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Not long ago, I was working on a multimedia script about the chemical
industry and needed to figure out some way to illustrate the size of an
atom. After some basic calulations I came up with this.
If you put a single atom (or more correctly a single ion) of sodium or
chlorine beside a typical 0.3mm cube-shaped crystal of sodium chloride table
salt, the size ratio is close to the size ratio of the same tiny salt
crystal beside a cube as high as the Eiffel Tower.
Promoting public engagement with science
through a contagious delight in phenomena
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Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
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Ian Russell
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Informal Science Education Network
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eric Siegel
> Sent: 20 October 2008 12:41
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: if you put...
>
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of
> Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network
> of science museums and related institutions.
> **************************************************************
> ***************
>
> Here at ASTC, I have heard a few great examples of a minor
> art form in which people try to explain how small, numerous,
> or large something is by analogy. They invariably start with
> "if you put [or took].
>
> I would like to start a collection of these short analogies, so please
> contribute: Here are a few to start
>
> From New Scientist: "if you took all the phage particles
> [like viruses] and stacked them end to end, they would reach
> for a total distance of 200 million light years."
> From dinner last night: "if each star was a grain of sand,
> and you filled a box car with sand, and you did that for many
> many boxcars, it would take seven years of boxcars of sand
> passing you, one every five seconds, to make up the total
> number of stars in the universe."
> From NISE-net meetings: "If you filled the exploratorium
> with rats, and every rat touched every other rat every
> second, that is how fast the molecules in a cell are moving."
> From Dorothy Parker: "If you laid all the girls at Vassar
> end to end...I wouldn't be surprised."
>
> Others?
>
>
> Eric Siegel
> esiegel at nyscience dot org
>
>
>
>
>
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
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