Big Stuff ?

[mongers]

I only just realised this, but for every 5 people on earth there's around one cubic kilometre of ocean. 

Didn't expect it to be that large an amount.


Any issues of scale or magnitude* that have surprised you?




* knob jokes expected. 

[crazy canuck]

It always surprises me just how short most people are - when I look down every now and then.

[Malthus]

I only just realised this, but for every 5 people on earth there's around one cubic kilometre of ocean. 

Didn't expect it to be that large an amount.


Any issues of scale or magnitude* that have surprised you?




* knob jokes expected. 

I remember as a kid going fossil collecting with my dad, and being struck like a hammer with the notion of "deep time". The fossils we were collecting were of creatures from a time so old that vertebrates did not exist yet ... just inconceivably old. Ordovician, around 480 million years ago ... yet there they were, under our picks. It gave me a sort of mental vertigo that is difficult to explain.

[mongers]

I only just realised this, but for every 5 people on earth there's around one cubic kilometre of ocean. 

Didn't expect it to be that large an amount.


Any issues of scale or magnitude* that have surprised you?




* knob jokes expected. 

I remember as a kid going fossil collecting with my dad, and being struck like a hammer with the notion of "deep time". The fossils we were collecting were of creatures from a time so old that vertebrates did not exist yet ... just inconceivably old. Ordovician, around 480 million years ago ... yet there they were, under our picks. It gave me a sort of mental vertigo that is difficult to explain.

Yes that's a good one.

It is almost unimaginably long ago. 

[mongers]

It always surprises me just how short most people are - when I look down every now and then.

So you're permanently stuck in an early 1960s comedy sketch?   

[crazy canuck]

It gave me a sort of mental vertigo that is difficult to explain.

Now you get a sense of what it is like to be around so many short people.

[Norgy]

I've grown downwards the past ten years.

[Viking]

that the moon is about 10 earth circumferences away from earth.

[grumbler]

That whatever it is that powers quasars, it is vastly more efficient than nuclear fusion, the most efficient power generation process of which we are aware.

Quasars (and blazars and the rest of that class of galactic nuclei) are just cool and mind-bending in general.

[garbon]

mind-bending in general.

Now you get a sense of what it is like to be around so many short people.

[grumbler]

mind-bending in general.

Now you get a sense of what it is like to be around so many short people.

Why would I need to think of quasars for that when I'm six foot three?  You all look short to me.

[crazy canuck]

mind-bending in general.

Now you get a sense of what it is like to be around so many short people.

Why would I need to think of quasars for that when I'm six foot three?  You all look short to me.

At 6'3" you as tall as my children.

When you grow up let me know.

[DGuller]

Back when I was far less educated about computer science, I remember being struck by the full implication of what an exponential run time entails, usually after bumping into it the hard way. 

Want to try a brute-force approach that tries every combination of 5 lowercase letters?  Sure, write a very clever and efficient code, and wait a couple of minutes.  Want to move up to 10 characters?  It'll finish when you retire.  Want to try 15 characters?  The sun will probably go out before you're done.

[sbr]

Back when I was far less educated about computer science, I remember being struck by the full implication of what an exponential run time entails, usually after bumping into it the hard way. 

Want to try a brute-force approach that tries every combination of 5 lowercase letters?  Sure, write a very clever and efficient code, and wait a couple of minutes.  Want to move up to 10 characters?  It'll finish when you retire.  Want to try 15 characters?  The sun will probably go out before you're done.

What about adding capital letters or *gasp* a special symbol or two? 

[DGuller]

Back when I was far less educated about computer science, I remember being struck by the full implication of what an exponential run time entails, usually after bumping into it the hard way. 

Want to try a brute-force approach that tries every combination of 5 lowercase letters?  Sure, write a very clever and efficient code, and wait a couple of minutes.  Want to move up to 10 characters?  It'll finish when you retire.  Want to try 15 characters?  The sun will probably go out before you're done.

What about adding capital letters or *gasp* a special symbol or two?

It's going to take even longer.