Saturday, September 23, 2006
Take a ride to the big: The mathematical term googol is the number 1 followed by a hundred zeroes, or 10^100, meaning 10 raised to the power of a hundred. How big a number is a googol? Astronomers estimate our universe is 15 billion years old, or 10^18 seconds old. Over 22 centuries ago, Archimedes calculated that 10^63 grains of sand would fill the then known universe.
Consider today's known universe contains at least a hundred-billion galaxies each containing an average of a hundred-billion stars. Now consider the mind-boggling number of electrons, protons, neutrons, and all other matter-and-energy particles in those stars, planets, dark matter as well as all additional particles scattered throughout space. That number would equal 10^86 particles, a number still considerably less than a googol. Now, if our entire universe of about fifteen billion light years across were packed solid with subatomic particles with zero space between them, the number of particles would rise to 10^130.
But, how large is a googolplex, 10^(10^100)? Just to print the number of zeroes after the number 1 would require enough paper to pack solid our entire universe, fifteen billion light years across. And a super googolplex is a googolplex that is raised to an additional 100th power. No scale is available for any conscious mind on Earth to grasp such a number.
Take a ride to the small: Slice an average-sized pie in half ninety-one times. On the ninety-second slice, you would need to slice the nucleus of an atom in half. How small is the nucleus of an atom? Enlarge a baseball to the size of Earth. One would then see the atoms of that baseball as the size of cherries filling the entire planet. Now, enlarge one of those atoms to the size of the Astrodome. The nucleus would then become visible as the size of a grain of sand.
What about the smallest or shortest unit of time that the human mind can grasp: Planck's time of 10^-42 of a second -- about the time required for light travelling at 186,281 miles per second to traverse the diameter of the smallest subatomic particle of, say, a 2x10^-33 centimeter diameter, which is Planck's length. A time less than 10^-42 of a second measured from the theoretical beginning of time in our universe cannot be experimentally simulated or conceptually grasped.
Finally, grasping the smallest and the biggest in terms of eternity requires the axiomatic fact that EXISTENCE EXISTS. Thus, existence has no prior causes and is eternal. Relative to eternity, the smallest unit and the largest unit are equal in occurance, time, or distance. For example, compare an incredibly fast event that occurs once every 10^-42 of a second to an incredibly slow event that occurs once every super googolplex years. The occurrence of those events are equal in eternity. For, both of those events have occured and will occur an infinite number of times in eternity.
Consider today's known universe contains at least a hundred-billion galaxies each containing an average of a hundred-billion stars. Now consider the mind-boggling number of electrons, protons, neutrons, and all other matter-and-energy particles in those stars, planets, dark matter as well as all additional particles scattered throughout space. That number would equal 10^86 particles, a number still considerably less than a googol. Now, if our entire universe of about fifteen billion light years across were packed solid with subatomic particles with zero space between them, the number of particles would rise to 10^130.
But, how large is a googolplex, 10^(10^100)? Just to print the number of zeroes after the number 1 would require enough paper to pack solid our entire universe, fifteen billion light years across. And a super googolplex is a googolplex that is raised to an additional 100th power. No scale is available for any conscious mind on Earth to grasp such a number.
Take a ride to the small: Slice an average-sized pie in half ninety-one times. On the ninety-second slice, you would need to slice the nucleus of an atom in half. How small is the nucleus of an atom? Enlarge a baseball to the size of Earth. One would then see the atoms of that baseball as the size of cherries filling the entire planet. Now, enlarge one of those atoms to the size of the Astrodome. The nucleus would then become visible as the size of a grain of sand.
What about the smallest or shortest unit of time that the human mind can grasp: Planck's time of 10^-42 of a second -- about the time required for light travelling at 186,281 miles per second to traverse the diameter of the smallest subatomic particle of, say, a 2x10^-33 centimeter diameter, which is Planck's length. A time less than 10^-42 of a second measured from the theoretical beginning of time in our universe cannot be experimentally simulated or conceptually grasped.
Finally, grasping the smallest and the biggest in terms of eternity requires the axiomatic fact that EXISTENCE EXISTS. Thus, existence has no prior causes and is eternal. Relative to eternity, the smallest unit and the largest unit are equal in occurance, time, or distance. For example, compare an incredibly fast event that occurs once every 10^-42 of a second to an incredibly slow event that occurs once every super googolplex years. The occurrence of those events are equal in eternity. For, both of those events have occured and will occur an infinite number of times in eternity.
# posted by Marty @ 9:50 PM 
