How Big is Big and How Small is Small
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spherical, 83
earthquake, 50
Eddington luminosity, 207
Einstein, Albert, 75, 223
electromagnetic force, 108, 135, 242
electroweak, 243
elephant, 24
energy, 97
chemical, 104
conservation of, 66, 97
food, 101
fuel, 102
gravitational, 102
nuclear, 102
tidal, 100
wood, 102
meteor, 103
nuclear, 106
potential, 98
entropy, 66, 69
equation of time, 114
Eratosthenes of Cyrene, 3, 84
eukaryotes, 18
eyes, 14
F
Fechner’s law, 57
Fechner, Gustav, 57
fen, 127
fermi, 7, 170
Fermi, Enrico, 170
Feynman diagram, 177
Feynman, Richard, 177
foil, 149
football (soccer), 33, 95, 118
force
electromagnetic, 108, 135, 242
four fundamental, 107
general features, 171
gravitational, 108, 135, 197, 243
nuclear, 165, 170, 171, 177
strong, 108, 135, 174, 242
weak, 109, 135, 245
frames per second, 118
François, André Méchain Pierre, 5, 147
Franklin, Benjamin, 153
French Republic calendar, 128
French revolution, 128
fusion, 144, 246
G
GAIA space telescope, 212
galactic year, 134
galaxy, 205
barred spiral, 216
Galilean moons, 184–186
Galilei, Galileo, 24, 184–187
Gardner, Martin, 234
Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis, 37
Gelon, King, 80
General Conference on Weights and Measurement, 147
general relativity, 120, 223
geologic time, 138, 144
geothermal, 100
GeV, 169
gigahertz, 120
globular clusters, 217
age of, 144
gluons, 172
gnomon, 112
Google, 232
googol, 231
googolplex, 232
Graham’s number, 234
Graham, Ronald, 234
Grand Canyon, 87, 139
grand unified theory, 243
gravitational
force, 108, 135, 196, 243
lensing, 214
vs. chemical, 244
Great Nebula of Cerina, 215
Great Wall, 225
Greek number system, 81
guitar, 62
Gutenberg, Beno, 49
H
hair, 15
measure, 150
Hale-Bopp, comet, 133
Halley’s comet, 133
Halley, Edmond, 133, 190, 210
Hamlet, 231
harmonics, 61, 160
Haussmann, Baron, 21
heat, 64
Heisenberg uncertainty principle, 121, 171
heliometer, 55
heliosphere/heliopause, 202
helium-neon (HeNe) laser, 121
Henderson, Thomas, 210
heptatonia prima, 60
Hertzsprung, Ejnar, 212
Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, 212, 213
Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 81
Hipparchus of Nicaea, 54
Hipparcos space telescope, 212
Hirst, David, 118
Hofstadter, Robert, 170
homeothermic, 24
horology, 116
horsepower, 96
Hubble’s law, 223
Hubble, Edwin Powell, 218, 223
Huygens, Christiaan, 208
Hyakutake, comet, 133
hydrogen, 122
hydrogen burning limit, 207
I
infinity, 235–237
interference, 150, 152, 157
island universe, 16, 218
isotope, 165
J
joule, 96
Joule, James Prescott, 97
Jovian planets, 199
K
Kant, Immanuel, 16, 218
Kasner, Edward, 231
ke, 127
Kelvin, 33
Kepler’s laws, 132, 134, 190, 191
Kepler, Johannes, 132, 185
kinetic theory of gasses, 67
Kirkwood gaps, 201
Knuth up-arrow notation, 232–234
Kuiper belt, 202
L
Large Hadron Collider, 179
large-scale structure of the universe, 224, 225
law of definite proportions, 36
laws of thermodynamics, 66
Leavitt, Henrietta Swan, 218
lifeimes, 135
light, see speed of light
aberration, 210
wavelength measure, 150
lightning, 119
lightyear (ly), 7, 31, 211
Linnaeus, Carolus, 7
Littorina, 22
local group, 219
local magnitude scale, see Richter scale
logarithm, 48
logical positivist, 72
long scale, 31
longitude, problem, 187
Loschmidt’s paradox, 69
Loschmidt, Johann Josef, 39, 68
Loxodonta, 25
luminosity, 56
M
Mach, Ernst, 71
magnitude
absolute, 212
apparent, 212
Mathematics and the Imagination, 231
Maxwell, James Clark, 39, 67, 243
Maxwell–Boltzman distribution, 68
Mercalli intensity scale, 50
Mercalli, Giuseppe, 50
meter, 4, 6, 146, 148, 240
Earth based, 147
krypton-86, 148
light, 148
platinum–iridium bar, 147
metre, see meter
miao, 127
microstates, 71
mile, 3
Milky Way, 134, 216–217
name, 205
Mohs’s scale of mineral hardness, 52
Mohs, Friedrich, 52
molecule, 155
size of, 39, 153
molecules-in-ocean problem, 34, 43
monkeys typing, 231
Moon, 131
distance to, 86
moons, 195–197
moons of Jupiter, see Galilean moons
Munich arsenal, 65
muon, 119
musical scales, 60
N
names of numbers, 31
nanosecond, 120
natural units, 76
nebula, 214–216
nerve pulses, 118
neutron, 165, 178
lifetime, 131
size of, 170
Newman, James R., 231
Newton’s law of gravity, 134
