Thor’s Hammer Weighs As Much As 300 Billion Elephants

That was the measurement that astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson came to when he began to calculate the weight of the hammer that the Marvel superhero wields. Besides being able to calculate random things like the weight of a hammer and find Superman’s home planet, Neil DeGrasse Tyson also has contributed lots of valuable knowledge and literature to the world of astrophysics.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Photo Courtesy of haydenplanetarium.org

Dr. Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium. He is also an author of many wonderful  books. I just finished reading Death By Black Hole which is the first non-fiction book I have been able to complete. It is a wonderful collection of essays about different phenomena's in the universe. 

I admire Neil DeGrasse because he has many wonderful quotes. One of my favorites is-

“One thing is for certain, the more profoundly baffled you have

been in your life, the more open your mind becomes to new ideas.”

- Death By Black Hole pg. 305

I love this quote because I think it is perfectly true. I know from personal experience that when I am baffled I learn the most and that what I learn after being baffled is what sticks with me into the future. Another one of my favorite quotes is-

“A common way to compute density is, of course, to take the ratio of 

an object's mass to its volume. But other types of densities exist, 

such as the resistance of somebody's brain to the imparting of 

common sense.”- Death By Black Hole pg. 135

I love this quote because it makes me laugh and because I have had experience with people who have a resistance to the imparting of common sense. 

Another reason that Neil DeGrasse Tyson is so amazing is because he has the coolest job ever. He is an astrophysicist. The word astrophysics tends to scare people away but it really isn’t that scary. If you break the word apart it becomes astro and physics. Astro basically means “pertaining to the universe.” Physics is the study of why things work and occur the way the do. So astrophysics is the study of how and why things work the way they do in the universe. How cool is that?!

It is no coincidence that I wrote about Neil DeGrasse Tyson today. I just placed in the mailbox a letter to him that happened to contain the URL of my blog. So, if Dr. Tyson you are reading this now I want you to know that I think that what you do is amazing and that I look up to you!