Original Post
Is anyone else here really interested in counting?
Not in the sense of counting on your fingers or anything, but the area of study in mathematics. Most people get a little introduction to the subject when the take a probability/statistics course. All that combinations and permutations stuff. It's really interesting (to me 
). Kind of helps you learn the definition of 'large.' It also kind of overlaps with some stuff, like little (or countable) vs big (or uncountable) infinity (really interesting stuff here, I can explain it if someone wants).
Here's a fun example.... which is larger, the number of atoms in the universe, or the number of unique images that could be represented on the computer monitor you are looking at right now.
your screen has pixels, each pixel can represent a color, different combinations of pixels and colors will give different images. The screen is made up of atoms, LOTS of them (if you've had chemistry and learned about Moles this should make sense). ie a mole is 6.022 x 10^23, and a mole is like a counting unit. It's not a unit like a foot or a galon, but more just like an ammount, you can have a mole of anything. A mole of water molecules is 18 grams of water (at sea level under standard conditions). So 18 grams of water (not very much) has 6.022 x 10^23 h20 molecules in it.
To put this into some perspective: Scientists have dated the Earth as approximately 4.5 x 10^9 years old. This is about 1.4 x 10^17 seconds. So the Earth is not even one mole seconds old. (more info http://www.maths.mq.edu.au/numeracy/tutorial/mole.htm)
from http://www.lcusd.net/lchs/mewoldsen/BC-Mole-alot.htm:
-If there were a mole of rice grains, all the land area in the whole world would be covered with rice to a depth of about 75 meters.
One mole of rice grains is more grains than all the grain that has been grown since the beginning of time.
-One mole of rice would occupy a cube about 120 miles on an edge!
-Computers can count at the rate of over 800 million counts per second. At this rate it would take a computer over 25 million years to count to 6.02 x 1023.
-A mole of marshmallows would cover the United States to a depth of 600 miles
-In order to put a mole of rain drops in a 30 meter (about 100 feet) diameter tank, the sides of the tank would have to be 280 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
-A mole of hockey pucks would be equal to the mass of the Moon.
Assuming that each human being has 60 trillion body cells (6.0 x 1013) and the Earth's population is 6 billion (6 x 109), the total number of living human body cells on the Earth at the present time is 3.6 x 1023or a little over half of a mole.
-If one mole of pennies were divided up among the Earth's population, each person would receive 1 x 1014 pennies. Personal spending at the rate of one million dollars a day would use up each persons wealth in about three thousand years. Life would not be comfortable because the surfaceof the Earth would be covered in copper coins to a depth of at least 400 meters.
-If you had a mole of pennies and wanted to buy kite string at the rate of a million dollars per inch, you would get your money's worth. After stretching your string around the Earth one million times, and to the Moon and back twenty-five times, you would have enough string left over to sell back at a penny an inch (a decided loss) to gain enough money to buy enery man, woman and child in the US a $5000 automobile and enough gasoline to run it at 55 mph for a year. After those purchases, you would still have enough money left over to give every man, woman, and child in the whole world $6136.
So obviously there are a TON of molecules in your computer monitor, then think of how many there are in all of the computer monitors in the world, then all of the world, then compare the size of the earth to the size of the sun, how many atoms must be in the sun... then think about all of the solar systesm and galaxies in the universe, and how many atoms that might be.
then compare it to the number of images you can see on your computer screen (which happens to be made up of atoms)
Atoms are so small we can barely even understand how small they really are. The universe is so big we can barely understand how big it is... the universe is made up of atoms.
Then again... think of how many different images you have seen on your screen, and how many everyone else has seen on their screen, and how many haven't been seen yet, and how many never will.....
[edited by - drjonesdw3d on December 28, 2003 3:57:48 AM]
). Kind of helps you learn the definition of 'large.' It also kind of overlaps with some stuff, like little (or countable) vs big (or uncountable) infinity (really interesting stuff here, I can explain it if someone wants).
Here's a fun example.... which is larger, the number of atoms in the universe, or the number of unique images that could be represented on the computer monitor you are looking at right now.
your screen has pixels, each pixel can represent a color, different combinations of pixels and colors will give different images. The screen is made up of atoms, LOTS of them (if you've had chemistry and learned about Moles this should make sense). ie a mole is 6.022 x 10^23, and a mole is like a counting unit. It's not a unit like a foot or a galon, but more just like an ammount, you can have a mole of anything. A mole of water molecules is 18 grams of water (at sea level under standard conditions). So 18 grams of water (not very much) has 6.022 x 10^23 h20 molecules in it.
To put this into some perspective: Scientists have dated the Earth as approximately 4.5 x 10^9 years old. This is about 1.4 x 10^17 seconds. So the Earth is not even one mole seconds old. (more info http://www.maths.mq.edu.au/numeracy/tutorial/mole.htm)
from http://www.lcusd.net/lchs/mewoldsen/BC-Mole-alot.htm:
-If there were a mole of rice grains, all the land area in the whole world would be covered with rice to a depth of about 75 meters.
One mole of rice grains is more grains than all the grain that has been grown since the beginning of time.
-One mole of rice would occupy a cube about 120 miles on an edge!
-Computers can count at the rate of over 800 million counts per second. At this rate it would take a computer over 25 million years to count to 6.02 x 1023.
-A mole of marshmallows would cover the United States to a depth of 600 miles
-In order to put a mole of rain drops in a 30 meter (about 100 feet) diameter tank, the sides of the tank would have to be 280 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
-A mole of hockey pucks would be equal to the mass of the Moon.
Assuming that each human being has 60 trillion body cells (6.0 x 1013) and the Earth's population is 6 billion (6 x 109), the total number of living human body cells on the Earth at the present time is 3.6 x 1023or a little over half of a mole.
-If one mole of pennies were divided up among the Earth's population, each person would receive 1 x 1014 pennies. Personal spending at the rate of one million dollars a day would use up each persons wealth in about three thousand years. Life would not be comfortable because the surfaceof the Earth would be covered in copper coins to a depth of at least 400 meters.
-If you had a mole of pennies and wanted to buy kite string at the rate of a million dollars per inch, you would get your money's worth. After stretching your string around the Earth one million times, and to the Moon and back twenty-five times, you would have enough string left over to sell back at a penny an inch (a decided loss) to gain enough money to buy enery man, woman and child in the US a $5000 automobile and enough gasoline to run it at 55 mph for a year. After those purchases, you would still have enough money left over to give every man, woman, and child in the whole world $6136.
So obviously there are a TON of molecules in your computer monitor, then think of how many there are in all of the computer monitors in the world, then all of the world, then compare the size of the earth to the size of the sun, how many atoms must be in the sun... then think about all of the solar systesm and galaxies in the universe, and how many atoms that might be.
then compare it to the number of images you can see on your computer screen (which happens to be made up of atoms)
Atoms are so small we can barely even understand how small they really are. The universe is so big we can barely understand how big it is... the universe is made up of atoms.
Then again... think of how many different images you have seen on your screen, and how many everyone else has seen on their screen, and how many haven't been seen yet, and how many never will.....
[edited by - drjonesdw3d on December 28, 2003 3:57:48 AM]
