

Scale of the universe (flash) - yread
http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe.swf

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johnohara
The knowledge that these orders of magnitude exist is one of the great gifts
of science to humankind.

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JeanPierre
This is like the modern _Powers of Ten_
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z53wTtGGA0>)

Beautifully done.

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kaiuhl
This animation and that video always make me pause and contemplate the
significance of the little websites I work on and their role in the universe.

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rthomas6
Check out the size of the giant earthworm. 7 meters. Yeesh.

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pyre
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchaetus_rappi>

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michaelcampbell
Love, love, love this.

Was surprised (which only shows my ignorance) of the sizes of some stars,
compared to 1 AU.

Also - how is the estimation of the size of the universe (not the /observable/
universe) done?

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diziet
I would imagine it's done using some kind of estimate of the known current
rate of expansion and assuming some kind of model for the rate of
acceleration.

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Patient0
I thought that if the universe is "open" then it is only the visible universe
that is finite, and the rest is actually infinite. i.e. there's stars "all the
way" it's just that we can only see stuff 14 billion light years away.

Another point: in one part it says "we are probably not at the center" - I
thought the notion of a "center of the universe" was meaningless in the same
sense that any point on a sphere is not "the center" (if the universe is
"closed"), and you can't have a "center" of an infinite plane (if the universe
is "open").

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pfedor
Also he mentions preons, hypothetical particles of which quarks are made,
which I believe is an idea mostly done away with.

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jheriko
I see something like this every now and again, but this has to be the best in
a while for giving the sense of scale. Its a shame the information on the
lower scales contains guesswork like preons and strings.

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wlievens
Very nice! Everyone should show this to their kids as soon as they can grasp
it.

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detcader
Makes you wonder how people can have the gall to suggest that humans have any
sort of purpose.

