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Various Internet sources put the length of an eyeblink at around 3/10ths of
a second, which works out to a little over 100 millionth of a year.  Which
leads to two possibilities:

a) I misheard the analogy, and it's actually "a nanometer is to a meter as
an eyeblink is to a DECADE" (i.e.: I was off by a factor of ten); or

b) the analogy considers only the amount of time that the eye is completely
closed during a blink.  I cannot readily find that information, but it would
need to be around 1/30th of a second for the original analogy to hold.

In either case, my apologies to Anders.

OK, let's try another one.  The Earth is 24,902.4 miles in circumference
according to World Book, which by my reckoning works out to 1,577,816,064
inches.  A standard ping pong ball is 1.58 inches in circumference.  So, a
nanometer is to a meter as a ping pong ball is to the Earth.

Eugene Dillenburg
Exhibit Developer
Science Museum of Minnesota

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