A visual guide to the scale of everything...

[DJ...]

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/

A fascinating visual aid to help understand the scale of everything in this universe - from our solar system down to an atom. This is a must-see for anyone who thinks that we're significant beings in this universe.

 

[Keeper]

Einstein once said something or other about Relativity

I think we are in fact significant beings, even if we go by "Size"
We humans are as huge to something on the atomic scale, as galaxies are to us.

it's all relative.

 

[biometrics]

it's all relative.

This

 

[Techne]

Quite a few of these threads so far.

I don't why people think this make humans any less significant.

 

[DJ...]

Quite a few of these threads so far.

Only one working link there and this uses actual images for the most part instead of an animation. Maybe someone else will find it interesting...

I don't why people think this make humans any less significant.

That presupposes significance in the first place...

 

[Techne]

Only one working link there and this uses actual images for the most part instead of an animation. Maybe someone else will find it interesting...

It was interesting, I was pointing out how popular such threads are here.

That presupposes significance in the first place...

Sure. Interesting depictions of the scale of the universe such as this may reinforce people's views of being significant. Subjective judgments really.

 

[Hamster]

Einstein once said something or other about Relativity

I think we are in fact significant beings, even if we go by "Size"
We humans are as huge to something on the atomic scale, as galaxies are to us.

it's all relative.

You only really understand the value of something until it is gone:

1. How significant will the total effect/change be to the universe if we all just seized to exist? Nothing really.
2. If only you or me seized to exists how significant will that be to whom? Your loved ones will be affected and maybe some other people, but that's about it.

You see, us as individuals are significant to one another, our environment and maybe planet Earth, but all these are very insignificant as well. So in the grand scheme of things, us human beings are not very significant or important at all.

 

[rwenzori]

I don't why people think this make humans any less significant.

Significant to what or whom? If Jesus, please go post in PD or elsewhere.

 

[Hamster]

Significant to what or whom? If Jesus, please go post in PD or elsewhere.

You just had to go there, didn't you?

 

[buyeye]

We are significant on this planet( being capable nuclear destruction and mining mars and all ) and solar system that makes us plenty important.

 

[Unhappy438]

[video=youtube;9D05ej8u-gU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gU[/video]

 

[rwenzori]

You just had to go there, didn't you?

Yup.

 

[Techne]

Significant to what or whom?

You have a point. Unless there is some empirical scientific experiment to determine our "significance", any claim about our significance belongs in PD. This thread appears to be belong in PD...

 

[Unhappy438]

You have a point. Unless there is some empirical scientific experiment to determine our "significance", any claim about our significance belongs in PD. This thread appears to be belong in PD...

Not really because we can discuss the size of the universe without going philosophical, but yeah challenging the significance point probably belongs in PD.

 

[DJ...]

This thread appears to be belong in PD...

Good point. In future I'll start them all in PD so we can avoid the tedious and inevitable process of you dragging them there, kicking and screaming. It has additional benefits too, but I won't go into those...

 

[Techne]

Good point. In future I'll start them all in PD so we can avoid the tedious and inevitable process of you dragging them there, kicking and screaming. It has additional benefits too, but I won't go into those...

Aaw, come on, don't tell me you didn't know that talking about humans as "significant beings" is PD material.

 

[DJ...]

Aaw, come on, don't tell me you didn't know that talking about humans as "significant beings" is PD material.

Talking about green paw-paw juice is PD material when you're around. But you're right, I should have known better...

 

[Techne]

Talking about green paw-paw juice is PD material when you're around. But you're right, I should have known better...

Paw-paw has good anticancer properties and may help with that spastic colon...

 

[Elimentals]

Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGCOmVQiRNY

Thank me later

Edit as for significance I'll leave you with this Poem:

Right now, it is raining methane on Titan. The planet Uranus, apparently trying to live up to it’s name, is orbiting the sun sideways, while Venus spins backwards. There are stars exploding, black holes gorging, galaxies colliding.

And here we sit, on a planet pock-marked by collisions, rocked by earthquakes, shaken by storms. A planet doomed to be fried in radiation as it’s magnetic fields collapse, until finally the sun grows into a red giant and leaves nothing of the Earth but dust.

Here we sit, glasses on our noses, inhalers in our pockets, braces on our teeth, waiting to die as our heart muscle expires, our cells decide to grow forever, or a blood vessel just pops, and sometimes in unnatural ways, too.

Here we sit, and some of us say, behold, look at the order of it all?