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Big History Project

Unit 1: Lesson 2

1.1—Scale

Activity: Notations and Measures

Process

Look at the Notations and Measures infographic, and focus on the center 1x10start superscript, x, end superscript. Do you notice any particular pattern with the numbers in relation to the notation?

For Further Discussion

Think about the following questions. Choose one and share your answer below in the discussion area.

What is the largest object you have observed with your own eyes?
What is the smallest object you have observed with your own eyes?

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Max
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Max's post “Hard to say what the larg...”
Hard to say what the largest thing i've seen with my own eyes is. Probably one of the stars in the night sky. As for smallest. The film of a soap bubble is pretty thin, although the bubble itself is fairly large in all.
(8 votes)
Answer
Ala
Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Ala's post “The smallest thing I have...”
The smallest thing I have seen with my eyes is probably dust. The biggest thing I've ever seen is every thing I look at when I see the sky.
(2 votes)
Answer
Sophie Lanctot
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Sophie Lanctot's post “Once when I was little, m...”
Once when I was little, my family went to this event at an observatory where you could look through the big telescope- I was hoping to see Saturn or something that looked really cool close up, but instead they showed us this galaxy in the constellation of Orion that was extremely huge and extremely far away- cool in theory, but you basically had to squint until you could see a little white smudge. It was pretty neat to think about, but I still would have liked to see saturn, hah!
(2 votes)
Answer
Stevie
Posted 5 years ago. Direct link to Stevie's post “The smallest object I've ...”
The smallest object I've observed with my own eyes is a grain of sand.
(2 votes)
Answer
Sani Denk
Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Sani Denk's post “The largest object i have...”
The largest object i have observed with my own eyes (under the category: human body) is the heart.

The smallest object I have observed with my own eyes was a plant cell
(2 votes)
Answer
Dana Hager
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Dana Hager's post “Perhaps the smallest obje...”
Perhaps the smallest object I have observed with my own eyes are the "floaters" within my eyes. These flecks and cobwebs float around in the fluid. They cast shadows on the world around me.
(1 vote)
Answer
Anderson
Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to Anderson's post “The largest thing i have ...”
The largest thing i have seen with my own eyes is a portion of the universe. The smallest thing i have seen with my eyes is a speck of dust (if assuming the question didn't me with the aid of a microscope or pictures of thing taken with really powerful microscopes).
(1 vote)
Answer
Miguel Diamantino
Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to Miguel Diamantino's post “The largest object i've e...”
The largest object i've ever saw with my naked eyes is probably the moon. Despite looking small i know it's actually huge.

The smalest object was sand. That or my gramma's patience :)
(1 vote)
Answer
hhooten
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to hhooten's post “The biggest thing i have ...”
The biggest thing i have ever seen is probably a star. The smallest is some particles from a fish scale i saw through a microscope.
(1 vote)
Answer
Yuta Mineyama
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Yuta Mineyama's post “how did the Milky Way mak...”
how did the Milky Way make up?
(1 vote)
Answer