Uranus

ConorOberstIsGo · 1413155. Thu Jun 16, 2022 2:30 am

I find it pathetic that so many people are childish enough to court toilet humour surrounding the pronunciation of Uranus. And all because it sounds a little bit like 'urine'. To avoid this, I heartily pronounce it 'your anus' whenever I teach GCSE physics. I also spell it that way.

Alexander Howard · 1413161. Thu Jun 16, 2022 6:20 am

William Herschel, as we know, a most diligent inspector
Of the skies found a star with his 30-inch reflector
And to plot the whole course of this fascinating sight
He would sit in his observatory all through the night
Never stirring from his place with his eye on the lens
Even when the privy should have called him from thence
When at last he had found it, and in case you are curious
The floor all around was left slippy and Uranus.

suze · 1413183. Thu Jun 16, 2022 11:32 am

As the discoverer of the new planet (although he spent two years insisting that it was a comet), Herschel got the naming rights - and he decided to call it George.

This name in honour of the King was popular in Britain, but not elsewhere. The Swedes wanted it to call it Neptune, which would have gotten confusing a century later, but the German astronomist Bode suggested Uranus as being the father of Saturn, just as Saturn was the father of Jupiter.

The name Uranus soon caught on everywhere except Britain, where the Royal Observatory stuck to George until as late as 1850. Herschel was unimpressed, and said that the choice of a name from Classical mythology was "hardly allowable".

It has been claimed (mostly by me, it would have to be said) that Herschel sent a terse email to the International Astronomical Union to express his opposition. Rumours that this email read "Uranus, my arse" have still to be confirmed - and sadly, this gag is probably not useable in a GCSE Physics class.

POLARIS183 · 1413226. Fri Jun 17, 2022 9:34 am

Going on a tangent, but is Uranus the Roman version of Ouranos, whose famous demise would surely spark the delight of the dirty-minded in GCSE Classical Greek?

1413265. Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:06 pm

POLARIS183 · 1413294. Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:39 am

Bondee · 1413772. Fri Jun 24, 2022 2:52 pm

Don't make me smell Uranus!

Alexander Howard · 1413829. Sat Jun 25, 2022 12:15 pm

Uranus, the Greek god who was 'taken to the Tavistock Clinic'.

The Greeks tried to rationalise their mythology, and invented ages marked by one generation of gods overthrowing their parents, to explain why certain gods disappeared from everyday mythology, and Uranus was one of these. Cronos is another.

There are parallels in other cultures - the Germanic Tiw / Tyr as a shadowy god whose name was passed down but little else. It may just be that each cultural overlay brought its own pantheon and the other were shuffled aside leaving little but the name of one day of the week, a rune, and Dewsbury.

There is a similarity in the names of Tiw, Zeus and Jupiter, suggesting a common Indo-European origin, so 'Jupiter' is 'Sky-father', the suffix being the Sanskrit 'pitaa'. It may be from another Italic or earlier tribe. There is a possible etymological connection between the name of Uranus and an ancient Hindu god.

Prof Wind Up Merchant · 1414432. Tue Jul 05, 2022 2:44 pm

It is pronounced "Your Anus" :-D

crissdee · 1414437. Tue Jul 05, 2022 3:49 pm

Only by schoolboys, or those acting like one. You-ranus properly....