Sunday, April 1, 2012

"big enough to swallow a hundred earths"


Kind of going along with my previous post, it still blows my mind how small we are compared with pretty much everything else in the universe.

1 comment:

James R said...

"it still blows my mind how small we are compared to pretty much everything else in the universe."

While the the entire universe, from one side to the other, is estimated at 10 to the 26 meters, neutrinos are 10 to the -24 meters. So we are practically as big as the whole universe compared to a neutrino. So, while there are some big things out there, actually, us humans are just about the median size. It's funny how that works out (especially when we are doing the measuring).

What "blows my mind" is that humans can measure the speed of things as big as the universe and as small as a neutrino. Although, apparently we have trouble with the latter.

While I suppose by definition the universe is the biggest thing, we most likely have a long way to go to find the smallest. Planck Length is 10 to the -35 meters — much smaller than the universe is big. Maybe that is why I'm not scared of heights, but am petrified of small spaces.