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Friday math movie - Powers of 10

By Murray Bourne, 29 Feb 2008

Here's a movie that will challenge your view of where you fit in the scheme of things.

Video is a great way to get a sense of scale when talking about powers of 10.

For example, they start with a view that is around 1 m wide, then zoom out to view a 10 m (= 101) wide square, then 100 m (= 102) and so on, ending up with a view of the universe.

They then go in the other direction, going smaller and smaller: 1/10 m (= 10−1), 0.01 m (= 10−2) and so on, passing through cells, viruses, and down to the atomic level.

The video was made by IBM in 1977.

See the 3 Comments below.

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To enter math, you can can either:

  1. Use simple calculator-like input in the following format (surround your math in backticks, or qq on tablet or phone):
    `a^2 = sqrt(b^2 + c^2)`
    (See more on ASCIIMath syntax); or
  2. Use simple LaTeX in the following format. Surround your math with \( and \).
    \( \int g dx = \sqrt{\frac{a}{b}} \)
    (This is standard simple LaTeX.)

NOTE: You can mix both types of math entry in your comment.

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