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Scale of the Universe

(scaleofuniverse.com)
249 points Leftium | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.205s | source
1. dhosek ◴[] No.40088972[source]
Something I recently posted on Bluesky in response to someone complaining about the exaggerated vertical scale of a relief map of the US:

https://bsky.app/profile/dahosek.bsky.social/post/3kqfzyvoz5...

> It’s worth noting that the coast-to-coast measure of the US is a bit under 3000 miles, while the highest elevation in the continental US is a bit under 3 miles above sea level, so in a 1000-pixel map, that would translate to a 1 pixel height for Mt Whitney!

> So that difference in elevation is less than the diameter difference of the earth due to its rotation! A billiard ball has a diameter of 2in and the variation in the earth’s diameter scaled to that level would be 0.0066in which is smaller than a dust mite.

> I should also point out that the diagrams that show the earth’s elliptical orbit are also a lie. Drawn correctly proportioned, the earth’s orbit is indistinguishable from a circle to the naked eye. (And don’t get me started on the pictures that overstate the size of sun & planets vs their orbits).

> The universe is huge, we are tiny.