Newton’s laws of motion, 67
niche, 29
nuclear
chain reaction, 120
energy, 100, 106
force, 165, 170–172, 177
vs. chemical, 106
nucleon, 165
size of, 170
nucleosynthesis, 144
nucleus, 165
size of, 158
O
oil, 153
omega particle, 123
Oort cloud, 202
orbital resonance, 200
orbits, 158
Ordovician period, 110
Orion nebula, 215
overtones, 61, 160
P
Pangaea, 142
paper thickness, 149
parallax, 90
Parmenides of Elea, 112
parsec (pc), 7, 210
particles, 123
pendulum clocks, 113
pennies, 70, 230
periodic table of the elements, 162
periwinkle, 22
phanerozoic eon, 140
photometry, 55
photons in the universe, 230
photosynthesis, 99
piano, 60
pion, 123, 170, 177
Planck length, 76, 181, 235
Planck’s constant, 73, 76, 121
Planck’s law, 73
Planck’s relation, 75
Planck, Max Karl Ernst Ludwig, 72
planet, 132, 198–201
definition of, 201, 241
planetary rings, 197, 198
Pluto, 201
Pogson ratio Po, 56
Pogson, Norman Robert, 56
Poincaré recurrence theorem, 234
pool, 69
positional number system, 81
potassium–argon dating, 141
power, 96
power towers, 232
Preseli hills, 110
prokaryotes, 18
protein, 17
proton, 165
size of, 170
psychophysics, 57
Ptolemy, Claudius, 54
public land survey system, 9
pyramids, 33
Pythagoras, 83
Q
quantum chromodynamics, 174, 242
quantum mechanics, 74, 121, 159
wavefunction, 160, 169
quarks, 172, 177, 178
flavors, 175
in the universe, 229
R
Rømer, Olaf, 188
radioactive decays, 136
Rayleigh, 153
redwood, 27
revolutionary calendar, 128
Richer, Jean, 189
Richter scale, 49
Richter, Charles, 49
Robinson, John Thomas Romney, 46
Roche limit, 197, 198
Roche, Édouard, 197
Roman number system, 81
rotifers, 21
Rumford, Count, 64
Russell, Henry Norris, 212
S
Saffir, Herbert, 47
Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale, 47
Salisbury Plain, 110
sand in universe, 91
Sand Reckoner, 80
satellite, 186
scales of nature, 239, 244, 245
Schrödinger, Erwin, 17, 33
scientific notation, 35
sclerometer, 52
seeing, 168
seismograph, 49
sequoia, 27
shake, shakes of a lamb’s tail, 120
shichen, 127
Shoemaker-Levy 9, comet, 133
short scale, 32
sidereal time, 114
Sidereus Nuncius, 185
Simpson, Bob, 47
Sloan Digital Sky Survey, 225
Sloan Great Wall, 225
Smith, William “Strata”, 140
soccer, 33, 95, 118
solar
cells, 99
radiation, 99
time, 113
vs. sidereal time, 132
solar system, 198–204
age of, 143
sound, 58
special relativity, 119
spectral parallax, 213
spectrum lines, 122
speed of light, 186
Rømer, Jupiter, 188
Galileo’s measurement, 186
spherical vs. irregular bodies, 195–197
sponges, 21
stade, 3, 85, 240
standard model, 180
star(s), 206–208
age of, 144
biggest, 207
distance to, 208
in the universe, 229
maximum size, 207
minimum size, 207
nearby, 211
Starry Messenger, 185
statistical mechanics, 68
Stefan, Joseph, 68, 73
Stefan–Boltzmann law, 73
stellar
magnitude, 54
parallax, 209–210
Steno, Nicholas, 138
stomata, 22
Stonehenge, 110, 133
stratigraphy, 139
string theory, 182
strong force, 108, 135, 174, 242
Struve, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von, 210
Sun, 206
distance to, 87
energy, 98
magnitude, 58
size of, 207
sundial, 112
supercontinents, 142
supernova, 144, 215, 221
surface to volume, 19
survey, 87
synodic period, 132
Syracuse, 80
T
table of nuclides, 166, 167
terrestrial planets, 199
theory of everything, 243
thin film, 153
Thompson, Benjamin, see Rumford, Count
time
nanosecond, 120
tidal effect, 116
time’s arrow, 112
Titus-Bode law, 200
towns vs. city, 20
township and range, 8
trachea, 22
transit of Venus, 190–194
Tresca, 149
Tresca, Henri, 148
Triangulum galaxy, 16, 58, 219
Tully–Fisher, 220–221
Two New Sciences, 24, 186
U
universe
age of, 144, 145
photons in the, 230
quarks in the, 229
sand in, 91
size of, 226, 235
size of, Archimedes, 89
stars in the, 229
University of Vienna, 68
uranium-238, 164
V
vanadium-50, 136
Virgo supercluster, 222
Voyager, 202
W
Walrus and the Carpenter, 78, 79
warm blooded, see homeothermic
watt, 96
Watt, James, 96
wavefunction, see also quantum mechanics
wavelength, 150
waves, 160
weak decay, 135
weak force, 109, 135, 245
Weber–Fechner’s law, 57
Wegener, Alfred, 142
whale, 26
Wien, Wilhelm, 73
wind speed, 46
WMAP cold spot, 225
Y
yoctosecond, 126
Yukawa, Hideki, 171
Z
Zeno’s paradoxes, 236
zero, 235
Zeuxippus, 80