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Ed. note: Andy Sundberg must be the only former US presidential candidate to celebrate his birthday by creating an Excel program we can all use to see just how long and valuable our time on Earth has been, since the day we were born. Happy number 69, Andy! And thank you for letting GenevaLunch share this delightful missive, sent to friends. The Excel file at the end is Andy’s, a game happily shared.

An additional bonus is that we now know that Andy, who is best known to many as the founder of American Citizens Abroad, was born on a truly special day, for on 6 January, over the centuries, the following have happened (credit goes to onthisday.com): the South Sea bubble was discussed, George Washington was married, Samuel Morse demonstrated the telegraph for the first time, the first commercial airplane flight took place, South Vietnam and the US launched a major offensive, known as Operation “Deckhouse V”, in the Mekong River delta, Britain recognized the Communist government of China – and the comic strip Peanuts debuted.

By Andy Sundberg, born 6 January 1941 in Hoboken, New Jersey

69 and All’s Well

An intergallactic report card

Birthdays are those special occasions when we can generously and gratuitously grant ourselves a brief indulgence to step back for a moment to reflect on the meaning of all this, and to contemplate what, if anything, we might have accomplished so far.

Obviously, we are free to choose any parameters we want and make any kind of calculations we think might enhance the significance of any bold claims we might be tempted to make.

After quickly having to admit the embarrassing lack of anything of any great moment to boast about, my search for bragging rights wandered off in the direction of how many different kinds of frequent flyer credits I might have accumulated to date, as the bits and pieces of “me”, in carne this time, were carried along, gratis, as a passenger within our inter-galactic space-time continuum.

So, for what it is worth, here are my accomplishments as of 3pm (Hackensack, NJ time) on the 6th of January, 2010.

On My Watch: Data from my birth certificate suggests that I have now been breathing continually for a full 69 years, which translates to roughly 604,830 hours (throwing in the leap year bonuses), which also comes to about 36.3 million minutes, or 2.17 billion seconds. Now that’s quite a few heartbeats!

Spinning Around the Earth: At the latitude where I have spent most of my life, a spot on the surface of the Earth moves tangentially at a rate of 1,073 kilometers per hour as the Earth spins. So this means that I have now spun through 649 million kilometers around the Earth’s axis since I was born.

Orbiting Around the Sun: As a “year” is the word we have assigned to define one complete circular tour our Earth makes around the Sun, I have now completed 69 of these full solar orbits as a free passenger on Spaceship Earth.

Accumulating Solar Orbit Frequent Flyer Credits: As Spaceship Earth circles around the Sun at a speed of 107,100 kilometers per hour, I have now clocked up 64.78 billion kilometres in solar orbit.

But that’s not all:

Cruising Toward Hercules: Our solar system, carrying Spaceship Earth along as a free passenger, moves within our Constellation, which we call “The Milky Way”, in the direction of the stars and planets comprising the Constellation Hercules at a rate of 72,360 km/hr. So I have now traveled 43.76 billion kilometers from whatever we want to call the starting point in space where I was born onward in this Herculean pilgrimage.

But wait, there’s still more:

Mega-Cruising Toward Leo: Our entire Milky Way Constellation moves through space toward the Constellation Leo at a rate of 2.16 million kilometers per hour. So I have now travelled 1.30 trillion kilometers from wherever we were when I was born in an intergalactic safari pursuing this elusive lion.

After all of this space travel, I still feel remarkably refreshed, thanks to whomever it was who decided to let me travel first class this time around. My only frustration is that I still haven’t figured out how to cash in all of these myriad frequent flyer credits, and the library of new travel brochures is awesomely intimidating.

A Few More Facts about Our Little Space Ship

Planet Earth is the third in distance from the Sun and the fifth largest in diameter. The mean distance of the Earth from the Sun is 149,503,000 km (92,897,000 mi). It is the only planet so far known to support life, although some of the other planets have atmospheres and probably contain water.

The Earth is not a perfect sphere but is slightly oblate, or flattened at the poles. The diameter of the Earth, as measured around the North and South Poles, is about 42 km (26 mi) less than the diameter of the Earth measured around the equator.

The Earth in Motion

The Earth and its satellite, the Moon, move together in an elliptical orbit about the Sun. The eccentricity of the orbit is slight, so that the orbit is virtually a circle. The approximate length of the Earth’s orbit is 938,900,000 km (583,400,000 mi), and the Earth travels along it at a velocity of about 107,100 km/h (about 66,000 mph).

In common with the entire solar system, the Earth is moving through space at the rate of approximately 20.1 km/sec or 72,360 km/h (approximately 12.5 mi/sec or 45,000 mph) toward the Constellation of Hercules.

The Milky Way galaxy as a whole, however, is moving toward the Constellation Leo at about 600 km/sec or 2,160,000 km/sec (about 375 mi/sec or 1,350,000 mph).

The Earth rotates on its axis once every 23 hr 56 min 4.1 sec (based on the solar year). A point on the equator therefore rotates at a rate of a little more than 1600 km/h (about 1000 mph), and a point on the Earth at the latitude of Portland, Oregon (45° north), rotates at about 1,073 km/h (about 667 mph).

The Earth’s Vital Statistics

Equatorial circumference – 40, 076.5 km (24, 902.4 miles)
Polar circumference – 40,008.6 km (24,860.2 miles)
Equatorial diameter – 12,756.34 km (7,926.42 miles)
Polar diameter – 12,713.54 km (7,899.83 miles)
Total surface area – 510,100,000 sq. km (196,950,000 sq. miles)
Volume – 1,083,230,000,000 cubic km (259,880,00,00 cubic miles)
Average density – 5.52 (water = 1)
Mass – 5.98×10^21 metric tons
Average temperature – 14C (57F)
Highest temperature – 58C (136F)

So Now You Know!!

And Now You Can Calculate Your Own Travel Results Too

If you want to calculate your own travel results so far, you can use the Birthday Calculator. Don’t touch anything except the number in the blue box at the top. Put in the number of years you have accomplished so far and the rest will calculate automatically.

Anyway, all the best and I hope you will enjoy the rest of this very welcome New Year 2010.

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