📺 Powers of ten — on the relative sizes of things.
This classic video presents a quick tour of the universe and our place in it as these have been worked out by modern science. It is astounding that we have been able to figure this out from our tiny little corner of the Milky Way Galaxy.
When size and scale is put into perspective, we as humans seem so small. It’s interesting to think that we are the center of our own worlds and that what we do is going to impact everything so greatly. After watching the video, I feel as if I tend to forget how minuscule my own problems are in comparison to the relative size of the milky-way galaxy. It is truly mind boggling because on a day to day basis our general species doesn’t get to see this comparison.
Overall, this video kind of makes my brain spin and it is hard for it to make sense. I think the point of the video was to demonstrate how small we really are as a human race. I can’t help but think about the idea of “aliens”. I think the video was putting out the idea that there is more life out there. In addition, the comparison of the zoom in on the man’s hand and how it is constructed small particles just like how when you zoom very far out into space earth is very much the same.
It’s also interesting, for me at least in that it shows that in spite of how small we are, that we can “see” the whole. If you think about it, that’s pretty astounding, that one ultimately short lived species ( not to sound apocalyptic but species don’t survive very long in general and we aren’t exactly acting in our own long term best interests) can use the power of reason and observation to understand things on all of the scales depicted in the video. Sure we may be wrong on some of the details, but the basic picture here is pretty solid and it only took a few hundred years to build, starting with Copernicus.
This video is truly fascinating, it’s amazing how big the galaxy is. In a sense it’s all relative as from the point of a singular carbon nucleus, our bodies are roughly the same distance we are from space in the powers of 10 just on a different scale. To us the Earth seems absolutely huge and no one human could see every nook and cranny of the Earth, let alone space, but again, it’s all relative. If a planet was a living being, a human would be seen as their equivalent to a singular carbon nucleus. Personally, the idea of how big space is has always been daunting to me as it makes me feel like a human life is so insignificant as there is so much more out there. Yet, in a sense, each living being almost holds it’s own universe within itself.
I really agree with what Sylvie said. Sometimes we feel like our problems are so huge and effect so many people in our own circles. In reality, they don’t. There are much larger issues that have effects on our entire population. We are such a small part to our entire universe, I do agree though that we can make impacts on others.
I agree with Morgan because I felt like my brain was spinning watching that too. Something else that I thought was very interesting was that humans can be so small and we don’t even realize it. I also liked how the video was showing us that there’s more life out there then we even realize. Overall I thought the video was really interesting but at some points hard to understand.
I found this video to be very interesting, I typically avoid thinking about these kinds of things. because it makes me ask so many questions that we don’t yet have answers to. When I think about how big the galaxy is not just in relation to us humans but earth in general it makes me think about all the different theories about alternate universes and life living on other planets. It’s cool to consider what else may be out there yet frustrating because we don’t know the truth and we may never know.
It’s interesting the power of scale through the number 10. I feel that it is really interesting to see the scale between space vs the carbon atom. I feel like it is fascinating how to see the scale of our selves vs a carbon atom, or space. It’s honestly fascinating to see how we are almost the mid-ground between both.
Although the video is very educating, it opens up so many more questions for us. What is out there beyond our solar system besides stars, black holes and all that? It really makes us seem like we are puny creatures almost like we only make up 0.0000000000001% of the universe. It will be very interesting to see actual alien discovery in our lifetime. It’s very cool to see how big the universe actually is.
The Powers of Ten is quite a mesmerizing concept, and one that I have not heard of. To know we have discovered such a scale to measure is all the more interesting. As the scale furthers from that point in Chicago at 100,000 light years away, 10 to the 21 power in meters, the pictures looks very similar to when the scale meets 0.01 angstroms and 10 to the -12 power in meters. In other words, as we move from the milky way galaxy, it looks very similar as when we get closer to the carbon nucleus. Seeing the similarities of the universe in the human body in forms of cells and matter represents are alikeness, yet our uniqueness and vastness.
One first thing when watching this video that caught my eye was how when we were able to see the earth as a whole, this was at the million meters high mark. We could see the earth as a whole but behind it was the galaxy and stars, these stars seemed to be so far away still from the earth that they were barely moving as the earth as getting smaller and smaller. As I continue to watch I really start to get a sense of how small we are really as a planet in the galaxy. Really got lost when we started entering the mans hand but soon realized that it brought to the DNA of the man.
I really think it is interesting how perspective changes when size and scale are presented to us because it shows how little of this universe we occupy and will always raise interest to the ever lasting question of are we alone in space? Both guesses to that answer are equally scary because if we are alone in this vast universe there is no more life after us but if we are not alone, who knows when humanity will be able to handle confrontation with extraterrestrial life. Mean while all of us are just living normal lives having problems of our own but there is so much more outside of the milky way than any of us as humans can imagine.
What blows me away the most about this video is just how big space actually is, and how most of it doesn’t even have stars. Each individual is so small in relation to the universe. Really interesting video.
this video has opened my mind to how small humans are compared to everything that exist. it got me thinking about the size difference of a atom and the largest object that exist which we don’t even know what that is to exact. but our size has no limit on how much we are capable of as human beings, we can visit space and beyond with our knowledge and a since of purpose.
This video blew my mind. Humans are so small and insignificant. The way the video showed us how much space that’s actually out there stressed me out. I thought there would be more stars and asteroids simply littered throughout space. This video just made me think we are all nothing until we make something of ourselves and even then we’re still miniscule dots in history.
the size and scale of the whole universe in so insane. We live day to day not knowing these things, it would never cross your mind that an atom is really that small, and the universe is so big.
At first I thought I was watching an old video from the 1970’s or earlier that attempted to be scientific. As I continued to view the video it became apparent that it is a very impactful representation of relativity and perspective. Sure I can see the scientific perspective and how increasing or decreasing distance puts each object or item viewed in a totally different perspective, but I also thought it was really powerful at making me take inventory of my here and now. The video made me take notice of my presence and visually illustrated there are entire ecosystems from each perspective. The picnic was a view we as humans have, then there’s the galaxy view which is then contrasted with micro views of our skin and the cells within. Truly a fascinating perspective that stimulates our thinking on numerous levels. Definitely more than an old scientific perspective in this video.
I found this video incredibly interesting due to the fact that when thinking of something big some of the things that come into mind are cars or elephants. When in reality, the galaxies and space are so grand that there are things we will never see with our own eyes or even begin to comprehend the magnitude of. In the same way, sometimes we don’t even realize the number of small things that human bodies are built out of. This video really made me question how small humans are and how many unknown things there are in space that we possibly will spend the rest of humanity trying to figure out.
I found this video really interesting because I wish we knew more about how the universe really worked. It shows us how meaningless we really are and that chances are we will leave 0 impact on the world and only really impact the people around you.
It is so interesting to put the world into perspective like this because we are so much smaller than we even seem. There is so much out there that we do not know about and cannot see. It is crazy to me how scientists even discovered a lot of the things on Earth and in space, but it’s even crazier to me how much they haven’t discovered. I hope someday in my life time we can discover life on other planets.