# The Universcale **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 30, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637 "2008-01-30T20:58:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Maui\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Maui\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maui_Lion)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/1 "2008-01-30T20:58:22Z")
[Obligatory Link!](http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/feelnikon/discovery/universcale/nano.swf) An interesting, interactive flash file. It takes you from Light Year all the way down to the small Femtometer, and along the way, gives you examples while explaining the examples in more detail when you click on them. I learned a lot of new things from this, like the existence of circuitry that are only nanometers big. I didn’t even know they could make circuitry that small. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/2 "2008-01-30T21:20:24Z")
It looks cool – but seems to take a long time to load, even on broadband. Should be worth the wait, though! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/3 "2008-01-30T22:22:33Z")
Can it scale any faster? Interesting, nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Maui\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Maui\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maui_Lion)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/4 "2008-01-30T22:37:56Z")
[QUOTE=Flander] Can it scale any faster? Interesting, nonetheless. [/QUOTE] Oh, you can use your scrolling wheel on your mouse to zoom in/out on the scale faster if you like. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/5 "2008-01-30T22:49:07Z")
Wow…that took a while. Is it all to scale? Is a chromosome really about the size of a red blood cell? ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/6 "2008-01-30T22:51:16Z")
[QUOTE=Maui Lion] Oh, you can use your scrolling wheel on your mouse to zoom in/out on the scale faster if you like. [/QUOTE] The mouse at work has no scroll wheel. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Maui\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Maui\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maui_Lion)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/7 "2008-01-30T23:15:09Z")
[QUOTE=Flander] Wow…that took a while. Is it all to scale? Is a chromosome really about the size of a red blood cell? [/QUOTE] AFAIK it should be to scale more or less, but since I don’t know much about the size of chromosomes, I don’t really know. Though wouldn’t be surprised if a little leeway should be given. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/8 "2008-01-30T23:45:46Z")
[QUOTE=Ice Wolf] It looks cool – but seems to take a long time to load, even on broadband. Should be worth the wait, though! 🙂 [/QUOTE] Long time to load? For me it was just… there. No _load_ edit: I hate when things show you too much… in other words while you’re trying to read some text you’re missing what’s going on elsewhere, or vice versa… so I’ll end up having to watch it twice or more. edit 2: And you can’t pause it. ---
**Author:** ![Maui\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Maui\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maui_Lion)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/9 "2008-01-31T01:36:10Z")
The first time I watched it, I was hurrying to read and comprehend everything, yeah. Though once I realized I could always go back and re-read stuff by scrolling forward or backward, it made things a lot easier. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/10 "2008-01-31T04:52:05Z")
The Hayden Planetarium has a great ‘scale’ display. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/11 "2008-01-31T05:53:44Z")
[QUOTE=Ice Wolf] It looks cool – but seems to take a long time to load, even on broadband. Should be worth the wait, though! 🙂 [/QUOTE] Time to complain to Telecom eh? It loaded on my computer in a few seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/12 "2008-01-31T06:18:12Z")
Wow, really cool. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/13 "2008-01-31T06:45:30Z")
[QUOTE=1920s Style “Death Ray”] Time to complain to Telecom eh? It loaded on my computer in a few seconds. [/QUOTE] Nah, nothin’ wrong with Telecom, it’s the slowness of the whole thing (which is what I meant), once it had loaded (which was quite quick). I posted in a hurry, and got frustrated waiting between the edge of the known universe and Pluto. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/14 "2008-01-31T06:49:24Z")
🙂🙂 Yay for the scroll wheel!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/15 "2008-02-01T00:43:04Z")
[QUOTE=Ice Wolf] I posted in a hurry, and got frustrated waiting between the edge of the known universe and Pluto. [/QUOTE] That portion of the presentation was a little…err…slow…but I thought it captured very well the vastness of space. It really is a whole lot of nothing, isn’t it? Also interesting was the lack of ‘stuff’ at the extreme other end of the scale. Once you get down past the atom, there is again a “whole lotta nothin’” until we finally get to the nucleus, neutron and proton. When you think about it, everything really is almost \*completely \*nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-universcale/435637/16 "2008-02-01T01:10:09Z")
[QUOTE=Ice Wolf] Nah, nothin’ wrong with Telecom, it’s the slowness of the whole thing (which is what I meant), once it had loaded (which was quite quick). I posted in a hurry, and got frustrated waiting between the edge of the known universe and Pluto. [/QUOTE] Ah. And then you discovered the scroll wheel.