Friday, February 22, 2008

seemed easy enough

Rockin' mom CamiKaos (also laid up for the week with a violent virus) gently tagged me for a book meme that goes like this:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people & post a comment on your taggers blog so they can go see.

I figured I could handle this in my weakened Mr. Burns state as I have a couple of books within reach here. But upon slogging my feeble body to the coffee table and grasping Kate Spade's Occasions, FAH-rick, it only has 111 pages. Sigh.

Take 2: Real Simple Solutions. Page 123? A picture. Grrr.

Trying again: Must get up and stumble to bookcase. The Physics of Superheroes. Victory!

Fifth sentence - "In this way all energy on Earth is solar energy at its source, just as all the atoms on Earth, from the ATP molecules throughout the Flash's body to the ring in which he stores his costume, were created in a solar crucible (though obviously not that of our own sun)."

And then (my energy is already flagging) - "Ultimately, all of life is possible because the mass of a helium nucleus (containing two protons and two neutrons) is slightly less than that of two deuterium nuclei (a deuterium nucleu contains one proton and one neutron) combined in the center of a star."

Seriously?? - "And by slightly less I mean that the mass of a helium nucleus is 99.3 percent of two deuterium nuclei."

Gasp - "This small mass difference leads to a large outpouring of energy, since from E=mc2 the change in mass is multiplied by the speed of light squared."

Good Lord, I'm lying down again. (Really, this is a pretty cool book overall but today, tedious).

I'm too exhausted to tag. Please play if you'd like and leave a comment...