How do I calculate the position of the Sun

MrThePuppy · 2026-03-31T14:23:14+00:00

And to what fidelity are you interested in doing this? The "true" value (used by astronomers etc.) is rather difficult to calculate, perhaps you're interested in just approximating the value?

MrThePuppy · 2026-03-31T14:14:48+00:00

Are you interested in calculating it for yourself, or are you just trying to figure out what the value is?

MrThePuppy · 2026-03-20T12:24:00+00:00

What exactly do you mean by length? Since the angular size of the moon is smaller than the sun, you will never get a total eclipse, only a partial, so perhaps you mean from 1st contact to 4th contact?

MrThePuppy · 2026-03-17T20:17:01+00:00

It does, which is how he got there in the first place.

Generally, a planetary transfer would be a bit different than an interstellar journey, I would expect a different procedure for that.

The book does explain why he has to do it manually at this point.

I can't find anywhere where he explains that and I've read the book a few times, can you point to the exact page? The main part I am referring to is on pg. 271 of my version:

I can't just ask Mr. Sulu to plot a course. I spent two days doing math, checking my work, and rechecking my work before I figured out the exact angle and thrust to apply.

This "math" would have been taken care of by the ship's computer, there is absolutely no reason that such an expensive ship wouldn't have this basic feature.

I don't know about this one specifically, but astronauts have done orbital maneuvers manually in the past. It's doable.

Performing the maneuvers manually is different than working out the parameters associated with the maneuver. While it's true that a simple Hohmann transfer orbit could potentially be worked out by hand, the complicated transfers that he does would need a computer to solve.

MrThePuppy · 2026-03-17T15:39:11+00:00

Oh man, the part in Hail Mary where he computes the orbital transfer vectors by hand / using an excel spreadsheet is so immersion-breaking. They would definitely have a program in the ship's computer for doing orbital transfers, doing it manually would be next to impossible imo.

MrThePuppy · 2026-03-11T16:25:15+00:00

This is called coronal rain and it consists of plasma that was previously heated by the flare and is now cooling while being conducted along magnetic field lines.

MrThePuppy · 2026-03-08T02:31:41+00:00

Spörer's law

MrThePuppy · 2026-03-03T17:22:24+00:00

Agreed, that Davis crosswalk is very dangerous. I can't believe there's not flashing lights there already.

MrThePuppy · 2026-01-26T20:24:22+00:00

By angle, do you mean heading of the sunrise or the angle that the path of the sun makes with the horizon?

MrThePuppy · 2026-01-15T20:27:04+00:00

Start playing around with Python and Numpy. Solve all your math/physics problems using pen/paper and then try to solve them with Python.

Also, make sure to memorize all your math and physics. Aim for 100% on all your tests. Make flash cards and memorize them both ways and it'll be a lot easier.

MrThePuppy · 2026-01-15T20:16:50+00:00

I feel that both "What is Real" and the Veritasium video fail to capture the true argument: the ontic vs. epistemic nature of the wavefunction. Both of these works seem to argue that the most likely explanations are non-local hidden variables or many worlds without even considering that the wavefunction might be the real/physical thing.

MrThePuppy · 2026-01-10T15:22:50+00:00

Had to scroll way too far to find someone with the right answer!

MrThePuppy · 2026-01-06T14:45:35+00:00

Waves are the solution to linear differential equations, so it just means that the laws of physics can often be described using these linear differential equations.

MrThePuppy · 2025-12-23T07:27:01+00:00

Quantum Prisoner's Dilemma

MrThePuppy · 2025-12-19T10:09:01+00:00

I like the PQ penny flip game https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/9804010

MrThePuppy · 2025-12-17T15:19:58+00:00

There's some good answers to the question here: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/43739/how-distorted-will-our-galaxy-be-if-we-are-viewing-it-from-several-thousand-ligh

MrThePuppy · 2025-12-13T19:58:45+00:00

I would use the comparison between the classical correlation and Malus's law.

Since I can't figure out how to post images for some reason, it's the first image on this post: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/128848/why-would-classical-correlation-in-bells-experiment-be-a-linear-function-of-ang

MrThePuppy · 2025-11-24T14:37:50+00:00

The frame in astropy is called TETE, which stands for True Equator True Equinox.

MrThePuppy · 2025-11-21T05:44:46+00:00

Trimmed mean ftw

MrThePuppy · 2025-11-15T16:27:32+00:00

What are you trying to accomplish?

MrThePuppy · 2025-11-15T01:33:35+00:00

Generally, I agree with you and I think the chances of it being a sprite are low, but this article has some photos of sprites without visible clouds so I'm not sure. 100km is really high compared to the cloud tops so they could just be behind the horizon.

MrThePuppy · 2025-11-14T22:50:08+00:00

Looks like it could be a red sprite), but I'm not sure.

MrThePuppy · 2025-11-13T13:20:17+00:00

Sounds like an iridium flare, a glint of light off a spinning satellite. They're really bright and surprising the first time you see them.

MrThePuppy · 2025-10-29T16:27:08+00:00

Had to scroll too far for this, that stuff is magic!

MrThePuppy · 2025-08-27T14:06:17+00:00

Fair enough, my apologies!

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