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I assumed your link was going to be this one about a "graspable" description of the number 52! (factorial). https://czep.net/weblog/52cards.html https://czep.n
by AndrewOMartin 9y ago
I assumed your link was going to be this one about a "graspable" description of the number 52! (factorial).
https://czep.net/weblog/52cards.html https://czep.net/weblog/52cards.html
Start a timer that will count down the number of seconds from 52! to 0. Then walk around the world along the equator, at the very leisurely pace of one step every billion years. The equatorial circumference of the Earth is 40,075,017 meters. After you complete your round the world trip, remove one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean. Now do the same thing again: walk around the world at one billion years per step, removing one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean each time you circle the globe. The Pacific Ocean contains 707.6 million cubic kilometers of water. Continue until the ocean is empty. When it is, take one sheet of paper and place it flat on the ground. Now, fill the ocean back up and start the entire process all over again, adding a sheet of paper to the stack each time you’ve emptied the ocean.
Do this until the stack of paper reaches from the Earth to the Sun. Take a glance at the timer, you will see that the three left-most digits haven’t even changed.
- Nursie 9y agoJust to snark a little - that model assumes a constant earth. After a billion years (the first step) there will be no water left in the pacific anyway. If there's even a pacific ocean by then due to plate tectonics... Sorry.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- skj 9y agoWhere do people think they're going to put the water when it's not in the ocean, anyway? In space? It would get the paper stack wet so this is clearly nonsense.
- cokernel 9y agoThe page being quoted points that out: > Of course, in reality none of this could ever happen. Sorry to break it to you. The truth is, the Pacific Ocean will boil off as the Sun becomes a red giant before you could even take your fifth step in your first trek around the world. Somewhat more of an obstacle, however, is the fact that all the stars in the universe will eventually burn out leaving space a dark, ever-expanding void inhabited by a few scattered elementary particles drifting a tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero. The exact details are still a bit fuzzy, but according to some reckonings of The Reckoning, all this could happen before you would've had a chance to reduce the vast Pacific by the amount of a few backyard swimming pools.
- Nursie 9y agoWell in which case I apologise :)
- teekert 9y agoThis text. It's really very good in allowing one to "feel" such a large number, thanx for sharing.
- liberte82 9y agoOld-school Buddhism uses lots of really color metaphors like this to describe the length of time people spend in some of the Hell realms. :)
- clort 9y ago'A Bunch of Rocks' deserves a mention here I think
- ulucs 9y agothis reminds me of the Built to Spill song "Randy described Eternity": >Every thousand years This metal sphere Ten times the size of Jupiter Floats just a few yards past the earth You climb on your roof And take a swipe at it With a single feather Hit it once every thousand years 'Til you've worn it down To the size of a pea Yeah, I'd say that's a long time But it's only half a blink In the place you're gonna be