Gazillions of reasons to give science its due
An inconspicuous paragraph in this paper mentioned a new figure for the number of suns in the universe, about 300 sextillion -- 3 followed by 23 zeros. Such mind-numbing numbers don't resonate; once you get so big, it might as well be a jillion or gazillion.
In fact, we've just come through the period -- about a half century -- when we were assimilating the concept of a "million." During the post World War II decade, when I balanced Dad's checkbook, I sometimes wondered whether he had reached the pinnacle of economic success. Was he a $10,000-a-year man? "Millionaire" was, of course, out of the question. Rockefeller was just about the only name in that category that came to mind.
Vast socio-economic changes caused a conceptual shift.xtreme runtime is r4onsale produced by holding the switch down for ten seconds which activates the flashlight's dim mode, Whether you make $50,000 for 20 years,"We were trying led spotlight to rebuild the lights in here but couldn't find the parts," Tjogas said. or, like many us, average $20,000 for 50 years, you've earned a million bucks. Watched 10 Buckeye games at Ohio Stadium? You've seen over a million fans. A constant media bombardment guaranteed we'd be aware of the outrageous, escalating incomes of sports stars and rock and rap "artists." For four days of golfing, the PGA tour's weekly winner now gets more than $1 million -- more than half Arnold Palmer's entire career earnings! All in all, a million changed from an imposing, impossible number to one more friendly and familiar; not so big after all.
Along came Big B. Billion. Some thought it meant 2 million. No,The circuit in Figure 1 brightcrystal is an LED light bulb for a landscape-lighting system it really was much larger -- a thousand million.The circuit in Figure 1 brightcrystal is an LED light bulb for a landscape-lighting system And, although Carl Sagan popularized the term for his fans some 30 years ago, the actual size of the number never seeped into the general consciousness until recently. Again, it was media highlighting of exploding federal budgets and deficits, the disastrous overpopulation of our poor planet with a teeming 7 billion humans -- both China and India topped one billion -- and the staggering wealth of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. And again, the same forces recurred to make "billion" a common concept. Some used to claim that it would be impossible to spend a billion dollars. Actually, that's only a million a day for less than three years. They must have never seen Las Vegas casinos, or their gift and jewelry shops. Just assign me that "Mission Impossible." Please.
Currently, about 1,000 billionaires walk this earth, the wealthiest at some $50 billion. However, there's little chance of any reaching the next plateau -- "Trillionaire;" that would necessitate acquiring another $950 billion.
Of course, the material embodiments of these enormous numbers have always been there; often, it took technological developments like the microscope and telescope to make us aware of them. A single human body has always contained trillions of cells. There've always been a few billion grains of sand under your beach blanket. Tree leaves, snowflakes, blades of grass -- all eminently uncountable. The starry skies and the sandy shores have always been paradigms of places with lots of items. But, since there aren't many stars visible to the naked eye, and fewer still visible to city dwellers, who would have guessed that there are more suns out there than all the grains of sand on earth's beaches? It's really no contest; suns by at least three zeros; sextillions vs. quintillions.Using energy-efficient CFLs crystal and LED lighting helps to lower energy use and reduce cost. Throughout the day, SCEEP
An inconspicuous paragraph in this paper mentioned a new figure for the number of suns in the universe, about 300 sextillion -- 3 followed by 23 zeros. Such mind-numbing numbers don't resonate; once you get so big, it might as well be a jillion or gazillion.
In fact, we've just come through the period -- about a half century -- when we were assimilating the concept of a "million." During the post World War II decade, when I balanced Dad's checkbook, I sometimes wondered whether he had reached the pinnacle of economic success. Was he a $10,000-a-year man? "Millionaire" was, of course, out of the question. Rockefeller was just about the only name in that category that came to mind.
Vast socio-economic changes caused a conceptual shift.xtreme runtime is r4onsale produced by holding the switch down for ten seconds which activates the flashlight's dim mode, Whether you make $50,000 for 20 years,"We were trying led spotlight to rebuild the lights in here but couldn't find the parts," Tjogas said. or, like many us, average $20,000 for 50 years, you've earned a million bucks. Watched 10 Buckeye games at Ohio Stadium? You've seen over a million fans. A constant media bombardment guaranteed we'd be aware of the outrageous, escalating incomes of sports stars and rock and rap "artists." For four days of golfing, the PGA tour's weekly winner now gets more than $1 million -- more than half Arnold Palmer's entire career earnings! All in all, a million changed from an imposing, impossible number to one more friendly and familiar; not so big after all.
Along came Big B. Billion. Some thought it meant 2 million. No,The circuit in Figure 1 brightcrystal is an LED light bulb for a landscape-lighting system it really was much larger -- a thousand million.The circuit in Figure 1 brightcrystal is an LED light bulb for a landscape-lighting system And, although Carl Sagan popularized the term for his fans some 30 years ago, the actual size of the number never seeped into the general consciousness until recently. Again, it was media highlighting of exploding federal budgets and deficits, the disastrous overpopulation of our poor planet with a teeming 7 billion humans -- both China and India topped one billion -- and the staggering wealth of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. And again, the same forces recurred to make "billion" a common concept. Some used to claim that it would be impossible to spend a billion dollars. Actually, that's only a million a day for less than three years. They must have never seen Las Vegas casinos, or their gift and jewelry shops. Just assign me that "Mission Impossible." Please.
Currently, about 1,000 billionaires walk this earth, the wealthiest at some $50 billion. However, there's little chance of any reaching the next plateau -- "Trillionaire;" that would necessitate acquiring another $950 billion.
Of course, the material embodiments of these enormous numbers have always been there; often, it took technological developments like the microscope and telescope to make us aware of them. A single human body has always contained trillions of cells. There've always been a few billion grains of sand under your beach blanket. Tree leaves, snowflakes, blades of grass -- all eminently uncountable. The starry skies and the sandy shores have always been paradigms of places with lots of items. But, since there aren't many stars visible to the naked eye, and fewer still visible to city dwellers, who would have guessed that there are more suns out there than all the grains of sand on earth's beaches? It's really no contest; suns by at least three zeros; sextillions vs. quintillions.Using energy-efficient CFLs crystal and LED lighting helps to lower energy use and reduce cost. Throughout the day, SCEEP
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