Showed my students just how hard I could make the math in my class

EDIT: hiding some more info since I have accidentally spoiled something for those reading the Project Hail Mary book. Apparently editing it now makes it not hidden on my end, SPOILERS AHEAD for Project Hail Mary I teach HS astronomy and am the only teacher in my district that actually has a degree in astronomy. We keep the math as light as possible and mainly just cover concepts of astronomy. I always have math equations in the notes and an extra credit math question on tests, but that’s pretty much it. The other day I saw Project Hail Mary and recognized a moment where general relativity was being used >! for the trip home. I decided to calculate how fast the ship would need to go for this to be possible <! and have it on the board for my students to see. They’re shocked when I tell them this is the simplified version that isn’t accounting for acceleration. For those that have seen the movie and are curious, >! the ship would need to be going 0.94c to get home in 4 years according to the time dilation equation. However this doesn’t account for acceleration so it’s an oversimplification. <! submitted by /u/AstroNerd92 [link] [comments]