Awesome! Powers of 10.

This link shows a sequence of views, starting 10 million light years from earth, with each successive view being a 10X zoom from the previous one. 40 views total. That's a 10^40 zoom total. Thought provoking.

What do you think?

Powers of 10

Reminds me of how Sunday's "The Simpson's" episode started.

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damn Java!! damn it!

Very cool! Am I the only person that thinks the metric system makes more sense? Being an engineering student, I can only wish that we are using the metric system....life for us will be so much easier with that /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

Nice!! I can't save this as a Web Page. How do I go about saving the Java? Or can I?

6pOriginal, the metric system wouldn't work here as American's would never accept living under a foreign ruler.

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6pOriginal said:
Very cool! Am I the only person that thinks the metric system makes more sense?

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Not by any means. Most people who have been brainwashed in school agree with you. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

So where does this power of ten thing come from? Just because we learned to count using base ten (decimal). Life would be easier if we used a base that was a power of two. Like the octal or hexadecimal system.

Our brains naturally like powers of two, or factors of two. I'll bet the fuel gauge in your car doesn't show tenths of a tank. It shows 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc. This is binary (factors of two), pure and simple. It explains why we can cut a pizza into 8 equal pieces more easily than we can cut it metrically into ten equal pieces. I could give many more examples, but I'm saving that until I write a book. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Everyone, including engineers, encounter units of measurement casually in everyday life more often than they perform elaborate calculations. Using metric means using big words, often abbreviated into absurdity, instead of small words. Kilometer instead of mile, millimeters instead of inches, kilograms instead of pounds, etc.

I've read countless news stories of police confiscating kilos of cocaine. Kilos? Perhaps they meant kilometers, like if the cocaine was put in a thin white line, it would stretch for kilometers. By the way, if this country hasn't gone metric, why don't police confiscate pounds of cocaine, or would that make life too simple?

I'm ready to be convinced though. Let's see. What is it that we measure the most often, and the most precisely? I'll bet they didn't teach you that in school. Hint, many of us have a measuring instrument strapped to our wrists. Yeah, time it is. Once you convince me of the beauty of measuring time metrically (powers of ten), the rest should be easy. Would we use millidays instead of minutes, or maybe megaseconds instead of days? I never could get the hang of this metric thing.

With gasoline prices getting high, I'm curious what kind of kilometerage you get in city driving? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I guess I didn't pay attention in school because I don't know if the invention of the metric system is a great milestone in mankind's history, or if it is a great 1.0609 kilometer stone in mankind's history.

Yeah, I know I'm a wiseguy, but the life of us contrarians ain't easy. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

There is at least one other fellow that agrees with me.
http://www.aps.org/apsnews/1001/100111.cfm

eluminator, I hope you're kidding.
you could just accept that you in the US are a bit old fashioned here /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif ... the metric system is just the clever way to easily number, process and compare things.
this is not about what your limited human senses can capture with one shot of the eye (think of pizza slizes), but about the most simpl erules for a comprehensive mathematical system.
but then again, I assume you were kidding /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif
bernhard

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epro05 said:

Thought provoking.

What do you think?



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I think if they had gone just a few more steps, they could have depicted "the will of God"
holding the whole thing together!

No Kiessling, I wasn't kidding. I'm not quite sure what you were saying, but I hope you were kidding. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Maybe it's a language translation thing.

By the way, I'm sometimes aware of how lucky we Americans are because we can use our native language while you foreigners (and I hope foreigners isn't considered pejorative, but you never know in this "politically correct" era) must use a foreign language.

I'm not going to apologize though. Which reminds me, someone writing in the NY Times complained there was too much English on the internet. When Rush Limbaugh read that he replied "There's too much English in the NY Times". I'll drink to that, Rush.

When I or someone else uses a play on words, or purposefully mangles the language, or uses some "ye olde English word", I wonder what you foreigners make of it all.

I guess by now you have figured out we're all crazy over here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

eluminator, dang funny

hope the US never changes

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eluminator said:
I guess I didn't pay attention in school because I don't know if the invention of the metric system is a great milestone in mankind's history, or if it is a great 1.0609 kilometer stone in mankind's history..


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You mean 1.609 Km., /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/poke2.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

In the US we have been converting to the Metric system since at least 1973. When I was in Mrs. Shoemaker's math class. My Dad was strongly opposed to the "System Internationale" (throw a few accents on that). And he was an engineer. I seem to recall Great Britain had a problem getting everyone to switch.
Is the resistance to switching due to not wanting to switch or feeling that the 'English' system is better?

Links to a couple interesting PDF pages /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gifLet's not go metric!
A Brief Introduction to Dozenal Counting

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Yeah, I know I'm a wiseguy, but the life of us contrarians ain't easy.

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Yes it is /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif