Friday, 19 June 2009
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what's the difference between a million and a billion?
just one letter, right?not exactly.1,000,000 seconds = 11.57 days1,000,000,000 seconds = 32 years (roughly)got that from an entry from a guy engaging in an awesome project about another guy who's doing the same (albeit with a differen focus): http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/visionaries-are-crazy/#more-5123good, inspiring stuff
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Comments (1)
Big numbers are hard to grasp.
I once did a scaling exercise with my math class. If the age of the earth were the length of a football field, with the earth being formed at one goal line and "today" being the other goal line, then: life first appears about mid-field, dinosaurs appear about 5 yards from the goal line and die out less than 5 feet from the goal line, "Lucy" appears 2.5 inches from the goal, modern humans appear about the thickness of 2 credit cards from the goal, recorded history begins about 3 sheets of paper from the goal, Jesus was born the width of a human hair from the goal, and a man's life (80 years) is about the size of an E. Coli bacterium.
For another take on getting some "sense of proportion," read about the "Total Perspective Vortex":
http://fscked.org/writings/TotalPerspectiveVortex/