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[Phys-l] This Thursday at 3:02:01



Around the beginning of April, the math professors here circulated an e-mail, that I presume came from elsewhere, stating that April 5 at 1:02:03 AM was special because the time and date would be 01:02:03 04-05-06.

I stated that May 4 would be better because we could have 06-05-04 03:02:01, and these would be in the correct order of year-month-day hour-minute-second.

My idea made it to the president who decided we should have some sort of celebration. One of the math professors suggested it looked like a countdown, so maybe the Science Department should detonate something. Not wanting to get in trouble with Homeland Security, I figured it would be better to launch a model rocket.

Of course we're going to do it at 3:02:01 PM rather than AM, but that's okay.

So, if you looking for an excuse to launch a model rocket with one of your classes... here's a fun excuse.

For us, it turns out that Thursday is our last exam day, and the last exam ends at 3:00 PM. I'm giving my Astronomy exam during that exam period. That makes the rocket launch even better. So the astronomy class is going to make cookies and brownies and we're inviting the campus to a "countdown party" to count down the end of the term, to launch a rocket, and make note of the interesting date and time. I'm starting the astronomy exam early so the class will have time to finish and prepare for the invited guests. I hope the students will stay focused during the exam.

If we're going to shout 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 then I guess we have to start this 6 second countdown at 03:01:56, and I guess we will launch on one rather than zero.


Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu