Dear LPG, 

I read with interest what CN had to say on the subject of waiting around, particularly where travel is concerned (►►►). I have to admit to finding statistics quite interesting, and her argument was cause for my need to look at a few facts and figures myself.

It all started when I took a look on the internet and found a statistic which says that 10% of us British people have never been abroad, while another source says that that figure may well be nearer to 25% with a large proportion of those people being over the age of 65.

I am an oldie, and I admit to not having ventured far away from home during my lifetime. Still, some mathematical lateral thinking proves that even if you have never been beyond the boundaries of the county you were born in, you have been around the world.

Having found some more statistics on the internet, here is my reasoning; - 

According to one internet site I found, the earth measures approximately 24,901 miles in circumference, and it revolves around itself, with us stuck on it, once a day. And that happens even if we don’t try to move anywhere. While doing that, the planet we all live on also travels around the sun, which the internet informs, is approximately a 548-million-mile journey each year. 

So, if you take the 365 times you have been taken around the world each year (the internet calculates that total as 6,598,765 miles) and add your annual trip around the sun and back (which I also worked out with the aid of an online calculator), you have managed to get about 554,598,765 miles in every year without even moving a muscle.

Using the internet powers of calculation yet again, I have concluded that if you have lived anywhere on this planet for 65 years, you have travelled at least 36,048,919,725 miles without even trying.

I must admit that when finding the figures I needed, I skipped all the details and just stuck to the numerical facts. It also has to be taken into consideration that my calculations are far from conclusive, but whatever way you look at it, we oldies have definitely been around in more ways than one… 

NM, Downham.

NM offers us the stuck in the mud statistics that spurred his calculations…

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… and the basis of his numerical calculations on how far we have been…

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…and LPG adds some information on today’s celebration…

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