dimecres, 8 d’abril del 2009

Nine Million Bicycles

"Nine Million Bicycles"

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That's a fact,
It's a thing we can't deny
Like the fact that I will love you till I die.

We are twelve billion light years from the edge,
That's a guess,
No-one can ever say it's true
But I know that I will always be with you.

I'm warmed by the fire of your love everyday
So don't call me a liar,
Just believe everything that I say

There are six BILLION people in the world
More or less
and it makes me feel quite small
But you're the one I love the most of all

[INTERLUDE]
We're high on the wire
With the world in our sight
And I'll never tire,
Of the love that you give me every night

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That's a Fact,
it's a thing we can't deny
Like the fact that I will love you till I die

And there are nine million bicycles in Beijing
And you know that I will love you till I die!


On September 30, 2005, an article appeared in The Guardian newspaper in which physicist Simon Singh humorously corrected the song's lyrics. Singh said that with the song Melua "demonstrates a deep ignorance of cosmology and no understanding of the scientific method", and objected to its second verse, where the song's protagonist "[contrasts] such guesswork with her own confidence in her blossoming long-term love":[1]

We are 12 billion light-years from the edge,
That's a guess — no-one can ever say it's true,
But I know that I will always be with you

Singh interpreted the first lyric as a statement that the observable universe was twelve billion years old, which he said was incorrect; according to "the very latest data", the universe was actually 13.7 billion years old. He added, "the next line in the song is unforgivable. To say that the age of the universe is "a guess" is an insult to a century of astronomical progress. The age of the universe is not just "a guess", but rather it is a carefully measured number that is now known to a high degree of accuracy". He wrote replacement lyrics which he believed would, if used, remedy his concerns:[4]

We are 13.7 billion light-years from the edge of the observable universe,
that's a good estimate with well-defined error bars,
Scientists say it's true, but acknowledge that it may be refined,
and with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you

Singh, Simon. "Katie Melua's bad science". The Guardian. September 30, 2005. Retrieved April 9, 2006.


2 comentaris:

  1. Això és el que s'anomena ser un perapunyetes. A qui se li acudeix discutir el que diu la cançó més nyonya del món? Però si ja ens agrada tal i com està, home, que al final li agafes estimació a la Melua i tot! A més, la seva versió no rima.

    ResponElimina
  2. Esteu sonats... En Simon Singh per haver-ho escrit i tu per haver-ho trobat...

    ResponElimina