This week we talked about space and art, which is a comprehensive topic that contains so many fields we have discussed before, such as nano tech, bio tech, mathematics and robotics. By going through this week's material, I'm impressed by the beauty of the space and human's effort in exploring the space.
The video of "Powers of Ten" shows me the power of mathematics again. It depicts the relative scale of the universe according to an order of magnitude based on a factor of ten, first expanding out from the Earth until the entire universe is surveyed, then reducing inward until a single atom and its quarks are observed. From a field of view of 10^24 meters or the size of the observable universe to 10^-16 meters or quarks in a proton of a carbon, the scale of ten only cover a range of 40, but the scope has covered everything from the universe to the micro world. That's the magic power of mathematics! It reminds me of the wheat and chessboard problem: if a chessboard were to have wheat placed upon each square such that one grain were place on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, and so on (doubling the number of grains on each subsequent square), how many grains of wheat would be on the chessboard at the finish? Similarly, here we can find that even by just doubling or multiplying an insignificant number in your opinion, the result can be surprising. We all know that mathematics, art, and science are in juxtaposition. They are inseparable. Knowing math better can help us understand the universe better.
The film not only gives me a general understanding of the scale of the universe, but also makes me think about the literature of Pale Blue Dot. Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken by Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 million kilometers. In the photo, Earth's apparent size is less that a pixel. The planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight scattered by the camera's optics. It's hard to believer that the world we live in is so tiny and even insignificant compared to the whole universe, but it is also amazing that all the life, all the people and things we love and care about is in this unique planet, so we should appreciate and treasure Earth more. Human put so much effort in exploring the space, the purpose is not only to understand our living environment in the universe, but also to reflect the truth that our planet is one of a kind. It is also a progress of understand ourselves in a better way.work cited
"Powers of ten." Youtube. Eames Office, 26 Aug 2010. Web. 29 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0>
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