Most people assumed it was because I was wicked smaht.
It’s because I had no friends and hated life and used books as escapism. And just learned a ton of trivia along the way.
I like to joke that my knowledge base is vast as an ocean, but deep as a puddle, and if you aren’t careful you’ll fall into a sinkhole like astronomy, geology, or lord of the rings lore.
i like the mental image of a huge body of water where most places are only a few inches below the surface but youll randomly find little lava tubes that go unexpectedly deep (evidence of temporary hyperfocus), several deep valleys (more enduring fixations), and a couple mariana trenches (special interests). reminds me of the train on the water in spirited away.
There are sections of space called “voids” where there’s almost nothing. Like even LESS nothing than usual.
The largest one we know of is called the Böotes (super)Void. In 200,000,000 light-years, there are around 60 galaxies.
You could duplicate our galaxy around 2,300 times and still not reach from edge to edge.
If we were in the center of the void, we wouldn’t have discovered other galaxies even exist until telescopes got sophisticated, large, and sensitive enough to see the faint and distant galaxies that were closest. Sometime in the late 1960s/early 70s, most likely.
That’s a hella big Böotes; universe has serious cake
But actually on a real note do you think humans would have even invented telescopes that good by then if we were in the center void like that? How can you tell if a telescope is getting better if you don’t have any stars to compare to, maybe just seeking out sharper images of planets we would have stumbled into it eventually? Also that would mean that the planets would be really incredibly noticable in the night sky
Astronomy history is fascinating to me. We used to think that other galaxies were just nebula in the milky way.
We would still have all the stars from our own galaxy to study, but I think that given how much we have improved telescopes with the intent on studying CLOSE stars, those improvements would have led to the discovery of galaxies 100 million LY+ away.
Fun fact: we don’t know what’s on the other side of the galactic disc from us. As we look toward Sag A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, there’s too much dust and non-luminous matter in the way, and we can’t really see what’s past a certain point. There’s also something pulling all the galaxies around us (and us) toward it, in that big patch of what we can’t see. It’s called the Great Attractor. We know it’s pulling on us because of red/blue shift of surrounding galaxies, but we don’t actually know what it is that’s pulling. It COULD be a large cluster of galaxies whose gravity is just pulling us all together, but it might also be some cosmic eldritch horror that’s literally consuming the universe. That last one is slightly less likely though…
a black hole’s radius grows linear with its mass. but its volume grows with the third power of its radius. so, the more massive a black hole gets, the less dense it gets.
I can relate to this so hard. I’ve no idea how many books I read as a kid, but often several per week. I still love reading, obviously, it’s just that I don’t dedicate as much time to do it anymore. Been trying to pick the habit back up though.
One of the quirks I developed as a result of my reading habits, is that I’d use very dated terms when speaking my native tongue. I have so many early-1900s insults in my head, it’s almost unfortunate I never get to use them.
Same, though I also think that the people testing me did not have the requisite reading comp to make a test…
I sure as hell did not get Ender’s Game when I first read it, even though I passed the AR test
Oh I hated the accelerated reading tests. To prove a point in 5th grade, about how it’s not actually making me want to read because of rewards, since I could read 20 kindergarten level books and get more points than the 2 500+ page books I was reading, and it would take less time.
Also pro tip for anyone who considers it, Battlefield Earth is NOT child appropriate. Or appropriate for anyone to read, honestly. Just skip anything by Hubbard…
I was always good at taking tests and a rather fast reader, so I didn’t care at that point.
What sucked for me was a few years later when I had to write summaries of the “book I read that month” because I had to be writing about the same book for the whole month when I would finish the book like 5 days in, so I was remembering what happened like 6 books ago by the end of the month.
Also unfortunately I then, many years later, learned and realized that the books I was reading were written by a pedophile. one of the series ended with them making a pedo god, and the other one had far too many details and seperate instances of children sexually exploring for a 40+ year old man to be writing about… Now I’m terrified of recommending shit I read or watched as a child because what if I am just not remembering some horrific thing that happens in it.
Same for me was told I was super smart but if it ain’t history, evolutionary biology, geography, cartography, or mechanical technology it’s basically all just a puddle. Knowing how to read maps good and which way is north instinctually is fucken useless nine times out of ten nowadays.
I was there by 5th grade and read grade 5 in first grade. I never read a ton, but I gave cred to my grandma, who would read me “the pokey little puppy” when I was 2 and 3 and 4 years old like every night I was there (a lot).
I had the book memorized and was able to follow along to all the words without knowing how to actually read or anything about sounds. Apparently that was a big leg up in learning to read.
I had a collegiate reading level in 3rd grade.
Most people assumed it was because I was wicked smaht.
It’s because I had no friends and hated life and used books as escapism. And just learned a ton of trivia along the way.
