Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Scale

I've been thinking about scale lately. It's a popular subject in art and science.

The diameter of the Earth is 41,851,050 feet

The height of the Empire State Building is 1250ft. To span the diameter of the earth it'd take 33,480 empire state buildings. If there was a scale model of the earth at the size of the empire state building, a 6' tall person would be .05mm tall. Turns out that's the exact average size of a grain of sand.

And then I look at this image (click it):


http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gx1G8GWS

If the empire state building was a scale model of the Sun, the Earth would be about 11 feet tall, and the empire state building would be the size of a grain of sand (.1mm), while a person would be approximately the size of the HIV virus.

If the empire state building was a scale model of VY Canis Majoris, the largest known star, then the Sun would be about the size of a large honeydew melon (7"), the Earth would be the size of a grain of sand (1.5mm), the empire state building would need to stack three times to reach the diameter of a sperm's head, and a person would be about the size of a sucrose molecule.

If the empire state building was a scale model of the Milky Way, VY Canis Majoris would be about the size of a grapefruit (4"), and a person would be one attometer tall.

If the empire state building was a scale model of an attometer, the planck length (the length at which physics breaks) would be .2" tall, and a person would be over a hundred times the height of VY Canis Majoris.

I just want to know exactly how big I am. It's enough to completely smash my brain.

1 comment:

  1. That set of images is so amazing! ... For some reason, I now take some comfort from such things as the enormity of space. I don't think I used to, though.

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