November 23, 2012

  • A Short History

    The book I read to research this post was A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. The universe is 13.7 billion years old. Most stars are in pairs, the sun is unusual in that respect. Probably the most famous pairing of stars is polaris the pole star. The core of the earth is thought to be as hot as the sun and shows no sign of cooling. Not all planets have internal molten rock but it enables the earth to have land. If the earth was smooth there would be a continous ocean that would be 4 kilometres deep. 60% of the earth contains ocean that is at least 1.6 kilometres deep. The deepest point of the ocean is the marianas trench which is 11.2 kilometres deep. In the past when the dinosaurs died out it took about a million years for huge mammals to appear. There were raccoons with the size and temperament of bears. There were guinea pigs the size of rhinos & rhinos the size of a 2 storey house. There was even a flightless bird 3.5 metres tall in america. Nowadays of course the animals tend to be a more sensible size.

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