pali_nalu
How Large is a Billion (cover image)
Science? Math? Demography? In all three cases, comprehending the truly immense ENORMITY of a BILLION is a core understanding of biospheric literacy. For college and university faculties the PDF envisions a well-remunerated editor whose task is to publish a one-billion-page "Encyclopedia of Theoretical Physics" at a rate of 500 peer-reviewed, edited, and published pages per week , 52 weeks per year. At such a rate, how much time will be required to complete the project?
HINT: The answer is 38,461 years - which means that if the editor began this task 20,000 years ago, when ice was one-mile-thick over Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, when people still lived in caves, and wooly mammoths still roamed the earth, and successfully published 100-pages per day, five days a week without fail, for 52 weeks a year - from then until now - he or she would have to CONTINUE working for 18,461 ADDITIONAL years into the future in order to complete the project.
(Now imagine turning each and every one of those pages of theoretical physics, from ALL 38,461 years, into a human being, and then adding all of them to our planet in twelve years - and then do this repeatedly and one can begin to understand why earth's biospheric life-support machinery is breaking.)
A similar thought-experiment for use by educators, students, and younger audiences can be posed as "the riddle of a billion homework questions." (Hint: In both cases the answer is the same - 38,461 years.)
These images are courtesy of The Wecskaop Project and Biospherics Literacy 101 - (What Every Citizen Should Know About Our Planet). Downloadable PDFs and slide presentations on related topics are accessible at www.scribd.com/TheWecskaopProject and www.scribd.com/math_resources
How Large is a Billion (cover image)
Science? Math? Demography? In all three cases, comprehending the truly immense ENORMITY of a BILLION is a core understanding of biospheric literacy. For college and university faculties the PDF envisions a well-remunerated editor whose task is to publish a one-billion-page "Encyclopedia of Theoretical Physics" at a rate of 500 peer-reviewed, edited, and published pages per week , 52 weeks per year. At such a rate, how much time will be required to complete the project?
HINT: The answer is 38,461 years - which means that if the editor began this task 20,000 years ago, when ice was one-mile-thick over Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, when people still lived in caves, and wooly mammoths still roamed the earth, and successfully published 100-pages per day, five days a week without fail, for 52 weeks a year - from then until now - he or she would have to CONTINUE working for 18,461 ADDITIONAL years into the future in order to complete the project.
(Now imagine turning each and every one of those pages of theoretical physics, from ALL 38,461 years, into a human being, and then adding all of them to our planet in twelve years - and then do this repeatedly and one can begin to understand why earth's biospheric life-support machinery is breaking.)
A similar thought-experiment for use by educators, students, and younger audiences can be posed as "the riddle of a billion homework questions." (Hint: In both cases the answer is the same - 38,461 years.)
These images are courtesy of The Wecskaop Project and Biospherics Literacy 101 - (What Every Citizen Should Know About Our Planet). Downloadable PDFs and slide presentations on related topics are accessible at www.scribd.com/TheWecskaopProject and www.scribd.com/math_resources