Thursday, January 30, 2014

The flakey firmament

I have a friend who is an astrophysicist. He once told me that there are so many stars that no matter which direction you look in, along every conceivable angle  if you can look far enough your view will be blocked by a star. Perhaps he was joking.There are, theoretically, an infinite number of angles. Does this mean there are an infinite number of stars? Is the universe infinite?

This sort of question is usually at the beginning of a headache. I leave the astrophysicists and philosophers to answer these oddities and paradoxes. I set myself a solvable question.

Does the snow that falls past my window in very cold Berlin, over time obscure all lines of sight? Sampling at 10 frames a minute over 20 minutes, I am unhappy to report, it has not yet achieved this perfect whiteout. My field of cold white stars is still incomplete. I hope more snow will fall.

Do see this.

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