There's a mountain in my way.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27902611

One question... How big is a football pitch? (I assume they mean "soccer field", but I don't really know)

And DD, when are you going to change your location? It still says you're in Ireland.

Here you go Dave: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/rules_and_equipment/4200666.stm

Shhhh, I'm undercover 

WTH??? The size of the pitch can VARY?!?!?!?!? How odd! We Yanks like our playing fields to be of a more uniform size (ignore baseball here... The depth of the outfield doesn't count).

But I take it that the lens on that telescope will be at least 75 feet across, but no more than 97 1/2 feet. The description sounds very vague to me.

I suspect that the reasons being these were the dimensions available to most of the early clubs during the Victorian period Dave.

But due to the nature of playing in parks etc there had to be some room for variance in the sizes which is why the rules give a maximum and minimum size, just assume the average as being "Football pitch sized" 

I did some research, and the E-ELT will have a mirror that spans 39 meters, or about 128 feet (give or take a few inches), and will gather 15 times more light than any other telescope now in existence. Pretty impressive, and makes my 8" scope seem rather miniscule.

BTW, the explosion will occur in less than an hour and a half from now. Just a heads up.

A football (soccer) pitch, like the elephant, is not a good SI unit.

The one I hate the most is expressing weight in bags of sugar (1kg over here). Why not use kg **hair pulling out emoticon **

And relax. All calm now. Minor rant over.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27935607