# Don't you think the Universe is quite young? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 13, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528 "2011-10-13T13:56:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/1 "2011-10-13T13:56:51Z")
14 billion years? Is that all? It’s nothing compared to the number of stars in the universe. Hell, there are roughly 300 billion stars just in the Milky Way alone! There are 6x10^23 atoms in a mole but just a paltry 1.4x10^9 years have gone by since those moles existed. If I walked a meter per year toward the moon, by the time I did a mere 18 laps, I’d have been walking for about as long as the universe has been around. The US Department of Defense alone spends more dollars in a week than years since those dollars were compressed into a single point located at…well, everywhere. The mere fact that I can fathom 14 billion…the fact that I can express it in only two words…is enough to shock me that that’s how young reality is. I mean, I’ve been through a year. I know how long that is. And I know what a billion is like. And considering that we’re surrounded by incomprehensibly big numbers all the time, it’s amazing that the age of the universe isn’t one of them. Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=627624) thread. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/2 "2011-10-13T14:12:47Z")
would 441 Quadrillion seconds old make you feel better? ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/3 "2011-10-13T14:33:10Z")
Try this visualization - Hold yours arms straight out to your sides, this represents a timeline of the universe, big bang on the left, current time on the right. Now gently rub a nail file once across your right-most fingernail. You’ve just wiped off all of human history. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/4 "2011-10-13T14:46:08Z")
Someone needs a trip inside the Total Perspective Vortex ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/5 "2011-10-13T14:50:18Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > Try this visualization - Hold yours arms straight out to your sides, this represents a timeline of the universe, big bang on the left, current time on the right. Now gently rub a nail file once across your right-most fingernail. You’ve just wiped off all of human history. Yeah, but my arms are short, and so is human history. If you use this room, human history is a whole half-foot. If you use arms and the age of the Grand Canyon, you get half a forearm. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/6 "2011-10-13T15:21:43Z")
Right. I’m off to start one called _Don’t you think Up is quite Down?_ ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/7 "2011-10-13T15:37:38Z")
Try this on for perspective. My high school let out every day at 3:00 pm. On the last day of my last year, I sat alone in the music room waiting for it all to come to an end. 13 long years of bullshit, and it was about to end – in one minute! I stared at that clock, just hovering at 2:59. I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Now multiply that by 7.3584e+15. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/8 "2011-10-13T15:45:36Z")
Or think of it this way: If you didn’t know already, and I asked you how old the universe was, would you guess a tiny number like 10^10? Or would you guess something a lot higher, like 10^23 or 10^36 or even infinite? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/9 "2011-10-13T15:49:01Z")
OK, try this for perspective. Imagine you have a twinkie thirty five feet long weighing approximately 600 pounds… That’s it. Just imagine that. Doesn’t the whole universe seem kinda awesome now? ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/10 "2011-10-13T16:05:45Z")
Imagine if there was one immortal person-god that was present at the beginning of the universe. And when she was 11, she had a child. And when that child was 11, she had a child, too, and so on. Today, you’d have ::drumroll:: the population of India. That’s it. Every two years, the human race lives collectively longer than the universe has existed. Just two years! ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/11 "2011-10-13T16:27:39Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > OK, try this for perspective. Imagine you have a twinkie thirty five feet long weighing approximately 600 pounds… > That’s it. Just imagine that. > > Doesn’t the whole universe seem kinda awesome now? OK, this made me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/12 "2011-10-13T16:31:45Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > The mere fact that I can fathom 14 billion…the fact that I can express it in only two words…is enough to shock me that that’s how young reality is. I mean, I’ve been through a year. I know how long that is. And I know what a billion is like. And considering that we’re surrounded by incomprehensibly big numbers all the time, it’s amazing that the age of the universe isn’t one of them. Frankly speaking, I _don’t know what a billion years is like_ and I’m not sure how one could. I can imagine a day, I’ve lived through a day. I can imagine a year, I’ve lived through a year. Compared to a day, a year is a vastly longer period of time. The older I get, the _shorter_ a year feels. This might just be my anecdotal experience, but when I then try to imagine what a billion years would feel like, I simply cannot fathom it. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-the-universe-is-quite-young/599528/13 "2011-10-13T17:07:30Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > OK, try this for perspective. Imagine you have a twinkie thirty five feet long weighing approximately 600 pounds… That’s a big Twinkie.