How big are we?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Isaac Asimov wrote a whole book about this called The Measure of the Universe in which he takes various familiar measurements and scales them up to the cosmic and down to the infinitesimal.

It’s not about humans specifically, but these are some of the relevant measures:

10[sup]-13[/sup] metres: diameter of the proton
10[sup]-7[/sup] metres: diameter of influenza virus
10[sup]-3[/sup] metres: smallest spider known
10[sup]0[/sup] metres: half the height of tall human male
10[sup]2[/sup] metres: 33-story building
10[sup]4[/sup] metres: slightly more then height of Everest
10[sup]8[/sup] metres: slightly less than diameter of Saturn
10[sup]12[/sup] metres: distance from Sun to halfway between orbits of Jupiter and Saturn
10[sup]16[/sup] metres: one light-year
10[sup]21[/sup] metres: length of Milky Way Galaxy
10[sup]27[/sup] metres: circumference of known universe

Other chapters scale area, volume, mass, time, temperature, speed and so forth up and down.

22

[QUOTE=Santo Rugger]
What Cyn said. Who are we important to, other than ourselves?
[/QUOTE]

The fact that we are important to ourselves makes us important, since the OP’er didn’t specify anyone else in terms of judging importance, it can be assumed the importance, in this case, is for us to decide.

23

If I were the size of the visible universe, my wang would be about 914,000,000 light-years long. As it stands (snork!), we are really, really, really, really, really, really, really, small compared to the universe.

But size doesn’t matter.

24

[QUOTE=mangeorge]
Really. I used to lose sleep thinking about this when I was a kid. Now I’m regressing, so, scientifically, just how big are we.
Peace,
mangeorge
[/QUOTE]

We are this big -> |----------------------------------------------------------------------|

25

This seems to be the time to link to the Eames’ Powers of Ten video…

26

[QUOTE=mangeorge]
Right. I should have said “relatively”. Like on a celestial scale. It seems odd to me that we should be so infinitesimal, and yet so important. But I didn’t want to get Uncle Albert involved.
[/QUOTE]
When compared to most other organisms, we are pretty huge. So if you’re feeling like an insignificant speck on a cosmic scale, spare a thought for the enormous biomass of smaller creatures out there.

27

[QUOTE=Cyn]
Important to who? Infinitesmial to who? Some of us are important to others of us, but size is relative. I’m small compared to my husband, he is small compared to an NFL linebacker…
[/QUOTE]

Important and iinfinitesimal to the universe. After all, we own it (so far).
Like if cockroaches own the house they live in. No, make that termites.

28

Remember when you were a kid, how important “big” was? Remember saying "you’re not (you ain’t) so big. Like that.

29

[QUOTE=mangeorge]
Remember when you were a kid, how important “big” was? Remember saying "you’re not (you ain’t) so big. Like that.
[/QUOTE]

Meh… We ain’t so big.

30

[QUOTE=Meurglys]
This seems to be the time to link to the Eames’ Powers of Ten video…
[/QUOTE]

Yeah.
That’s the kind of thinking that used to steal my sleep. I’ll feel better when we finally find some more people out there. Quaoarans, for example.

31

How big are we? Big enough to be governed by the laws of big physics. I laugh at you little quantum things.

I think we are on the lower end of ‘big’.

32

[QUOTE=Philster]
How big are we? Big enough to be governed by the laws of big physics. I laugh at you little quantum things.

I think we are on the lower end of ‘big’.
[/QUOTE]

And I slightly raise one contemptuous eyebrow at your big physics.

33

I’m kind of a big deal

34

I’m big in Japan.

35

“we” are (sic) 12 point.

36

It’s a great big universe and we’re all really puny.
We’re just tiny little specks about the size of Mickey Rooney.

37

We are so big we don’t take Spielberg’s calls.

38

[QUOTE=Meurglys]
This seems to be the time to link to the Eames’ Powers of Ten video…
[/QUOTE]

Not to mention the mind-expanding Powers of One webcomic.

39

[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright]
Somewhere around 6 feet tall and 160 pounds, presumably.

Unless we’re female.
[/QUOTE]

Not if you count the women I dated between 1991-1999.

I was in a tall person’s club and didn’t date any woman that was shorter than 5’ 10". The tallest was 6’ 5". That was fun.

40

Are we still in GQ?