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Pay attention. If you ever get sent back in time, this information will be important. You can make a fortune with this and the ability to create a solar oven to boil sea salt for salt (that's the seed money right there).

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Wouldn't it be easier to make the fortune with the time machine I already have in this hypothetical scenario :-)?

Not all time travel scenarios leave you with a time machine. The machine might itself be trapped in a closed time-like loop, could have a fixed end-point.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is a classic example.

It would actually be a time-space machine if you didn't plan on suffocating.

http://i.imgur.com/o4CJS2w.png

The Sun is the center of the Universe. Interesting.

Everywhere is the center of the Universe.

That doesn't make much sense. There's no absolute "space" coordinates. Why would a time machine pick some random frame of reference instead of yours? I suppose you're correct, in a tautological sense.

I prefer to remember "75% saltpeter, 12.5% charcoal, 12.5% sulfur" for those pesky traveled-back-to-Medieval-Times situations.

Have you learned to identify saltpeter or corn gunpowder? I understand that those two are problems of their own.

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