Dad and Nigel went down to the Planetarium today to watch To The Arctic in the IMAX theatre, and played with the exhibits while there. Nigel found a new favorite: a computer simulation of the behavior of icy bodies in the solar system, as affected by the positions of the various large planets. The "goal" is to experiment with the placement of gas giants to either spare Earth from impacts, thus avoiding wide-spread destruction of life on Earth, or add ice (and therefore water) to Earth, giving life more opportunity to develop in the future.
Nigel particularly enjoyed making super-planets, joining Jupiter with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. He got some good practice in using a trackball and button, which should translate well into future computer use. (Yes, I do think computers in the future will still have keyboards and mice, though they may well all have touch-screens, as well.)
No comments:
Post a Comment