The Sizes of Things (by Marc Pickett I, 1994) [Muse
= Trudy]
What's big? What's small? This work deals with the size of
things in the universe. I wrote this to help people realize
both the hugeness and the smallness of our universe. This
work compares lengths and disances from the effective diameter
of a proton to the span of our universe. I have tried to pick
objects most familiar to people while still keeping the
difference in their length between 5 and 40 times the next
one.
I'll
start off by introducing myself. I am a human being and I
stand about 1.83 meters (6 feet) tall. Which is large when
compared to the silver dollar I'm holding. It's diameter
(length across) is only .0381 meters. Which is 1/48th my
height.
This
is my silver dollar compared to a dog flea. The flea has a
length of .00254 meters, which is 1/15 the diameter of a silver
dollar.
Here
is that same flea next to a spider mite. The flea's length is
5 times the length of the spider mite, which is .0005 meters.
A
spider mite has a length 20 times the thickness of a human
hair, which is about .000025 meters in diameter.
A
human hair's thickness is about 11.5 times the length of an
actinoplanes mold-like bacterium. This tiny organism has a
length of about .00002167 meters.
An
actinoplanes bacterium is not so small when compared to a
tobacco mosaic virus (also known as TMV). The length of a TMV
is less than 1/8th the length of an actinoplanes. It is
.000000267 meters long.
A TMV
is rod shaped and has a length about 16 times it's width.
It's width is .0000000167 meters.
This
virus is still extremely thick if compared to the diameter of
the shell of a Uranium atom. The shell is .0000000002 meters
wide which is less than 1/83rd the diameter of a TMV.
A
Uranium shell has twice the diameter of a Hydrogen shell,
which is .0000000001 meters.
In
order to continue without making the next comparison of
lengths differ by more than 100 times, I must invent something
with a length of .000000000001 meters because nothing exists
which is exactly that length that I know of. So, I will use a
unit of that length, which I made up called Marc's useless
unit. (Named so because it has little purpose other than in
this book.) It's shown here next to a hydrogen shell.
An
X unit, which I did not make-up (honest), is 1/10th the length
of a Marc's useless unit. It is .0000000000001 meters.
An X
unit is about 7.14 times the diameter of a Uranium nucleus,
which is .000000000000016 meters.
The
diameter of a Uranium nucleus is 8.75 times the diameter of a
proton, which is part of a Uranium nucleus. A proton has a
diameter of .0000000000000016 meters.
Physicists seem to be constantly discovering smaller and
smaller particles, which make up the particles that were
discovered by physicists before them. Atoms were once thought
to be the smallest particles. Then, protons, neutrons, and
electrons. It's theorized that discoveries of smaller and
smaller basic building blocks will continue until a critical
length radius particle is found. This length is limited by
gravity and is .00000000000000000000000000000000001 meters.
Now,
I will show what large is. Here I am standing on top of the
blue whale, the largest creature on Earth. The blue whale is
30.48 meters (100 feet) long which is 16.67 times my height of
1.83 meters (6 feet).
The
Sears Tower in Chicago is among the world's tallest buildings
with a height (without the 2 television antennae) of 443.179
meters (1,454 feet) which is 14.54 times the length of the blue
whale on top of it in this picture. I am the speck on the blue
whale.
Horsetooth Reservoir, near Ft. Collins, Colorado, is 5.42
miles long (one mile equals 1609.3 meters), which is 19.67
times as long as the height of the Sears Tower.
Rhode Island, our smallest state, is 48 miles long,
which is 8.86 times as long as Horsetooth Reservoir.
New Mexico is 8.13 times as long as Rhode Island with a length
of 390 miles.
The
diameter of the Earth is 20.33 times the length of New Mexico.
The Earth's diameter is 7,928 miles.
Earth may seem huge, but it is dwarfed by Jupiter, which, with
a diameter of 88,378 miles, is the largest planet in our solar
system. It's diameter is 11.15 times that of the Earth's.
The
diameter of the Sun is 9.79 times that of Jupiter. It's
diameter is 865,000 miles.
The
distance from the Sun to it's closest planet, Mercury, is
equal to 36,000,000 miles. This distance is 41.69 times the
Sun's diameter.
The
distance from us to the Sun, which is called an astronomical
unit (AU), is 92,600,000 miles. That is 2.57 times the
distance from the Sun to Mercury.
The
distance from us to the sun is tiny when compared to the range
of the orbit of Pluto, the last planet in our solar system.
That distance is 7,333,920,000 miles or 79.2 times the
distance from us to the Sun.
The
distance from the Sun to a comet called Kohoutek is
333,360,000,000 miles when Kohoutek is at it's furthest. This
is 45.45 times as long as the diameter of Pluto's orbit. This
picture compares the 2 distances. One light year is 17.6 times
that distance. A light year is how far light travels in a year,
which is 5,878,499,814,140 miles.
One light year is 17.6 times that distance. A light year is
how far light travels in a year, which is 5,878,499,814,140
miles.
The
star closest to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.22
light years away.
This is still a very small distance when compared to
some of the other stars in the universe. A star named Alpha
Crusis, of the Southern Cross constellation, is 37.91 times as
far away from us as Proxima Centauri at a distance of 160
light years.
The
distance to Deneb, another star in our galaxy, is 9.38 times
that distance. Deneb is 1,500 light years away.
The
distance to the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is 20
times the distance to Deneb. The center of the Milky Way is
30,000 light years.
The
length across the Milky Way is 120,000 light years. If you
count the corona of the Milky Way, it is 400,000 light years.
This is 13.3 times the distance from our Sun to the center of
the Milky Way.
The diameter of our galaxy (with corona) is still only 1/5th
the distance to Andromeda, the closest galaxy to us. It is
2,000,000 light years away.
The
distance to the Virgo Cluster of galaxies is 32.5 times the
distance to Andromeda. The Virgo cluster is 65,000,000 light
years away.
Coma,
which is also a cluster of galaxies, is 450,000,000 light
years away, which is 6.92 times as far as Virgo.
The
distance to remote quasars is greater still. At
10,000,000,000 light years away, they are 22.2 times further
than Coma.
The
Universe is estimated to be between 6,000,000,000 and
20,000,000,000 years old. This means that the largest possible
distance between any 2 parts of it (right now) is between
12,000,000,000 and 40,000,000,000 light years. If the diameter
of our Universe is 32,000,000,000 light years, then this is 3.2
times the distance to the remote quasars.
If it were possible to line up protons end to end in a straight
line to span the diameter of the present universe, it would take
about 1,892,105,680,975,000,000,000,000,000,0000,000,000,000 of
them. This demonstrates the vastness of our universe, both big
and small.
Last modified: Fri Oct 27 14:14:05 EDT 2000