I like to joke that my knowledge base is vast as an ocean, but deep as a puddle, and if you aren’t careful you’ll fall into a sinkhole like astronomy, geology, or lord of the rings lore.
i like the mental image of a huge body of water where most places are only a few inches below the surface but youll randomly find little lava tubes that go unexpectedly deep (evidence of temporary hyperfocus), several deep valleys (more enduring fixations), and a couple mariana trenches (special interests). reminds me of the train on the water in spirited away.
also this was me…
If you feel like it, tell me the first random astronomy thing that comes to your mind 👀
Space is big like really big. It would take well over an hour to walk from here to the moon and the moon is really close
Big if true
More than two hours, I’d say
Space is REALLY BIG and SUPER EMPTY
There are sections of space called “voids” where there’s almost nothing. Like even LESS nothing than usual.
The largest one we know of is called the Böotes (super)Void. In 200,000,000 light-years, there are around 60 galaxies.
You could duplicate our galaxy around 2,300 times and still not reach from edge to edge.
If we were in the center of the void, we wouldn’t have discovered other galaxies even exist until telescopes got sophisticated, large, and sensitive enough to see the faint and distant galaxies that were closest. Sometime in the late 1960s/early 70s, most likely.
That’s a hella big Böotes; universe has serious cake
But actually on a real note do you think humans would have even invented telescopes that good by then if we were in the center void like that? How can you tell if a telescope is getting better if you don’t have any stars to compare to, maybe just seeking out sharper images of planets we would have stumbled into it eventually? Also that would mean that the planets would be really incredibly noticable in the night sky
Astronomy history is fascinating to me. We used to think that other galaxies were just nebula in the milky way.
We would still have all the stars from our own galaxy to study, but I think that given how much we have improved telescopes with the intent on studying CLOSE stars, those improvements would have led to the discovery of galaxies 100 million LY+ away.
Fun fact: we don’t know what’s on the other side of the galactic disc from us. As we look toward Sag A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, there’s too much dust and non-luminous matter in the way, and we can’t really see what’s past a certain point. There’s also something pulling all the galaxies around us (and us) toward it, in that big patch of what we can’t see. It’s called the Great Attractor. We know it’s pulling on us because of red/blue shift of surrounding galaxies, but we don’t actually know what it is that’s pulling. It COULD be a large cluster of galaxies whose gravity is just pulling us all together, but it might also be some cosmic eldritch horror that’s literally consuming the universe. That last one is slightly less likely though…
a black hole’s radius grows linear with its mass. but its volume grows with the third power of its radius. so, the more massive a black hole gets, the less dense it gets.
The actual black hole doesn’t get any less dense though. The event horizon just starts encompassing a larger amount of space.
I can relate to this so hard. I’ve no idea how many books I read as a kid, but often several per week. I still love reading, obviously, it’s just that I don’t dedicate as much time to do it anymore. Been trying to pick the habit back up though.
One of the quirks I developed as a result of my reading habits, is that I’d use very dated terms when speaking my native tongue. I have so many early-1900s insults in my head, it’s almost unfortunate I never get to use them.
Everybody gangsta until you drop a grammatically correct “heretofore”.
English isn’t my native tongue, and that’s not an insult, but that shouldn’t be very hard. The word is self-explanatory.
Same, though I also think that the people testing me did not have the requisite reading comp to make a test… I sure as hell did not get Ender’s Game when I first read it, even though I passed the AR test
Oh I hated the accelerated reading tests. To prove a point in 5th grade, about how it’s not actually making me want to read because of rewards, since I could read 20 kindergarten level books and get more points than the 2 500+ page books I was reading, and it would take less time.
Also pro tip for anyone who considers it, Battlefield Earth is NOT child appropriate. Or appropriate for anyone to read, honestly. Just skip anything by Hubbard…
I was always good at taking tests and a rather fast reader, so I didn’t care at that point. What sucked for me was a few years later when I had to write summaries of the “book I read that month” because I had to be writing about the same book for the whole month when I would finish the book like 5 days in, so I was remembering what happened like 6 books ago by the end of the month.
Also unfortunately I then, many years later, learned and realized that the books I was reading were written by a pedophile. one of the series ended with them making a pedo god, and the other one had far too many details and seperate instances of children sexually exploring for a 40+ year old man to be writing about… Now I’m terrified of recommending shit I read or watched as a child because what if I am just not remembering some horrific thing that happens in it.
Same for me was told I was super smart but if it ain’t history, evolutionary biology, geography, cartography, or mechanical technology it’s basically all just a puddle. Knowing how to read maps good and which way is north instinctually is fucken useless nine times out of ten nowadays.
I was there by 5th grade and read grade 5 in first grade. I never read a ton, but I gave cred to my grandma, who would read me “the pokey little puppy” when I was 2 and 3 and 4 years old like every night I was there (a lot).
I had the book memorized and was able to follow along to all the words without knowing how to actually read or anything about sounds. Apparently that was a big leg up in learning to read.
Having someone read to you when you’re little often is a huge leg up, whether or not you even try to follow along with the words yourself