscope] chamber is fused to a 5.6 inch telescope trained on a specially selected guide star to provide an orientation standard good to 0.1 milliarcseconds [...]
So, that's four atom perfect spheres aligned to one tenth of one thousandth of one sixtieth of one sixtieth of one degree.
I am not sure which I am more impressed with; the precision of the engineering or the fact that Einstein got it right in 1916 without the aid of even a pocket calculator.

:: Ian 11:07 PM | Permalink | ::

[::..scratch elsewhere..::]