We
often stumble across things we never knew before. Things which,
for whatever reason, we never needed to consider.
For
example, how familiar are you with foreign currency? Chances are
good if you live in a place with a lot of border crossings nearby,
you may see a fair amount of monies from another country.
Niagara
Falls?
Canadian
currency in the American city, and American currency in the Canadian
city. Happens all the time. Plenty of Canadian quarters in upstate
New York, a bit fewer but still around in Massachusetts, and probably
not as frequently found in Tennessee or Kentucky.
Are
you familiar with tipping? I’d be willing to bet that servers
in airports, especially those specializing in international travel,
see a lot of different currency (and probably can give you great
advice on the best banks to use for deposits and exchanges).
And
yet, for most of us, we come across Canadian coins enough that
we don’t seem surprised, even though we aren’t sure what to do
with them since technically there aren’t a lot of ways to use
them in basic transactions.
(Take
that idea, shift it a bit, and apply as appropriate to the loonies
and toonies around your home.)
What
planet is closest to Earth?
Seems
like a great question, and yet a simple one, doesn’t it?
We
hear about Mars, since it’s the planet everyone seems focused
on visiting. Would be natural to think it’s the closest.
But
we also know the order extending from the Sun—or can look it up
easily enough—as Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and on.
If Venus and Earth are making smaller orbits, Venus would be a
good answer to this question as well.
Not
just a good answer, truth be told. In most cases, you will find
Venus is the answer. Yup. Most cases. There are arguments made
that it’s—nope, not Mars—that it’s Mercury.
Mercury?
Venus on one side in a line and Mars on the other. Mercury? Has
to be a trick, right?
The
answer comes about by framing the question to involve the passage
of time and average the distance. At a specific moment, say if
all the planets were lined up in order extending from the Sun,
Venus is closer to Earth than any other planet. But over an extended
and set period, adjusting and calculating based on distance over
time and where planets are in their individual orbits, Mercury
can have an average distance to Earth that places it closer than
any other planet. (Think of it this way: Which planet is closer
to Earth if Mercury’s orbit has it on the same side of the Sun
as Earth, but the orbit of Venus has it positioned on the other
side of the Sun?)
So,
not a trick. Just a point of view. The conditions of the experiment,
so to speak.
Closest
planet to Earth? Venus would be your response. Maybe you’d say
Mars, and no one would laugh. But if you offered Mercury, there
is a method to approach defending the answer, but the initial
response will definitely depend on the audience.
More
to the material involved in this essay, the story is what we don’t
consider. Even when looking for an answer, in most cases Mercury
would never come to mind.
Often,
we consider areas of focus or interest. People that know facts
and figures about sports while others don’t care. The reasons
why one person may occupationally know about plumbing while another
knows electrical and another about accounting. But when you look
beyond specializations, there are moments we simply don’t think
about. Even when we are aware of the material, we don’t apply
it. There’s a disconnect. An off switch that never gets flicked
even as we stare directly toward it.
While
most of our lives will never be changed by an answer that varies
between Venus and Mercury, there’s always a chance we may someday
need a way to handle some foreign currency. So, consider that.