Tuesday 21 July 2015

Navigating by the Stars to the Edge of the World



Swen the Swede was a navigator, a man of the sea and a trader back in long distant past.  He certainly knew his sky and it was said that on a clear night he could point to the horizon and tell you where every city in the world was from Swansea in Wales to Kychin in the exotic lands of China or Reckilainliania in Iceland.

However navigation was a fickle game and when the sky was cloudy it was instinct, the currents and the prevailing winds that sea farer's relied on to keep then heading in the right direction. These were the days when it was thought the world was flat and to sail too close to the edge would end in disaster and you would fall over the edge into a great oblivion.

This idea seemed foolhardy to Swen the Swede, he had travelled many thousands of miles to many lands trading many many things from fine silks to precious metals and axe heads made of bronze. He knew that a flat Earth was just not a realistic possibility it had to be some other shape that involved curves possibly even a sphere. These were thoughts he kept to himself it was not a good idea to talk of such things because the church were not keen, and had a habit of making you change your mind. They did not use reasoned argument either but a large device full of sharp pointy bits and chains, church folk back then were somewhat scary which is why they had larger congregations that in today’s modern more enlightened church. 

Ah yes I may be getting a bit distracted sorry about that

So Swen decided once and for all to head towards the edge in a perfectly straight line using his own invention. A device very similar to a modern sextant, but it was said to have a clever mechanic device added to it that could devise a fixed passion in time and space. A device which to this day has never been recreated. By accident you see Swen had invented the very first and possibly the last Quantum Mechanical Sextant, so if Earth was even remotely flat then Swen knew he would find the edge.

Being Vikings Swen and his Crew were frightened of nothing not even the edge of the world, so it was testament to their endeavour that three weeks after setting sail and in the black of a moonless night as Swen plotted his voyage that the sound of a wild roar could be heard in the distance. And as morning approached the ship found itself being dragged by a huge current towards the abyss of the end of the world where the sea vanished into nowhere. As the crew waited for what they thought would be their own end they were astonished to find that it sailed along the edge shaking and rattling against the huge force of the current. They did not know why but they hung on desperately to the ship as it shook.  Then the Sextant that Swen the Swede had invented toppled over the edge and into the great abyss never to be seen again. As it did so the edge of the sea rapidly vanished into the distance and the ship and the crew found themselves drifting in a flat calm sea.


They returned home and told the world of science and the church of what had happened but no one believed them and although Swen tried to remake his Quantum Mechanical Sextant he never succeeded and so was never able to find the edge of the world again. You see the world is round in our universe but is flat in the alternative Quantum universe and only a Quantum Mechanical Sextant can take you to the edge.  It was the paradox of different dimensions meeting that meant the ship could not fall over the edge but the Quantum Mechanical Sextant could and once there the link between the two worlds vanished.        

7 comments:

  1. Ha! Brilliant story, Rob. Loved it. Thanks for sharing!
    Guilie @ Quiet Laughter

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    1. Many thanks for reading and saying it was OK.

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  2. But...but I thought that the world was flat and place on the back of a giant turtle, who in turn was stacked on the back of an even larger turtle, who was then stacked on the back...well you get the point. Maybe I should stop living my life according to Hindu Mythology.

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    1. I think you have been listening to Turtle Soup-astion . . . . . . . HAHAH HAh ah ahahahha ha ha ah ahha ha ha ha ha ha ha

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  3. Replies
    1. Ah its Quantum Algebra. I think the answer is


      ______
      FL * AT

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    2. I had neVer heard of
      Quan
      t
      u
      r
      n
      Algebra before. FL * AT makes sense as Florida is very flat, maybe the flattest state of all in the USofA.

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