More Facts About The Size of The Universe

We all stand amazed at how vast the universe is. But have you stopped to consider that the universe is about as small as it is big?

Now, we all know that matter is made up of atoms. And the building blocks of atoms are protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and neutrons make up the nucleus while the electrons orbit the nucleus much like our earth does the sun. With this in mind...

Just how small is the universe anyway? Consider the following:

1. On the tip of a ball-point pen, there are so many atoms that if they were carried by an army of soldiers marching four abreast - an atom to a man - it would take over 20,000 years for them to march past
2. It would take 25 trillion protons laid side-by-side to span a linear inch.
3. There are as many protons in a cubic inch of copper as there are drops of water in all the oceans or grains of sand on all the seashores of the earth
4. The size of an electron is to a dust speck, as a dust speck is to the entire earth
5. The space between an electron and the nucleus is 10,000 times as great as the size of the nucleus itself. For example, if the outer shell of electrons in an atom were the size of a large football stadium, the nucleus would be about the size of a ping-pong ball in the center of that stadium.

Okay, so here's a question: If most of an atom is empty space, why does a table top offer so much resistance when you try to push your finger through it?

Answer: Because the surface of the table (as well as your finger for that matter) consists of a wall of electrons belonging to the outermost layer of atoms in both objects. Both the speed and force attraction of the electrons prohibit your finger from going through the table - much as a spinning bicycle wheel would prevent you from placing your finger through the spokes.

Now, all of this makes for some unbelievable energy in compact form! For example:

1. The protons and neutrons within the nucleus of an atom are held together with a density of 1 billion tons per cubic inch! That's about 40 pounds between each proton!
2. This energy force is equal to 1 X 1038 times greater than regular gravitational forces. Just how big is this number? It is over 100 trillion times the number of grains of sand on the seashores of the earth!
3. German physicist Otto Gail calculated that a single drop of gasoline, if completely utilized in an automobile and all of this latent energy tapped into, would be enough for 400 trips around the world (that's a trip involving ten million miles - pretty good gas mileage, huh?)
4. Albert Einstein calculated that the total amount of energy released from a single ounce of water could easily lift 200 million tons of steel one mile above the earth.
5. Finally, the amount of latent energy in one gram of matter is equal to 2.5 the amount of energy generated by the Niagara Falls in one entire day. That's ten million kilowatts!

I guess it really is true - dynamite does come in small packages!