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Scale of the Universe

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Re: Scale of the Universe

#31

Post by deletes »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #29
deletes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can try I-War 2:Edge of Chaos( space action-simulator with newton physics and inertia ) where the total contiguous world map is around 10^20 km( at least ). But of course most of it is empty as the solar system takes a relatively small place in the center of the map. And similarly to Minecraft if you teleport yourself into the high numbers you will get experience floating point accuracy problems, and weird things…

> if you teleport yourself into the high numbers you will get experience floating point accuracy problems, and weird things start to happen Weird; in case of a space sim this should be a simple thing to fix (octree, for example).

You can't reach such areas without cheating or flying for years, so there is nothing to fix.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#32

Post by chm »

I liked the first one, and I think this version is very good looking too. Good job.

I suggest you add a "play" button, where it scrolls from one end to the other at a slow pace, much like in the first iteration. It's nice to sit back and enjoy the view.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#33

Post by gabaix »

"What is a man in the infinite? But to show him another prodigy no less astonishing, let him examine the most delicate things he knows. Let him take a mite which in its minute body presents him with parts incomparably more minute; limbs with their joints, veins in the limbs, blood in the veins, humours in the blood, drops in the humours, vapours in the drops; let him, again dividing these last, exhaust his power of thought; let the last point at which he arrives be that of which we speak, and he will perhaps think that here is the extremest diminutive in nature. Then I will open before him therein a new abyss. I will paint for him not only the the visible universe, but all that he can conceive of nature’s immensity in the enclosure of this diminished atom. Let him therein see an infinity of universes of which each has its firmament, its planets, its earth, in the same proportion as in the visible world; in each earth animals, and at the last the mites, in which he will come upon all that was in the first, and still find in these others the same without end and without cessation; let him lose himself in wonders as astonishing in their minuteness as the others in their immensity; for who will not be amazed at seeing that our body, which before was imperceptible in the universe, itself imperceptible in the bosom of the whole, is now a colossus, a world, a whole, in regard to the nothingness to which we cannot attain."

-Blaise Pascal, 1669

Re: Scale of the Universe

#34

Post by thangalin »

deletes wrote: post #19
thangalin wrote: post #9

A few of my 3D renders on the topic of scale: - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star-sizes.jpg - http://davidjarvis.ca/dave/gallery/star-sizes/ It is incredible to consider that the largest known stars are the size of the Solar System.

The pictures of the largest stars are not realistic, since they show a clear border of a solid object. In reality the out parts are more like a very thin atmosphere. The average density of the whole star is almost vacuum( 1000 times less than earth atmosphere ).

True; an entirely accurate model would be quite time-consuming. For example, a red giant's photosphere is not spherical.

Niel deGrasse Tyson offered the following feedback:

> If the Sun's Wien's law curve peaked just a few Angstroms over from it's current value would you have illustrated it green? But of course there are no green stars even though the curve peaks there for plenty of them.

> The width of the visible part of the spectrum is so narrow compared with the full-breadth energy distribution of the stars that the fractional difference between one color and the next is quite small. The consequence is that we don't actually see all the colors you show.

- http://www.astro.uvic.ca/~tatum/stellatm.html

- http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9604b/

- http://herschel.cf.ac.uk/results/betelgeuse

- http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/starold_2.html

- http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=wien+displacement+law

Re: Scale of the Universe

#35

Post by T-A »

biot wrote: post #13

Is there not a virtual world which can represent a contiguous series of locations larger than that of Minecraft?

Not really virtual worlds, but will let you fly through the universe and view it at different scales: http://en.spaceengine.org/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/ http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

Re: Scale of the Universe

#37

Post by gnaritas »

ars wrote: post #25
pkfrank wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider also that not only are we very, very, minute and insignificant; we are also exceedingly brief!

We might be insignificant on a physical scale but that's not the right measure to use. We are actually very very significant. We are, as far as we can tell, the only thing that actually notices the universe! This whole enormous universe? It's for us. (And other intelligences, if they exist.)

> We are, as far as we can tell, the only thing that actually notices the universe!

Yes, but that could be quite common as well. The universe could be littered with intelligent beings who all think exactly this.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#38

Post by ars »

gnaritas wrote: post #37
ars wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We might be insignificant on a physical scale but that's not the right measure to use. We are actually very very significant. We are, as far as we can tell, the only thing that actually notices the universe! This whole enormous universe? It's for us. (And other intelligences, if they exist.)

> We are, as far as we can tell, the only thing that actually notices the universe! Yes, but that could be quite common as well. The universe could be littered with intelligent beings who all think exactly this.

And every one of them is (probably) tiny, and every one is important.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#39

Post by TeMPOraL »

deletes wrote: post #31
TeMPOraL wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you teleport yourself into the high numbers you will get experience floating point accuracy problems, and weird things start to happen Weird; in case of a space sim this should be a simple thing to fix (octree, for example).

You can't reach such areas without cheating or flying for years, so there is nothing to fix.

Space Kraken, the punisher of cheaters? :).
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