The Poetry of Physics Answers

Read the opening lines from Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Death by Black Hole.”Without a doubt, the most spectacular way to die in space is to fall into a black hole. Where else in the universe can you lose your life by being ripped apart atom by atom?Read the beginning stanza from Billy Collins’s “Man Listening to Disc.”This is not bad—ambling along 44th Streetwith Sonny Rollins for company,his music flowing through the soft calipersof these earphones,The beginnings of these two pieces are similar because they both

Read the excerpt from Death by Black Hole.Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, published in 1916, provides the insight to understand the bizarre structure of space and time in a high-gravity environment. Later research by the American physicist John A. Wheeler, and others, helped to formulate a vocabulary as well as the mathematical tools to describe and predict what a black hole will do to its surroundings.Read the excerpt from “Man Listening to Disc.”And I bow deeply to Thelonious Monkfor figuring out a wayto motorize—or whatever—his huge pianoso he could be with us today.The central idea that both texts share is

Which excerpt from Billy Collins’s “Man Listening to Disc” best supports the idea that the speaker uses the music to isolate himself from others?

Read the excerpt from Billy Collins’s “Man Listening to Disc.”In fact, I would saymy delight at being suffusedwith phrases from his saxophone—some like honey, some like vinegar—is surpassed only by my gratitudeto Tommy Potter for taking the timeto join us on this breezy afternoonwith his most unwieldy bassand to the esteemed Arthur Taylorwho is somehow managing to navigatethis crowd with his cumbersome drums.Which of the following suggestions would best enhance a reader’s understanding of this poem?

Read the excerpt from Billy Collins’s “Man Listening to Disc.”And if any of you are curiousabout where this aggregation,this whole battery-powered crew,is headed, let us just saythat the real center of the universe,the only true point of view,is full of the hope that he,the hub of the cosmoswith his hair blown sideways,will eventually make it all the way downtown.What message does Collins convey in this excerpt?