To drop a pea at the end of every mile of a voyage on a limitless ocean to the distance of the nearest Fixed Star, would require a fleet of 10,000 ships each of 600 tons burthen, all starting with a full cargo of peas. Student's Class Book of Astronomy - Page 191by Francis Bullock - 1873 - 224 pagesFull view - About this book
| 1898 - 802 pages
...portion in administering the sacrament. "My dear lady," he replied, " I am told by Sir John Herschel that to drop a pea at the end of every mile of a voyage...require a fleet of 10,000 ships, each of 600 tons burden, all starting with a full cargo of peas. Now do you really suppose that the Maker of the fixed... | |
| Richard Hinckley Allen - 1899 - 598 pages
...as 215 feet long, one to this star would be 8000 miles; and from Sir John Herschel's illustration : to drop a pea at the end of every mile of a voyage on a limitless ocean to the nearest Axed star, would require a fleet of 10,000 ships of 600 tons burthen, each starting with a... | |
| Paul Gilster - 2004 - 336 pages
...Centauri, liked to imagine stellar distances in terms of the transportation systems of his era. Thus ". . . to drop a pea at the end of every mile of a voyage on a limitless ocean to the nearest fixed star, would require a fleet of 10,000 ships of 600 tons burthen, each starting with a... | |
| International Astronomical Union. Colloquium - 2005 - 568 pages
...neighbourhood. William Herschel attempted to convey the unimaginable interstellar distance scales as follows: 'To drop a pea at the end of every mile of a voyage on a limitless ocean to the nearest fixed star, would require a fleet of 10000 ships, each of 600 tons burthen. ' One hundred and... | |
| A. Aparicio, F. Sánchez - 2005 - 414 pages
...hundred years ago, John Herschel tried to convey the immensity of stellar distances in the following way: To drop a pea at the end of every mile of a voyage on a limitless ocean to the nearest fixed star, would require a fleet of 10,000 ships, each of 600 tons burthen. In developing... | |
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