Free inside every game The 28-page “Book of Y” reveals the science behind every one of the board game's 261 questions, in fun, easy to understand language. You won't believe the cool things you will learn!
T or F: We have photographs of many other galaxies, but no snapshots that show our whole galaxy
Book of Y explanation: Our telescopes can see many distant galaxies, so we are able photograph them. In order to take a regular photograph of our own galaxy, our camera would need to leave the galaxy, look back, and take the picture. We have never been beyond our solar system, and even our unmanned ships are far from reaching outside our galaxy.
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How long would it take an alien friend who lives ten light years away to tell you a 'knock-knock' joke by radio? a) 15 seconds; b) 15 minutes; c) 50 years; or d) he couldn't tell the joke because there is no laughing allowed beyond Earth
Book of Y explanation: Telling the joke would take approximately 50 years, because it will take ten years for every message to travel between you and your friend. Remember, radio waves travel at the speed of light, and your friend is 10 light years away. Therefore, every message sent will take ten years to cover the distance between you and your friend. It might go something like this:
Your friend: "Knock-knock." …ten years pass
You: "Who's there?" …ten more years pass
Your friend: "Extra." …ten more years pass
You: "Extra who?" …ten more years pass
Your friend: "Extra-terrestrial!" …ten more years pass,
then you finally hear your friend's punch-line.
No-Wrong-Answer Question: If you met an alien that knew everything about the Universe, and you could ask only one question, what would you ask?
Book of Y explanation: No-Wrong-Answer Question…What do you think?
T or F: Imagine that all gravity in the Universe was magically turned off (except the gravity of Earth), and everything stopped moving. Earths' gravity will now begin to pull everything in the Universe slowly toward it
Book of Y explanation: While the force of a planet's gravity decreases the farther away you go from the planet, in theory it never goes away-no matter how far you go! If there were only one source of gravity in the Universe, and no object was moving compared to the other objects, the source of gravity would draw everything else slowly toward it.
T or F: Imagine you're watching the Moon shining through the trees at night. If the trees and the Moon vanished at exactly the same moment, you would see the trees disappear first
Book of Y explanation: You see the trees and the Moon because light reflects from them and enters your eyes. The speed of light is very fast, but it takes a couple of seconds for light to reach from the Moon to your eyes. The trees are very close to you, so when they vanish, they stop reflecting light into your eyes in a split second. But when the Moon vanishes, you'll still see the reflected light it sends for nearly two seconds before you see it disappear. So, for almost two seconds you would see the Moon even though it is already gone!
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