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JavaScript Length Comparator

Dateline: 05/25/98

By Alan Bruzel

Requires a JavaScript-enabled browser.

Comprehension slows when confronted with the infinite and the infinitesimal. This program compares exotic distances to familiar distances, thereby permitting mental visualization.

Consider this question: "When a blue whale becomes the length of a house fly, what is the length of Tyrannosaurus rex?" Click the above lists to choose Blue whale from (1), House fly from (2), and Tyrannosaurus rex from (3). Click on Calculate. The answer, 3 X One millimeter, appears in (4). In other words, when a blue whale shrinks to the size of a house fly, Tyrannosaurus rex is three millimeters long. (Measurement devices are assumed not to be influenced by these events.)

If your tastes are more extreme, ask this question: "When the solar system becomes as large as the galaxy, what is the size of a virus?" Choose Diameter of Pluto's orbit from (1), Milky Way galaxy from (2), and Virus from (3). Clicking on Calculate displays the answer, 5 X Adult human, in (4). By expanding the solar system (as defined by Pluto's orbit) to the size of the Milky Way galaxy, one expands a virus to a size five times that of an adult human.

There are many such questions that can be posed. Be aware that calculations that yield answers either larger than the visible universe or smaller than a proton will generate an "out of range" message in (4). This length comparator may prove a handy tool for appreciating magnitudes that were previously thought unfathomable.

Distances in meters (approximate):

Visible universe = 1 X 10²⁶
Distance to quasar 3C 295 = 5 X 10²⁵
Distance to Coma cluster = 3.3 X 10²⁴
Distance to M87 (Virgo) = 4.7 X 10²³
Distance to Andromeda = 2 X 10²²
Milky Way galaxy = 9.5 X 10²⁰
Distance to Betelgeuse = 6.1 X 10¹⁸
Distance to Alpha Centauri = 4.2 X 10¹⁶
One light year = 9.5 X 10¹⁵
Diameter of Pluto's orbit = 1.2 X 10¹³
Distance to Sun = 1.5 X 10¹¹
Diameter of Sun = 1.4 X 10⁹
Distance to Moon = 3.8 X 10⁸
Diameter of Earth = 1.3 X 10⁷
Los Angeles to New York = 3.9 X 10⁶
Mount Everest = 8800
One kilometer = 1000
Eiffel Tower = 321
US football field = 91.4
Blue whale = 30.5
Tyrannosaurus rex = 13.7
Adult human = 1.7
One meter = 1
House fly = 7 X 10^-3
One millimeter = 1 X 10^-3
Optical fiber = 5 X 10^-4
Grain of sand = 1 X 10^-4
Diameter of human hair = 7.5 X 10^-5
Human cell = 2 X 10^-5
E. coli bacterium = 2 X 10^-6
Virus = 1 X 10^-7
Hemoglobin molecule = 6.8 X 10^-9
Buckminsterfullerene = 7 X 10^-10
DNA base separation = 3.4 X 10^-10
Hydrogen atom = 1.1 X 10^-10
Uranium-238 nucleus = 1.2 X 10^-14
Oxygen-16 nucleus = 5.4 X 10^-15
Proton = 1.6 X 10^-15

Recommended Web resources for additional information:

JavaScript Mass Comparator
A calculator from this Web site that allows comprehension of mass relationships.

JavaScript Time Comparator
A calculator from this Web site that allows comprehension of magnitudes of time.

Orders of Magnitude
An immense reference for lengths of the great and small.

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