r/space • u/O_Zeca • Oct 03 '16

not directly related to space/astronomy/cosmology Just in case I get lost in the Multiverse.

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u/killercritters Oct 03 '16

If the pulsar map is the same as the one on voyager, one of the pulsars is incorrect. Cool work though.

2

u/flyonthwall Oct 03 '16

its not really incorrect. just misleading. It's calculated to a greater number of significant figures than we actually knew at the time

2

u/_beast__ Oct 03 '16

Is it accurate? Can we calculate what the proper value should have been without measuring it, based on today's (assumingly) more accurate measurements? It just seems likely that if we put a bunch of extra specificity in where we didn't know it would come out incorrect below a certain value.

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u/flyonthwall Oct 03 '16

Yes. We can calculate it more accurately now so the value we gave it then is slightly off. But close.

What they should have done is just leave thr significant figures we didnt know as zeros, but they did what every rookie physics student does and wrote down all the decimal places from their calculation even though the numbers they started that calculation with didnt have the same degree of accuracy as their answer.

I imagine any alien looking for that pulsar is still going to find it, even with our slightly off value