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 For those of you who don’t know a picometer from a pickle or a fermi from a fern, Powers of Ten may take a little explaining. Charles and Ray Eames produced the Powers of Ten film in 1977 as part of an ongoing effort to make science and technology more interesting and accessible to the public. In nine minutes, the film—now the centerpiece of the Powers of Ten exhibit—takes its viewers on a voyage from a picnic in Chicago to the edge of the Universe, zooming out to cover ten times as much space every ten seconds. Then the camera returns to the picnicker, narrowing in on his hand by powers of ten until it focuses on a tiny quark within one of his cells. Along the way, viewers learn not only about exponential growth and the appropriate units to define it, but also about the many ways in which questions of scale can enhance their understanding of the world around and within them. [read more] thanks to plep |