Here’s a great illustration from George Gamow’s classic book One Two Three… Infinity which shows two things: just how big 
That’s a big number, folks.
Gamow’s book is one of several on my summer reading list, and there’s a reason it’s a classic. In particular, it’s chock full of cool illustrations like this that convey more information about a science concept than an hour’s worth of lecturing.
Filed under: Geekhood, Math, Science , gamow, graphics, numbers, Science, visualization
Looks like a good one! I’ll have to pick this one up. Reminds me of Carl Sagan’s description of the history of the universe as a big calendar, where humans have only been around for a couple hours on December 31st. The Universe specials on the History channel used this same metaphor.
I still havent found any math “story book” better than Flatland. I still rave about that one to people.
If only they could teach more things like this for the simple parts of math for younger students. Maybe people wouldnt get so scared… Or maybe I’m just a dork for thinking this stuff is cool!
[...] many other people, I find the summer a great time for kicking back and catching up on some reading. My wife is [...]