this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

41.5 petameters.

Nobody using the metric system says "trillion kilometers"! 🌞

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

He literally told it to give the answer "in km". That's on him, not Bing.

[–] btaf45 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

41.5 petameters.

https://coco1453.wordpress.com/thinking-in-metric-for-astronomy/

Nobody using the metric system says “trillion kilometers”!

Unfortunately way too many people do even though it is not the correct SI unit for the scale, simply because 'kilometer' is the metric distance unit used for Earth distances. I have astronomy distances memorized as metric SI distances and I only care about the km distance so I can convert that to the SI distance. e.g. When I see "trillion kilometers" I convert that in my head to "quadrillion meters" which I then convert to "petameters".

I would rather see the base unit 'meters' than km so I can skip a step. My own preference for astronomy distance units is:

metric SI units > meters > kilometers > non metric units

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[–] peregrinetech 5 points 3 months ago

So close, yet so far...as once Elvis said

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Interstellar travel is possible after all

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Now that's an explanation for Global Warming that I haven't heard before!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

GOP gonna take this and run with it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

It knows the distance from Earth, but that’s not what the question was. It’s 13.6 km from somewhere.

[–] Linkerbaan 3 points 3 months ago

The 4th dimension shortcut

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Who's down for a quick bike ride?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Maybe Bing has access to the Event Horizon's portal tech. It would explain a lot.

[–] Bahnd 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Alpha Centauri is actually 13.6 feet from me, Ive got an old sid meyrs disk somehwere in the box of old tech stuff. Great game, used the same engine as Civ 2, think its on GOG these days.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

From something like this?

If Earth were the size of a sand grain, this distance would be about the width of a hair in contrast to the corresponding 6-mile (10-km) distance to Alpha Centauri in the same scale.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How have scientists not figured out interstellar travel yet??? It's really right in front of us!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Huh. The collision must've happened a lot sooner than we thought.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I wonder if Bing over- or under-estimates the wealth of Bill Gates.

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