Exams this year were not great...
In pretty much all of the papers there was one question I could do fine, and then it was a matter of looking to see how many easy marks I could get for the others...

So on the Stars and Galaxies short option (I'm studying physics), one of them was "draw a diagram of the milky way with lengths indicated" (it went on to lots more technical stuff.

Now I'm terrible at remembering measurements, however I'm good at remembering lyrics.
"Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars,
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side
It bulges in the middle, fifteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide"

Will hopefully stop this year from dragging my mark down too much :D
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Fri 1 Jul 2011, 0:01, 5 replies)

well...
Remember that you're standing on a planet that evolving
and revolving at 900 miles an hour
orbiting at 90 miles a second, so it's reckoned
the sun that is the source of all our power...

after that I run out of steam, it has answered at least one question for us in a pub quiz though, so presumably worthwhile.
(442, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:44, closed)

The sun...
...and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
are moving at a milion miles a day,
in an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
of a galaxy they call the milky way.

(I think)
( Fireflier La la la la, not listening on, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 11:46, closed)

You'd better hope and pray
that there's intelligent life out there
because there bugger all
down here on Earth. or something like that (See below for correct version)

As a student teacher I noticed that there is a worksheet in the 21st Century Science curriculum that has a series of diagrams (you are meant to cut'n'stick them in your books - Who says the exams are dumbing down?) These diagrams map exactly onto the lyrics of that song. So much so that I played them the full youtube vid of the song (complete with the birth scene) in that lesson. Got told off for it but it was an all-boys school so it wasn't too bad.
(karnuvap, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 14:43, closed)

The numbers in the song are correct aside from one of the figures.
Can't remember which one though.
A couple of the other bits aren't quite right, but are near enough.
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Fri 1 Jul 2011, 18:50, closed)

The full thing (from memory)
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs Brown
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel like you've had quite enough...

Yust remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving,
Revolving at 900 miles an hour
That's orbiting at 90 miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.

The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
On an outer spiral arm (can't remember the last part of this line)
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our Galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars,
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, fifteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light years wide.

We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point,
We go round every three hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whizz.
As fast as it can go, the speed of light you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.

So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
Cos there's bugger all down here on Earth.

(spoken)
So can we have your liver then?

Yeh, alright.
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Fri 1 Jul 2011, 18:49, closed)