How empty is the universe?

I can't even grasp those examples. People have trouble with infinity, and I'm still trying to fathom sand on a beach. :) Why do you ask, UW?
 
Undesired Walrus said:
That's interesting. What would be the size comparison of that? A watch in the Atlantic? A sand grain in the Sahara? There's no way I can grasp these things without these examples.
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"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." D Adams.

http://www.kidsgethealthy.org/images/peanut.jpg
http://www.ebnsina.com/outlets/pharmacies/City-Center-map.jpg

Note: peanut and map for illustrative purposes only. You will need your own peanut and town to measure the exact distance in peanuts.

Edited by prewitt81: 
Removing hotlinked images
 
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Cynic said:
Why do you ask, UW?
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I love them. They reduce the most burlish man to a crying wreck.

One of my favourites was that if the Sun was in London, and the distance to Earth was 25 yards, the nearest star would be in Pakistan.

The head of a pin compared to the earth.
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Cool. Is this just a guess or an accurate comparison?
 
Undesired Walrus said:
I love them. They reduce the most burlish man to a crying wreck.

One of my favourites was that if the Sun was in London, and the distance to Earth was 25 yards, the nearest star would be in Pakistan.

Cool. Is this just a guess or an accurate comparison?
Click to expand...
That's roughly calculated using sol's number, wikipedia and my knowledge about pinheads.

It's not hard. You can too.
 
As my high school science teacher once said, "If you took the whole universe and squished it down to the size of a baseball, you'd be dead."
 
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