Monday, October 4, 2010

In terms of scale

One of the cool thing about writing science fiction is that I can take my fascination with astronomy and apply it to my stories.

One of the absolutely coolest things about astronomy is that you look at the scale of things. I remember, many moons ago, sitting in a classroom and being blown away by this video on the Powers of Ten.



And recently, a friend sent me a link to this--a sliding scale of the proportions of the universe.

Looking at these sorts of things remind me of a quote by Robert Herrmann: "Everywhere you look in science, the harder it becomes to understand the universe without God."

7 comments:

Sandy said...

This is both fascinating and awe-inspiring. It reminds me of the comparison chart between planet sizes and earth. Really quite amazing.

Izzy G. said...

No way. I JUST saw that video today in Physics class.

lotusgirl said...

That's amazing. I'd love to see that with our current technology.

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Yes! I love that quote, Beth. :-)

Steph Su said...

I've loved that video ever since I saw it for the first time in elementary school at this local science center, and then every time I used to go back (my family had, uh, family membership, and would go once a season) I'd watch it. LOVE THAT VIDEO.

Magan said...

I think I've learned more from your blog, and doing my own research trying to write a Sci-fi novel then I ever did in science classes during high school and college. HA.

Unknown said...

The clip is amazing. Observable order is fascinating.