I don't know if we're supposed to call it a heat wave if it's just one day, but it was really, really unexpectedly and unseasonably warm today. This time last week, we were complaining about how it is May and we are still wearing fleece jackets and heating the house. According to the thermometer on the side of our house, it was 87.6 degrees (F) here. Or, as Hannah put it as she begged for something cold to eat (read: a popsicle), "as hot as the surface of the sun".
Pedant that I am, I took this as an opportunity to talk about how hot the surface of the sun really is (that'll teach her to exaggerate!). I nearly went and looked up exact approximations in the encyclopedia, but, well, it was too hot out and a popsicle was sounding mighty fine.
This did remind me of an episode from back when I was a TA in a Physics For People Who Hate Math But Want To Be Able To Tell Their Friends They Are Studying Physics class. The instructor was talking, in very general terms, about how hot the surface of the sun is and the irritating, wannabe-know-it-all in the front row, furiously scribbling notes--you know the one--raised her hand and asked: "Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?". The instructor, bless his long-suffering heart, gritted his teeth and told her it didn't matter, really, we are talking about THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF DEGREES HERE! I only wish he had let me field that question, because I would have thrown down my piece of chalk for dramatic effect.
1 comment:
yeah, it was close to 100 here...here being beautiful valencia, california. where i live! for now at least. anyway, yeah, it was hot as hades (as one of my hyper-christian friends used to say, before she broke up with her canadian boyfriend named spunky and moved to mongolia to convert all the heathens). not that i had to suffer through much -- as of last friday, i have a job at (in?) coc's assessment center. meaning i type student IDs into an archaic computer system, after which said students sigh and sit and take a two-hour test to determine which math and english classes they should take. then i record the results. fascinating! in conclusion i was inside all day.
whit
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