One hell of a number.

[ThreeLeggedGnome]

cnn.com

 

[Aves]

Astronomers say there are more stars than grains of sand in all of Earth's deserts and beaches.

:Q

 

[ElFenix]

is there a mole of stars?

 

[JohnCU]

I find it extremely hard to believe that there are more stars than grains of sand in the entire world.

 

[ndee]

how did they count all the grains of sand?

 

[lozina]

I like the theory that the universe is shaped like a donut and when we look out in one direction we're actually looking at ourselves out the distance since the universe wraps around, and therefore the universe is far smaller then we ever thought. That was in some NY Times article a half year ago

 

[911paramedic]

While on this topic, does anybody remember that website with the multiple zoom graphics (through space) ending up on a tree leaf? Sure would like to see that again...

 

[ThreeLeggedGnome]

Typical of scientists and their off-the-wall guess-timates

 

[MacBaine]

Originally posted by: JohnCU
I find it extremely hard to believe that there are more stars than grains of sand in the entire world.

That's because you have no idea how many stars there are.

 

[Wuffsunie]

I heard that a while ago, in regards to intelligent life

There are more stars known to exist right now than the total number of all the grains of sand on every beach in the entire world. With those kinds of odds, it would seem downright naive for someone to go to a beach in, say, some out-of-the-way inlet in Baffin Bay, stoop to pick up only one tiny grainof sand, and declare that that grain alone was the only place where life could exist.
-- Hugh Downs

Nice to see it verified, though.

Of course the counter to this is Calvin's quote about intelligent life:

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
-- Calvin

Yes, I'm just a little cynical :beer:

-- Jack

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: aves2k

Astronomers say there are more stars than grains of sand in all of Earth's deserts and beaches.

:Q

:Q !!!

 

[FrogDog]

Originally posted by: MacBaine

Originally posted by: JohnCU
I find it extremely hard to believe that there are more stars than grains of sand in the entire world.

That's because you have no idea how many stars there are.

Exactly. Open up your mind.

 

[CastorTr0y]

i find it hard to believe you could think there are only as many stars as there are grains of sand. i always imagined it to be a lot more

 

[imported_Papi]

Originally posted by: ndee
how did they count all the grains of sand?

lol

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: aves2k

Astronomers say there are more stars than grains of sand in all of Earth's deserts and beaches.

:Q

Like you can even accurately estimate that?!

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: yayo

Originally posted by: ndee
how did they count all the grains of sand?

lol

Hehe

 

[Bootprint]

Originally posted by: 911paramedic
While on this topic, does anybody remember that website with the multiple zoom graphics (through space) ending up on a tree leaf? Sure would like to see that again...

One of the Powers of 10 sites around.

 

[FrogDog]

Originally posted by: ndee
how did they count all the grains of sand?

Count them in a small area and then apply that to all the area in the world with sand on it.

 

[MazerRackham]

1 mol of stars! (1 mol = 6.022^23)

 

[ndee]

Originally posted by: FrogDog

Originally posted by: ndee
how did they count all the grains of sand?

Count them in a small area and then apply that to all the area in the world with sand on it.

So.... the sand has everywhere the same depth? How deep is the sand going down before it gets Magma?

 

[FrogDog]

Originally posted by: ndee

Originally posted by: FrogDog

Originally posted by: ndee
how did they count all the grains of sand?

Count them in a small area and then apply that to all the area in the world with sand on it.

So.... the sand has everywhere the same depth? How deep is the sand going down before it gets Magma?

No clue how they did it, but I would imagine they would be able to come up with a fairly good average number for how deep it goes.

 

[ndee]

Originally posted by: FrogDog

Originally posted by: ndee

Originally posted by: FrogDog

Originally posted by: ndee
how did they count all the grains of sand?

Count them in a small area and then apply that to all the area in the world with sand on it.

So.... the sand has everywhere the same depth? How deep is the sand going down before it gets Magma?

No clue how they did it, but I would imagine they would be able to come up with a fairly good average number for how deep it goes.

Nooooooooot so sure about that And how can they estimate the number of stars when they don't even know the size of the universum and also count the ones that they can't see?

 

[Zugzwang152]

for some reason, i thought of going to the beach and getting a couple stars caught in my buttcrack.

 

[DurocShark]

Originally posted by: Zugzwang152
for some reason, i thought of going to the beach and getting a couple stars caught in my buttcrack.

Ahh... the pain of metaphor.

 

[FrogDog]

Originally posted by: ndee

Originally posted by: FrogDog

Originally posted by: ndee

Originally posted by: FrogDog

Originally posted by: ndee
how did they count all the grains of sand?

Count them in a small area and then apply that to all the area in the world with sand on it.

So.... the sand has everywhere the same depth? How deep is the sand going down before it gets Magma?

No clue how they did it, but I would imagine they would be able to come up with a fairly good average number for how deep it goes.

Nooooooooot so sure about that And how can they estimate the number of stars when they don't even know the size of the universum and also count the ones that they can't see?

It says in the article that there are more stars in the known universe than grains of sand on Earth. So they do know the size of what they're measuring. And from there it's just a matter of, again, counting the number of stars in a relitively small chunk of area. The Cosmological Priciple says that the Universe is homogeneous over a great distance - that is, there aren't more stars in one area than another, as long each of the areas studied is big enough (about 300 megaparsecs).

But really, I agree, the article is pretty foolish. They can't count either one exactly, and who really cares if there's more stars than grains of sand anyways? It's a meaningless comparison that people are supposed to find interesting (I guess).