If the moon WERE only 1 pixel...you know...because it's not. :)
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If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
31–40 of 189 posts
Re: If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
But this should not use the subjunctive, because he has indeed drawn an image using the scale of the Moon being one pixel wide. This shows it's possible, and hence the subjunctive is inappropriate.
That's not really correct. Even if we assume that this is no longer a hypothetical/counterfactual case, then the correct grammar is to use the present tense ("This is the moon as one pixel"). But, in this case, it still is counterfactual. This is really short for "If the moon were only [the size of] a single pixel", a statement which we know is not correct. You're probably confusing this with the rule surrounding ver…
Quoting from the Wikipedia page:
Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to
express various states of unreality such as wish,
emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity,
or action that has not yet occurred.
And yes, perhaps using the present tense would be more appropriate. Certainly I would have used something like:
The solar system plotted on a scale where the Moon is one pixel.
It's the interwebs, people will write what they like, and declare that nothing is right, and nothing is wrong, it's all OK. In that case telling someone to use the subjunctive seems doubly inappropriate.
Re: If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
#33As I was scrolling through I started to notice a really nice, subtle star background pattern that wasn't moving. I thought that was a really nice touch.
And then I touched my monitor and, turns out, it was just dust.
There's a metaphor there but I have no idea what it is.
Re: If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
#34If the moon WERE only 1 pixel...you know...because it's not. :)
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Re: If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
#35Thanks for including Pluto (technically not a planet but still one in my mind).
Re: If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
#36Here is another pretty cool solar system scale model:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Solar_System
Some photos here: http://io9.com/5882220/worlds-largest-scale-model-of-the-sol...
Re: If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry you have a shitty computer, or OS, or both.
And the main reason why we have web standards is that it should not matter how "shitty" your device is to access content on the web comfortably.
This web page uses a native OS scroll. Nothing to do with web standards.
Re: If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
shift+scroll appears to scroll me back and forth in my browser history (Using FF).
I've always used alt+scroll for horizontal scrolling. Edit: doesn't seem to work on the linked page
Yep it doesn't. So actually, on chrome, without an autoscroll extension, there is no way to scroll that page (apart from the with the right cursor button, which is way to slow to actually be valid) on a normal desktop pc. Happy new world.
Re: If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
#39Re: If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel
#40I remember Bill Nye doing this in one episode. He had the earth as a golf ball, I think? He was running around a soccer field showing the planets. And he drove miles away to show where Pluto would be.
Edit: this episode! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRIVwGwdxI8#t=250
Edit2: nope, this one (guess he liked this trick lol) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_OWnlS56rE#t=325 Pluto is only 100 meters away, but Alpha Centauri is 700 km away!