Really, how big is big? My dad used to ask me this questions when I was little, typically in the midst of a deep conversation about how things in the world work, filled with my 5-year-old views and surety. Every time he’d throw that question in it would stop me in my tracks, leaving me unable to answer it. As I grew, the answer became a snarky “larger than that to which it is being compared,” but that doesn’t answer the question.
It was meant to be an unanswerable question. It was meant to stop me. It was meant to help me realize that I really don’t have the answers to anything, despite how smart I thought I was.
So…
How big is big?
A few days ago I found the following app via Wait But Why. Wait But Why is an AWESOME website to get lost in and learn! The app is a collaboration they did with Kurzgesagt, another one of my favorite learning resources. Maybe this can help me find the answer after all?
Here is the app. <— Click me
Here’s a video preview of the scope it covers, everything known to man. It starts with a Planck Length, Strings, and Quantum Foam, (What on earth are those, and what is a yoctometer? I’ll have to play in the app to find out.) and goes all the way out to the Observable Universe. Wow! Talk about zooming out and zooming in!
According to the scale at the bottom, people are near the middle, sitting at an average of 1.7m. The scale goes from 10-35m to 1026m.
Watch this, then go get the app…
The True Size
I also found this awesome website that will bend your mind. Have a play! Mason and I had a good time playing with The Vatican vs. Rhode Island vs. Antarctica.
Here’s a screenshot. The Vatican is too small to see at this scale, but check out what happens when we move Antarctica and Rhode Island to the equator. Is that the size you’ve always perceived Antarctica to be in relation to other countries?
More how big is big?
Maybe this older video is helpful?
Solar System versus Atoms
I used to imagine that atoms, with their nucleus and then valences with electrons, were miniature solar systems. Maybe there were tiny people living on a tiny Earth in every atom! Maybe our solar system was an atom that was part of a giant’s sweatshirt or boot bottom.
Someone else wondered the same thing! <— Click me
What’s your answer?
This is only what humans have been able to discover and measure. How much more is there, both larger and smaller? Are you curious to know? I find it absolutely fascinating!
Today my answer to “How big is big?” is still indefinite. It is a word of comparison, so it will always depend on what is being considered. What is your answer?
Not big
Bigger that the previous one
Bigger yet
Biggest
Unless
I
add
more…
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Hahaha love this post and the ending made me smile. Big is really big 😲
But how big is “really big”? 😂