Time and space – memories.

I watched the TV programme presented by Professor Brian Cox in relation to Space/Time.  He pointed out that the Earth in its orbit around the Sun travels at appromately 66,000 miles per hour.  At the same time the Earth is spinning on its axis  at 1,000 miles per hour slowing gradually towards the Poles.  Any sense of motion yet?

Our Solar System takes 225 million years to complete an orbit of our Galaxy.  So it takes the Earth being held by the Suns gravity the same period of time to complete the orbit.  Mathematicians have worked it out that the Sun is travelling through space at an astonishing speed of 483 thousand miles per hour.  So we have three speeds to get our head around.

1. Earth/Sun orbit 66,000 miles per hour.

2. Earths spinning on its axis approximately 1,000 miles per hour.

3. Our Solar System orbit of our Galaxy 225 million years at speed of 483,000 miles per hour.  Confused yet.

So if we think of an event which happened two hours ago across the road we think we are still in the same place where it happened.  We are in one sense but in another we are not.  Still with me?  Since the event happened two hours ago  the Earth in its orbit around the Galaxy has travelled 483,000 x 2 equalling  960,000 miles.  So the memory happened almost 1 million miles away in the past.  Got your head around that?  Yet in another sense you are still sitting fifty yards away from where it actually happened.  Rather confusing.  So when I was eight years old and was standing underneath the wooden bridges which carried the railway across the New Brancepeth road terrified by the screaming of the timbers carrying the weight of the train and the thought of the bridge collapsing on my head that place minus the bridges is still there.  However the earth plus the bridge (still with me?) was the number of hours in seventy years times 483,000 miles  back in its orbit around the Galaxy so that particular event happened billions of miles away in space.

So memories are just not about time but also as Brian Con puts it they are also about Space   The earth stays on its annual orbit around the Sun but the Sun due to gravity is dragging the Earth along with it through its Galactic orbit so where we are now in Space where no one has been before.

Life is complcated.

 

Number 13

I have been on Facebook and reading an entry about Fir Park. One post asked why there was no number 13. Shortly after the Second World War the Government announced a building programme to build millions of Council houses now referred to as Social Housing. Brandon and the whole of the Deerness Valley Was in the area of the Brandon and Byshottles Urban District Council as the local Council was then known. The Council employed an Architect at that time named Fred Hedley. Mr Hedley designed most of the Council houses built in the area since the 2nd World War. The first house to miss the number was 13 Victoria Court. Mr and Mrs Gillon with Gordon, Dennis, Owen and Malcolm moved into number 12 and next door was Mr and Mrs Smaith and the twins Arthur and Albert and Ken at number 14. This omission was a source of local gossip and I remember the explanation for the omission was that Fred Hedley as he was referred to disliked number 13 hence the omission. Victoria Court was the first phase completed followed by Whitehouse Court then Bracken Court. After completion part of the wood was ripped out and the Oakridge Road area was then developed. Oakridge Road was beautiful when first built, open and a lot of grass. Now in this modern world the beauty of the area is spoiled by numerous parked vehicles, but that applies to most places now. Incidentally Fred Hedley won a National Award for the design of and old persons complex on the left of Newhouse Road in Esh Winning before Newhouse St. Mary’s Church. My family were amongst the first sixteen families to move into the new estate in January 1947. The last four houses and the first eight houses in Whitehouse Court and the last four houses in Victoria Court were the first houses lived in. We moved into 38 Victoria Court. Brian Mc.