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The Scale of the Universe

Here’s a great z-axis zoom-through of the universe [link via Kris Lachowski] showing the vast range of scales from the sub-atomic level to the outer reaches of the known universe.

When I was a kid, I read an illustrated book from 1957 called The Universe in 40 Jumps that pulled a similar trick in a succession of 10x steps; a predecessor to films like Powers of Ten (and partial inspiration for The Right Number).

Looking at this latest effort to make the incomprehensible comprehensible, all I can think is that the universe has gotten A LOT bigger, since I was a lot smaller.

Have a great weekend…

…you tiny, insignificant specks.


Discussion (4)¬

  1. Julio G says:

    Wo! I saw this at newgrounds.com; a really beautiful flash “game”. I love all these kind of expressions of that bipolar HUGE/small essence of ours. There’s a chilean writer, Juan Emar, who makes the same thoughts about our relation with reality.

    Thanks for the great links, Scott.

  2. ScottE says:

    Oh, that is very nice. Perfect, in fact.

  3. fedora says:

    It’s a little offtopic, but have you heard about the RSA Animate project? This one is my favourite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U , but all of them are great. It’s especially useful for non-native english speakers.