For those of you not up on the latest news, the International Astronomical Union is strongly considering changing the definition of "planet" to include three more planets in our solar system. (I read the article on NPR, if you're interested at all.) By the end of this week, we could be looking at twelve planets in our solar system.
After reading the article, I imagined a scenario in which I told my children about the days when there were only nine planets in the solar system, although I quickly realized that sounded like the human race created some new planets and launched them into space.
Anyhow, keep Pluto in mind this week. There's a possibility that they will demote it from planet status and leave us with only eight planets. I think I'd prefer ten planets to eight, myself. Just so long as we don't end up with 53, another number they're considering. (ick.)
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Meh. Dollars to doughnuts that our kids will learn the same order we did. I can imagine teachers ignoring Pluto, but not adding Charon and Xena.
I'm still waiting for the day when they teach about plasma, liquid crystals, superfluids, and Bose-Einstein condensates alongside solids, liquids, and gases.
W00t, Bose-Einstein condensates. One of the main developers spoke to us at the Science Bowl tournament about laser cooling. It was neat.
And apparently superfluids are insane.
A pneumonic device for fifty-three planets sounds like an interesting challenge, though; much more than "my very educated mother" etc etc.
I hope Pluto stays a planet. Otherwise I'd have to make my favorite planet Neptune or something.
I think a bubonic device would be cooler than a pneumonic one.
By the way, with regards to plasma, this is what I learned in honors high-school chemistry: "Plasma is basically energy. But you don't need to worry about it." I think my teacher must've watched too much Star Trek.
I'm actually pretty sure we're going to need a pneumatic device (rather than a pneumonic, bubonic, or mnemonic), as the internet is the wave of the future, and is, of course, a series of tubes.
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