astralavista

Since it's summer and the weekend is coming up, here's a bit of brain candy for all of you Astralavista readers with too much time on your hands. The riddle comes courtesy of Radio Open Source, a great radio show put together by Boston's inimitable Christopher Lydon and available around the world via podcast. And yes, it apparently has a solution. Enjoy!

"A rope over the top of a fence has the same length on each side and weighs one-third of a pound per foot. On one end of the rope hangs a monkey holding a banana, and on the other end a weight equal to the weight of the monkey. The banana weighs 2 ounces per inch. The length of the rope in feet is the same as the age of the monkey, and the weight of the monkey in ounces is as much as the age of the monkey's mother. The combined ages of the monkey and its mother is 30 years. One-half the weight of the monkey plus the weight of the banana is one-fourth the sum of the weights of the rope and the weight. The monkey's mother is one-half as old as the monkey will be when it is three times as old as its mother was when she was one-half as old as the monkey will be when it is as old as its mother will be when she is four times as old as the monkey was when it was twice as old as its mother was when she was one-third as old as the monkey was when it was as old as its mother was when she was three times as old as the monkey was when it was one-fourth as old as its is now. How long is the banana?"

Image: deanhatescoffee.home.comcast.net

New research published in the Astrophysical Journal shows that the Milky Way is likely much bigger than previously thought. Current estimates put its size at 100,000 light-years across. However, the new measurements show that our galaxy could be double the size.
The new data comes from precise measurements of our cosmic cousin, the spiral galaxy NGC 300, some 6 million light years away. Using an eight-meter telescope in Chile, the scientists made extremely sensitive measurements of faint stars residing on the galaxy's fringes. To their surprise, the faint stars went on and on, and finally tracing the edge of the galaxy at 47,000 light years from the galactic center, twice removed from where they thought it wash. "Our galaxy is much more massive and brighter than NGC 300," said Joss Bland-Hawthorn, astrophysics professor at the Anglo-Australian Observatory and the paper's lead author. "So on this basis, our Galaxy is also probably much larger than we previously thought - perhaps as much as 200,000 light-years across."