somebody wrote:

> Do you really find it easy to visualize the number of subatomic particles in
> the visible universe? I don't see why thinking about that would be more
> informative than, say, 1E80.

Well, the number of grains of sand on the entire English coastline is 
"obviously" a pretty damned big number. And the number of subatomic 
particles in the universe is equally obviously *very* much larger.

Call it a failure of the simplistic human mind, but seeing a handful of 
symbols on a page isn't very impressive. Likening it to something that 
at least "feels real" makes it slightly easier to grasp.

For example, off the top of your head, how long is "10^14 seconds"? I 
mean, is that like, months? Millenia? What?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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