If you have ever seen the Monty Python film "The Meaning of Life", you should be familiar with the "Galaxy Song". The fantastic Eric Idle gives you a nice science lesson. I know for a fact I used some of that info in classes, only now do I find out that Idles lyrics arent exactly 100 accurate.
But fear not children of today- with help of The song has been updated corrected and fact checked!
In the song Eric sings that the Earth is 'revolving at nine hundred miles an hour'. Brian has corrected that to 1,038 miles an hour. All these years we were off by a whole lot of mph's!
Idle's other inaccuracies are that the Sun is 'the source of all power'. Three sources are actually not from the sun.
Idle was wrong when he stated t that we are 'thirty thousand light years from galactic central point'. It is really 25,000 light years. He also got the size of the galaxy wrong in the song. Damn him!
And hey what do ya know.. Idle is a blogger! In his blog, Eric Idle explained the changes:
'There's just one thing that is problematic,' he said, after listening to the track. And remember, this was the keyboard player from D:Ream. Was he going to dislike the way I sang it? The backing? What?
'It's the number of stars in the Universe. You say 'Two thousand billion suns.' It doesn't seem right to me. It seems way under, I mean there are fifty billion galaxies and if each has a hundred million stars.'
He picked up a pencil from the control desk and started to work on some figures. Andre and I exchanged an amazed look. Were we really seeing this? After a moment or two he said 'that's more like a billion trillion suns.'
'Oh, that's much better' I said, 'I like that.'
'And the width of the Universe, you say 'fifteen billion light years,' but some people argue that while we are observing the light from it, it has been expanding during the time it took that light to reach us, and so by now in real time' – he reached for the pencil again – 'it's more like ninety billion light years.'
Here is the original. Unfortunately I have yet to find the updated and corrected version. Bet its just as stellar. This movie is outstanding if you have not seen "The Meaning of Life" its time- quick! You'll soon be wishing good morning to the fish. Oh and they better not touch "Every Sperm Is Sacred", that's song needs no corrections!