3 ms·

As you mention - comprehending how large/small countries are is tough for some people. Planet-size differences even more so. Many probably don't realize how big

by Nadya 10y ago

As you mention - comprehending how large/small countries are is tough for some people. Planet-size differences even more so. Many probably don't realize how big the sun is! Then you have to comprehend that on a galactic scale - our sun is really, really tiny [0]. We exist on a tiny spec of dust; inside of a solar system that is no larger than a tiny spec of dust; inside of a galaxy that is no larger than a tiny spec of dust; inside a supercluster that is only a tiny spec of dust. [0] http://i.imgur.com/DUzDo3k.gifv http://i.imgur.com/DUzDo3k.gifv

sevensor 10y ago
Every time I try to comprehend the sun as it actually is -- its size and composition -- I end up completely boggled and unnerved. A vast and uncaring ball of plasma, mostly hydrogen, supporting billions of years of fusion reactions, so big that the orbit of the planet I live on causes only the slightest wobble in its position; it's no wonder the ancients worshiped the sun. There's nothing about it I can begin to grasp except by analogy.
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- hexagonc 10y ago
  I'll just leave this here for you. . . https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Comparison_of_planets_and_stars_%28sheet_by_sheet%29_%28Apr_2015_update%29.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Comparis...
  - simplemath 10y ago
    Ill just leave THIS here for you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgNDao7m41M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgNDao7m41M
    - sevensor 10y ago
      Thanks to you, and to the GP. I do enjoy the analogies! I think the absolutely brain-crushing thing about objects of astronomic magnitude is trying to reverse the log-transform we use to make sense of them. For me it produces a sense of vertigo, like standing at the top of a cliff.
    - hexagonc 10y ago
      Okay. . . (humbly slinks away with tail between his legs)
      - simplemath 10y ago
        that video totally blows my mind, i must have watched it a dozen times.
        hexagonc 10y ago
        Yeah, it's pretty damn epic.

by Nadya 10y ago

sevensor 10y ago

Every time I try to comprehend the sun as it actually is -- its size and composition -- I end up completely boggled and unnerved. A vast and uncaring ball of plasma, mostly hydrogen, supporting billions of years of fusion reactions, so big that the orbit of the planet I live on causes only the slightest wobble in its position; it's no wonder the ancients worshiped the sun. There's nothing about it I can begin to grasp except by analogy.

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hexagonc 10y ago
I'll just leave this here for you. . . https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Comparison_of_planets_and_stars_%28sheet_by_sheet%29_%28Apr_2015_update%29.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Comparis...
- simplemath 10y ago
  Ill just leave THIS here for you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgNDao7m41M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgNDao7m41M
  - sevensor 10y ago
    Thanks to you, and to the GP. I do enjoy the analogies! I think the absolutely brain-crushing thing about objects of astronomic magnitude is trying to reverse the log-transform we use to make sense of them. For me it produces a sense of vertigo, like standing at the top of a cliff.
  - hexagonc 10y ago
    Okay. . . (humbly slinks away with tail between his legs)
    - simplemath 10y ago
      that video totally blows my mind, i must have watched it a dozen times.
      - hexagonc 10y ago
        Yeah, it's pretty damn epic.