How long to travel one light year?

[geckzilla]

I suppose I am not a real geek. I've always had to visualize my problems in some way with a drawing or by writing out the calculation. Doing it in my head just ensures I will end up with the wrong answer.

[Ann]

I'm so lazy, I just ask Wolfram Alpha to calculate any of these things for me. Anything from what time it will be in 8 hours from now in Greece to these kind of questions.

Don't you ever get an urge to know how many furlongs are in a light year, or how many license plates are possible in your state, when you're driving about and don't have a network connection? Then you're not a REAL geek! (I find myself running these kinds of calculations in my head when I'm out on a mountain somewhere, or otherwise out-of-touch and perhaps a bit bored. Just a couple of days ago, driving to Denver- 3 hours- I mentally worked out the size of cube it would take to store every human on Earth. These kinds of exercises keep the little gray cells in tune, and remind you of- or force you to rediscover- many nearly forgotten numerical tricks and shortcuts.)

I admire people like you, Chris, and people like Art (I'm sure he can do math, too) and people like my good friend's middle son. When the boy was six years old, he asked his mother how many corners an object could have. She asked him to think about it himself, and very soon the boy announced; "Oh, that will be a circle."

Some people just enjoy math. Go figure.

(But I do admire them.)

Ann

[geckzilla]

I definitely enjoy math, I just fail hard at doing it in my head. I blame not having an every day purpose for it. Then again, I never wondered what size cube I would need to hold Earth's human population within it... I have considered how to construct a dome large enough to contain a few of the ones I dislike more, though.

[Chris Peterson]

I admire people like you, Chris, and people like Art (I'm sure he can do math, too) and people like my good friend's middle son.

Thanks... I'll add you to my 5% list. (I think the other 95% of people who know me just think I'm bonkers.)

[Beyond]

My problem is that i never learned those shortcuts and tricks in the first place, so i couldn't remember them if i tried I'm more like Ann. When i left school, i left most of the math there, for someone else to put up with.