Why is it that when someone tells you that there are over a billion stars in the universe,?

Question

you believe them, but if there is a "wet paint" sign somewhere, you have to touch it to make sure?

Answer 1

Because you have no way of knowing how long the wet paint sign has been there. You don't doubt that the paint was wet at some point, but you wonder if it has dried yet.

Answer 2

If someone puts a sign where there is wet paint,you can touch the paint to find out if it is wet,but if someone told that there are over a billion stars in the universe and it only would be a estimation,and you can only take his word. Old stars are dying and new stars are being born and the rest are ghost stars. So there could be over a billion stars or there could be less.

Answer 3

When told the number of stars, you have 2 choices: believe it or not believe it. When told that paint is wet, you have 3 choices: believe it, not believe it, or see for yourself. If not for the 3rd choice, most would probably choose to believe what they're told and move on. BTW, there are at least 30 x 10^21 stars in the universe (assuming 300 billion total galaxies, with an average of 100 billion stars each).

Answer 4

I think it might have to something to do with believing it is still wet. Maybe paint is something that a person is not around often. It might have something do with checking the the progress of the wet paint.

Plus, testing the "wet paint", for ones self, to see if it is still wet can be done by anyone. I believe there are a billion of stars because i can look up in the night sky and see, for myself, that there are 1000 stars right above me with my own very eyes.

Questioning the billion star proposition would be more questionable if i, or anyone else, could not look up in the night sky and see more stars than we can count.

In conclusion, our human nature is to investigate. That is why we touch paint that is declared "wet" by someone else. Nice question.

Answer 5

Because we know we cant touch a star. They are all light-years away. I use to reach for the stars as a kid, and I thought it was possible in my youth to touch magic.. As I grow up though, Santa is'nt real anymore, and those stars seem farther than ever and we know we cant fly to stars! A bit of our imagination goes away.
Now the wet paint sign is like a wet floor sign, no way am I going to check to see if the floor is actually wet, Id bust by booty:P Or as in the wet paint, I can smell the wet paint to know its wet, I dont have to touch it

Answer 6

Because I can see a hellofaloto stars, but
I've seen a more dry paint than wet.

Answer 7

Simply because it's easier to make sure that the paint is wet but counting the stars would be a lot harder.

Answer 8

the rotation of the earth
1670 km / hours

Earth orbit around the Sun
30 km /seconds

Sun orbit around The Milky Way Galaxy
240 km/s

The Milky Way Galaxy orbits in the Local Group
The Milky Way appears to be moving at 600 km/sec
http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_sp_mw.html

The Local Group falls toward the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies
The map indicates that the Local Group moves at about 600 kilometers per second
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970308.html

The Local Group falls toward the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies.

small objects, stars, galaxy, cluster of galaxies, more, more...

matter, matter assembly, motion, space

Endless, boundless, eternity, universe

Answer 9

The fourth time in a month somebody has posted this question. If somebody's told you a joke, chances are it's long been on the web for all to see.