Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> 6.0 10^23 Number of atoms in 12 g of Carbon-12.
>>
>> You realize why this number is important, right? :-)
> 
> What, Avagadro's number? (Or however the hell you spell it...)

Yes. You know why anyone cares about Avagadro's number? I.e., what the basic 
thing it's measuring is?

> Wait - you know what a group is, right?

Vaguely. I'd have to look up the definition again to be sure I'm not 
confusing it with a ring or field or something. My higher-level alegbra is 
way old. :-)

>>> 4 10^68 Number of H atoms in a "typical" galaxy.
>>
>>> 4 10^41 Kg  Mass of a "typical" galaxy.
>>
>> 68-23=45 45-3=42. One power of ten missing.
> 
> I fail.

No, it just means that either measurements are very sloppy, that "typical" 
means something different in those sentences, or there's 10x times as much 
mass in a galaxy as their is mass in the H atoms of the galaxy. Which isn't 
completely impossible - see "giant black holes", "dark matter", 
"relativity", etc.

> I'm fairly sure it's rest mass, yes. Basically, number of atoms times 
> mass of an atom.

Yeah. :-)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Insanity is a small city on the western
   border of the State of Mind.

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