More on comedy
There is a long history of science and comedy. I leave it to those more in
touch with contemporary culture to mention the recent ones. Two early
examples come to mind:
A generation before Python (1959 if I remember correctly but I was only 4)
Flanders and Swann sang a marvelous song on the third law of thermodynamics.
I vaguely recall the pre-song banter which talked about etiquette at science
parities. To a professor, you have to say "Ah, H2SO4 Professor. And the
reciprocal of PI to your good wife."
About the same time or earlier, Tom Lehrer sang the entire Periodic Table,
as it was then, to the tune of tune of the Major-General's song.
Finally, to relieve the tedium on a hot and steamy afternoon, below are the
words of that pertinent and entertaining Python song. I've always wondered
how correct it is scientifically.
===
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour,
That's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy itself contains 100 billion stars
It's 100,000 light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light years thick
But out by us its just 3,000 light years wide
We're 30,000 light years from galactic central point,
We go round every 200 million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding Universe.
The Universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light you know,
12 million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
Because there' bugger all down here on earth.
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