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Powers of Ten
by Charles and Ray Eames, 1977
PART 1
0:26
The picnic near the lakeside in Chicago
was the start of a lazy afternoon early one
October.
A film dealing with
the relative size of things
in the universe
and the effect
of adding another zero
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Made by the office of
Charles and Ray Eames
for IBM
© Charles and Ray Eames 1977
(see video at: http://www.powersof10.com/film)
California Language Lab, Milano
[email protected]
We begin with a scene one meter wide
which we view from just one meter away.
Now every ten seconds we will look from
ten times farther away and our field of
view will be ten times wider.
This square is ten meters wide and in ten
seconds the next square will be ten times
as wide. Our picture will center on the
picnickers even after they've been lost to
sight.
One hundred meters wide, the distance a
man can run in ten seconds, cars crowd
the highway, power boats lie at their
docks, the colorful bleachers are Soldier
Field.
Powers of Ten
by Charles and Ray Eames, 1977
1:12
3:00
This square is a kilometer wide, one
thousand meters, the distance a racing car
can travel in ten seconds. We see the Great
City on the lake shore.
Ten to the fourteenth, as the solar system
shrinks to one bright point in the distance, our
Sun is plainly now only one among the stars.
Looking back from here we note four
southern constellations, still much as they
appear from the far side of the Earth.
Ten to the fourth meters, ten kilometres, the
distance a supersonic aeroplane can travel in
ten seconds. We see first the rounded end of
Lake Michigan, then the whole Great Lake.
Ten to the fifth meters, the distance an
orbiting satellite covers in ten seconds, long
parades of clouds, the day's weather in the
Middle West.
Ten to the sixth —a one with six zeros, a
million meters. Soon the Earth will show as a
solid sphere.
We are able to see the whole Earth now, just
over a minute along the journey. The Earth
diminishes into the distance but those
background stars are so much farther away
that they do not yet appear to move.
A line extends at the true speed of light. In
one second, it half crosses the tilted orbit of
the moon.
Now we mark a small part of the path in
which the Earth moves about the Sun. Now
the orbital path of the neighbour planets,
Venus and Mars then Mercury. Entering our
field of view is the glowing center of our solar
system —the Sun— followed by the massive
outer planets, swinging wide in their big orbits.
That odd orbit belongs to Pluto.
A fringe of a million comets too faint to see
completes the solar system.
(see video at: http://www.powersof10.com/film)
California Language Lab, Milano
[email protected]
This square is ten to the sixteenth meters,
one light year, not yet out to the next star. Our
last ten-second step took us ten light years
further, the next will be a hundred. Our
perspective changes so much at each step
now that even the background stars will
appear to converge. At last we pass the bright
star Arcturus and some stars of the Dipper.
Normal but quite unfamiliar, stars and clouds
of gas surround us as we traverse the Milky
Way galaxy.
Giant steps carry us into the outskirts of the
galaxy and as we pull away, we begin to see
the great flat spiral facing us. The time and
path we chose to leave Chicago has brought
us out of the galaxy along a course nearly
perpendicular to its disk.
The two little satellite galaxies of our own are
the clouds of Magellan.
Ten to the twenty-second power, a million
light years. Groups of galaxies bring a new
level of structure to the scene, glowing points
are no longer single stars but whole galaxies
of stars, seen as one. We pass the big Virgo
cluster of galaxies among many others, a
hundred million light years out. As we
approach the limit of our vision, we pause to
start back home. This lonely scene, the
galaxies like dust, is what most of space
looks like. This emptiness is normal. The
richness of our own neighbourhood is the
exception.
Powers of Ten
by Charles and Ray Eames, 1977
7:00
PART 2
5:00
The trip back to the picnic on the lake front
will be a sped up version, reducing the
distance to the Earth surface by one power of
ten every two seconds. In each two seconds
we will appear to cover 90% of the remaining
distance back to Earth. Notice the alternation
between great activity and relative inactivity. A
rhythm that will continue all the way to our
next goal: a proton in a nucleus of a carbon
atom beneath the skin on the hand of the
sleeping man at the picnic.
As we close in, we come to the double helix
itself, a molecule like a long twisted ladder
whose rungs of paired bases spell out
twice,in an alphabet of four letter, the words of
a powerful genetic message.
At the atomic scale, the interplay of form and
motion becomes more visible. We focus on
one commonplace group of three hydrogen
atoms bonded by electrical forces to a carbon
atom. Four electrons make up the outer shell
of the carbon itself. They appear in quantum
motion as a swarm of shimmering points.
Ten to the ninth meters, ten to the eighth,
seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. We are
back at our starting point. We slow up at one
meter: ten to the zero power.
At ten to the minus ten meters —one
ångstrom— we find ourselves right among
those outer electrons. Now we come upon
the two inner electrons held in a tighter
swarm.
Now we reduce the distance to our final
destination by 90% every ten seconds. Each
step much smaller than the one before.
As we draw toward the atom's attracting
center, we enter upon a vast inner space.
At ten to the minus two —one-hundredth of
the meter, one centimeter— we approach the
surface of the hand.
At last the carbon nucleus. So massive and
so small. This carbon nucleus is made up of
six protons and six neutrons.
In a few seconds we will be entering the skin,
crossing layer after layer from the outermost
dead cells into a tiny blood vessel within.
We are in the domain of universal modules.
There are protons and neutrons in every
nucleus. Electrons in every atom. Atoms
bonded into every molecule out of the farthest
galaxy.
Skin layers vanish in turn, an outer layer of
cells —Felty collagen, a capillary containing
red blood cells and a roughly lymphocyte.
We enter the white cell, among its vital
organelles, the porous wall of the cell nucleus
appears.
The nucleus within holds the heredity of the
man in the coiled coils of DNA.
(see video at: http://www.powersof10.com/film)
California Language Lab, Milano
[email protected]
As a single proton fills our scene we reach
the edge of present understanding. Are these
some quarks of intense interaction?
Our journey has taken us through forty
powers of ten. If now the field is one unit then
when we saw many clusters of galaxies
together, it was ten to the fortieth or one and
forty zeros.
Powers of Ten
by Charles and Ray Eames, 1977
8:40
9:00
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Music composed
and performed by
Elmer Bernstein
The End
Narrated by
Philip Morrison
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For the Eames office
Alex Funke
Michael Weiner
Ron Rozelle
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And
Dennis Carmichael
Wendy Vanguard
Cy Didjurgis
Don Amundson
Michael Russell
Sam Passalacqua
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Consultation
John Fessler
Owen Gingerich
Kenneth Johnson
Jean Paul Revel
and
Philip Morrison
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With many thanks to
Chicago aerial survey
Graphic films
Modern film effects
NASA
Norman Hodgkin
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With much
gratitude to
Kees Boeke
(see video at: http://www.powersof10.com/film)
California Language Lab, Milano
[email protected]