07-22-2006, 06:52 AM
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sex dwarf
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 17,860
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Quote:
Q: How BIG is this page?
A: This page is 9 quadrillion pixels wide by 9 quadrillion pixels tall. Thus it contains a large number of pixels:
8,100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
otherwise known as 8.1 nonillion. In scientific notation, that's 8.1x10^30, hereafter shown in the form 8.1e30.
This means that the repeating background image has 5.4e28 stars on it-- about as many as there would be if our universe was multiplied to a million times it's current observable size.
Futhermore, at 77 pixels to the inch, this page takes up 3.4e18 square miles and is 1.844 billion miles on a side-- an area roughly equivalent to a section of the plane of our Solar System with the sun at the center and the orbit of Saturn on the outside edge (a square 22 AU on a side). That's about 17 billion times the surface area of the Earth.
Test it for yourself. Using the arrow keys to scroll, see if you can move the scroll button even one pixel. On second thought, don't-- especially if you're the doggedly persistent type. To do so will take about seven times longer than your natural lifespan. This method causes you to "move" across the plane of this page at the equivalent of a toddler's walking pace-- around 0.5 mph. At this rate, it would take you half a million years to cross from one end to the other.
As you may know, it is enormously quicker to use the mouse and click on the empty part of the scroll bar and then hold down the mouse button. Using this method, you would be able to cross in about 100 minutes. Doing so causes you to move at about Warp 1.5-- a virtual velocity of over 1.5 times the speed of light (ignoring relativistic effects). If you try it, you'll see that the background starfield appears to be going by at no more than ten miles an hour. In actuality, the glimpses you are seeing of the starfield are tens of thousands of miles apart. Enormous expanses are being skipped over completely.
Of course, it is far quicker to use the mouse to grab the scroll button and slide it over. Not as quick as using this link, however: To the Corner.
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http://www.deepskyfrontier.com/#howbig01
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