1976: The British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

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""It just goes to show how much information people retain from science class. How many light years are we from Pluto?"

Well in response to that: we're 4.28 * 10^12 metres from Pluto, at minimum distance. Light travels at approximately 3* 10^8 m/s in a vacuum, which is what space is for all intents and purposes. So one simply divides the distance by the speed, and comes up with the answer 1.4267 * 10^4 seconds. Which is 14,267 seconds. So we divide that by (60^2 * 24 * 365.25) to get our distance in light years. Which is 4.521 * 10^-4. So if we're going to the nearest light year, we're actually no light years away from Pluto. Shows just how much information people retain from science lessons.
Posted by Comedy James on Sun Apr 02, 2006 at 06:36 AM"


Damn. Beat me to that one, but well done old chap. Can't bear sanctimonious hypocrites.
Posted by Tuizner  in  UK  on  Thu Apr 06, 2006  at  03:13 AM

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i bet that womens name was mary jane lol
Posted by someone  on  Sat Apr 08, 2006  at  12:40 PM

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Lola, i'd love to meet you someday so i can tell you all about complex and imaginary letters... we'd have a blast... or at least i would!
Posted by haha  on  Sat Apr 08, 2006  at  04:52 PM

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hey al did you kow how to spell know & Sean you are so cool havin the spare time to actually pik out a spelling error on the internet. Maybe if you guys had a life there would be no spelling errror.
Posted by Seth Jarome  on  Tue Apr 11, 2006  at  08:20 PM

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Since when did Jupiter and Pluto's gravity have an impact on us? If Pluto passed behind Jupiter, there would be no gravity interaction whatsoever. I think that lady who said she'd floated should have stopped taking whatever she was taking.
Posted by Anonymous  on  Mon Apr 17, 2006  at  06:06 AM

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i am guessing the lady with the floating friends got the joke--so just helped juice up the story by helping to embellish it.
Posted by kc  in  usa  on  Sat May 06, 2006  at  09:06 AM

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mayby they were trying to get some money from the interviews, that doesnt seem so stupid to me, just opportunistic.
Posted by ana  in  london  on  Sat May 13, 2006  at  07:16 AM

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How do we know that this woman was not floating at this exact time? She may have experienced some other kind of floaty phenomenon, occurring at the same time.

Joking. Noone is stupid enough to beleive what i just wrote...or are they?

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Posted by Robert  in  Scotland  on  Fri May 26, 2006  at  05:24 AM

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Lol! I bet that woman felt pretty stupid after she figured out that it was just a joke!I'm gonna tell that one tomorrow and see how many people believe me.Then i'm gonna see how long it takes them to relize that its not true!:b
Posted by A person  in  somewhere on earth  on  Thu Jun 01, 2006  at  08:53 PM

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Cant u guys see!.. The phone calls were all stupid publicity.
Posted by sensible owl  in  tree  on  Sat Jun 17, 2006  at  12:17 PM

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The lack of intellect on this comment board is quite deplorable. The fact that people actually wrote 'Smileys' in their posts is most amusing.

Don't correct spelling errors if you are going to make them yourself; it makes you look like an idiot.

The likelihood of some 'extraterrestrial incident' conveniently occuring at the -exact time- this prank was supposed to happen is about as likely as my sister contracting prostate cancer.

Some people are gullible to the point where they will believe something is happening to them if they are told it is indeed doing so. It's like a self-hypnosis type of thing, based on the power of suggestion. Of course, the woman who claimed to float around the room is, obviously, taking things over the top, and is a presumptuous moron more than likely looking for publicity.

Though there were some shards of intellect on this board, they were dulled considerably by those proud owners of room temperature IQ.
Posted by Tanis  in  Canada  on  Sun Jun 18, 2006  at  11:01 AM

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"Smiley" -> So very, very funny. To those of you who seriously inserted that word right about here.

Seth Jerome - "Maybe if you guys had a life there would be no spelling errror"..As in if they had a life they would learn how to spell? Or implying that if they had a life they wouldn't be picking up mistakes and critising them over the net? I don't know..kind of like what you are doing?

Hypocrit.

kristine - wowe yoo gies arr zo gude .. Probably the most intelligent, indepth comment posted so far. Apart from that calculation one..impressive I might add.

You lot are so entertaining.

(I'm Swiss...don't speak English fluently and I don't bark I draw blood: so pick me up on anything I shall rip you apart.)

I love parodys...
Posted by Manuela  on  Sat Nov 25, 2006  at  06:24 AM

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Oh yes...just to add. Isn't it highly amusing that years on a group of supposed highly evolutionised apes are still argueing over Brit/US intelligence?

I have no idea who Patrick Moore is. I'm about to go educate myself a bit. I've only just done my GCSEs, I assume I'm allowed to have things I don't know in this world? Or is this all common knowledge?

They should have urban segregation based on intelligence.

Another joke...like this whole floating friends episode..kk?
Posted by Manuela  on  Sat Nov 25, 2006  at  06:29 AM

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It makes me so sad to see forums turn from comment on a subject to insults and sniping at fellow members, it always seems to go that way no matter how Hi/Low brow the site is.
Posted by sueper  in  UK  on  Thu Feb 01, 2007  at  03:08 PM

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Anybody stop to think that the woman had caught on herself, and was playing along? Being it was a april fools day joke, it's very likely she wanted some fun too.
Posted by Mike V  on  Mon Mar 26, 2007  at  06:44 PM

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Can anyone speeel on this site?
Posted by z\z\  in  z\z\z\  on  Tue Mar 27, 2007  at  05:58 PM

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Holy cow! That was a funny one! And so was Lola's resonse about the uper and lower case numbers. Rock on to those silly's that give the rest of us good laugh!!!!!LOL!!!
Posted by Michelle  on  Fri Mar 30, 2007  at  10:13 PM

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"The Brits (as I call them) are real nice people but definitely not the brightest bulbs on the string."

I'm guessing that opinion was formulated from watching too much television.
Posted by James  in  UK  on  Sat Mar 31, 2007  at  12:23 AM

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I loved this when I heard it first on NPR. I love it still, and thanks to you I can send it to all my friends and relatives. It is a harmless bit of fun which hurts no one and pleases many.
Thank you for the whole article.
Renee Feldman
Posted by Renee Feldman  in  Chevy Chase, MD  on  Sat Mar 31, 2007  at  07:01 AM

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hey monica do you fell like an idiot cuz i know iwould i would of belived it aswell so dont worry you not the only one p.s are u stupid in real life or just on the radio! ha lol
Posted by Jessica  in  Sydney, Australia  on  Sat Mar 31, 2007  at  10:52 PM

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