Sunday, June 19, 2011

Wondering about large and small.

Did you ever wonder what lay on both sides of the scale that we live in? What if we could look down from above at ever increasing distances away or, conversely, look closer and closer and closer at things. Maybe I am strange but I think of these things.


Another thing, if you are anything like me, I lose touch with numbers when they start using huge plusses or minuses to the powers of a number. Yeh, I know, it is a short way to write a huge number so that you don’t have to write a whole bunch of zeros, either before or after the number, depending where the decimal point is and if it is large or small number. I have used numbers with powers in a lot of calculations.

OK, let us combine my first two paragraphs and just wonder about how big or how small something looks like at distances to the power of 10. Hard to visualize in your mind after the first jump, isn’t it? It is for me. So how do we visualize it? How about a short 3 minute movie that explains both close and far at distances of different powers of 10? The editorial in my new Discover magazine had a link to this movie “The Power of Ten” and I think that you all would enjoy it. So just sit back, turn your sound on, open your mind and your eyes, and watch this enlightening and entertaining short flick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0


Hope you enjoyed it.  You all have a wonderful Father’s Day now, you hear?
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5 comments:

  1. Michael UltraJune 19, 2011 at 8:58 AM

    Very interesting video. For me, the Beatles said it the best when they told me of worlds without and worlds within. Happy F-day, Diz.

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  2. OldfoolJune 19, 2011 at 9:30 AM

    I have made that trip many times. If you don't take your body with you then you can go anywhere.
    Now I sound like a nutball. Oh well.
    I use to enjoy trying to explain the difference between one million and one billion but I became tired of glazed over eyeballs.

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  3. Dizzy-DickJune 19, 2011 at 11:00 AM

    Michael, Yep, the Beetles had a way of explaining a lot of things and I enjoyed them. I remember when they first came to the U.S.

    Oldfool, No you don't sound like a nutball. A lot of people have experienced "out of body" trips.
    If a billion glazed their eye, try explaining our National debt in the Trillions. . .

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  4. Ben in TexasJune 19, 2011 at 2:04 PM

    Neat stuff you stumbled upon, Wish like hell it had been done in good one American English and measurement!!
    What the hell is a meter? Like my water meter? Is my meter larger or smaller than yours? Now Feet and yards and miles I understand..
    Have not friggin idea how big a meter is .

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  5. Dizzy-DickJune 19, 2011 at 2:25 PM

    Ben, No I haven't figured it all out, but I bet your feet or bigger than mine.

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