Talk:Powers of Ten (film)

big = small

An interresting aspect mentioned by Robbert Dijkgraaf is that when one zooms out into the universe one goes back in time and thus the farthest image, of the whole universe, is really one of the universe at the 'time' of the Big Bang, when it was infinitely small. In this sense, the two extremes come together.

That's not interesting; it's contrived for the sake of parading the French proverb les extrêmes se touchent. The largest scale in Powers of 10 is 10²⁶ m, which is certainly not the 'whole universe'. In a square 10 billion light years on a side, the corners are just 7 billion light years from the center, where the Earth is located. That's just half the age of the universe. Most points in the square are considerably closer.
—Herbee 00:47, August 20, 2005 (UTC)

I wonder if the number 10²⁶ is really correct? The largest scale mentioned on the website is only 10²⁵ m. Pity I haven't seen the film.
—Herbee 01:03, August 20, 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean with that square and the points in it (how can a point be small? It has no dimensions). The comment was not on the the film specifically, but on the notion of zooming out (and thus going back in time - this might need some more explaining) until you reach the furthest point you can reach (whether the film does this or not is irrelevant - maybe that should be stated too), which corresponds with the Big Bang, just before which (there's a little flaw) the universe was immensely small ('infinitely small' is probably wrong). I don't claim to fully understand this (but then, who does?) but this is the best rendition I can give of what Dijkgraaf said. And I do find it an interresting obsevation, in the spirit of the film (mind-boggling aspects of the universe, or what should I call that). DirkvdM 07:12, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

No reaction to this yet, so I'll put it back and see what happens :) . DirkvdM 08:15, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

Other Versions or Similar Movies?

I have seen this film (at School and in several museums) but I also recall once seeing a more recent movie that was very similar slightly more polished but in other ways not as good as the original. I think it may have been an IMAX (or another large format) movie. I also recall that instead of squares on the zoom out this other version had circles. Does anyone know about this or other remakes? -Waza 02:17, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

NASM IMAX Cosmic Voyage[1]. There have been several other movies and books too.[2] 66.30.119.55 14:35, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

When zooming out, the 10⁷ m rectangle fits snuggly around the Earth, when it should really be somewhat bigger

Did I miss something, or is the Earth's diameter no longer greater than 12,700,000m? Aragorn2 12:28, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

The Earth is slightly bigger. The article does seem a bit unclear. I tweaked it. 66.30.119.55 14:35, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

How Big Are Things? was an experiment in avoiding some of the pedagogical pitfalls of "Powers of Ten". 66.30.119.55 14:35, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Images

This article would definitely benefit from images. I imagine the cover jacket of the book or video are considered fair use? 24.63.125.78 14:51, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Very Similar to Cosmic Zoom

This sounds almost identical to the 1968 Canadian short documentary Cosmic Zoom, which was based on the book Cosmic View. Pufnstuf 03:09, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Other Related works and references in pop culture

Contact and Men in Black had scenes that involved zooming out from earth to a scale much larger. Should they, too, be listed in this section of this article? --HantaVirus 19:12, 24 July 2006 (UTC)