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protonchain
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So I wanted to take a break from my term paper (which I pretty much got the skeletal draft of it done) to do a quick calculation.
One of the articles I was reading in science mag. was talking about the dark ages of the universe and the birth of the first star what have you.
One of the things he mentioned was "I learn about the great things in the universe and then in the morning I open my newspaper to find out about war and drama, and I just feel so stupid".
Note I'm paraphrasing, that's not how he said it.
Well that sort of hit me since my mom was talking to me about both good things and bad. I didn't know whether this should go into the physics section or not, and then I realized the message is a bit more existential so.
Anyways getting to the point. I decided to make an order of magnitude estimate as to how insignificant we actually are.
So, what are the parameters?
Well the mass of the Earth is [tex]M_{Earth} \sim 6x10^{24} kg[/tex], and for the sun is [tex]M_{Sun} \sim 2x10^{30} kg[/tex]. The mass of the milky way is estimated to be ~[tex]5x10^{11} M_{Sun}[/tex]
Let's assume that every galaxy in the universe has the same mass as the milky way (order of magnitude so who cares about being off by a small factor). There are 125 billion galaxies (according to HST), so the percentage that the Earth is compared to all the galaxies and stars is given by
[tex] \frac{M_{Earth} * 100}{M_{Sun} * 5x10^{11} * 125,000,000,000} \sim 4.8x10^{-27} \% = 0.0000000000000000000000000048 \%[/tex]
But that's not all. Not even close. Let's say the average person weighs 150 lbs or ~68 kg (doesn't matter, google calculator converts everything).
Then the average person, relative to the visible universe is:
[tex] \frac{150 lbs * 100}{M_{Sun} * 5x10^{11} * 125,000,000,000} \sim 5.5x10^{-50} \% = 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000055 \%[/tex]
Oh but we don't stop there folks. According to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and other instruments, the density distribution is given as 74% dark energy, 22% dark matter, and 4% matter, where 0.4% is all the stars and galaxies. (Yes I know it's density but density is a function of mass and this is order of magnitude so who cares)
So the Earth relative to what we know as everything in the universe (visible and invisible):
[tex] \frac{M_{Earth} * 100}{(M_{Sun} * 5x10^{11} * 125,000,000,000)/0.004} \sim 2x10^{-29} \% = 0.00000000000000000000000000002 \%[/tex]
And so a man or woman, relative to the whole universe:
[tex] \frac{150 lbs * 100}{(M_{Sun} * 5x10^{11} * 125,000,000,000)/0.004} \sim 2.2x10^{-52} \% = 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000022 \%[/tex]
Why do we still have wars and other petty BS?
One of the articles I was reading in science mag. was talking about the dark ages of the universe and the birth of the first star what have you.
One of the things he mentioned was "I learn about the great things in the universe and then in the morning I open my newspaper to find out about war and drama, and I just feel so stupid".
Note I'm paraphrasing, that's not how he said it.
Well that sort of hit me since my mom was talking to me about both good things and bad. I didn't know whether this should go into the physics section or not, and then I realized the message is a bit more existential so.
Anyways getting to the point. I decided to make an order of magnitude estimate as to how insignificant we actually are.
So, what are the parameters?
Well the mass of the Earth is [tex]M_{Earth} \sim 6x10^{24} kg[/tex], and for the sun is [tex]M_{Sun} \sim 2x10^{30} kg[/tex]. The mass of the milky way is estimated to be ~[tex]5x10^{11} M_{Sun}[/tex]
Let's assume that every galaxy in the universe has the same mass as the milky way (order of magnitude so who cares about being off by a small factor). There are 125 billion galaxies (according to HST), so the percentage that the Earth is compared to all the galaxies and stars is given by
[tex] \frac{M_{Earth} * 100}{M_{Sun} * 5x10^{11} * 125,000,000,000} \sim 4.8x10^{-27} \% = 0.0000000000000000000000000048 \%[/tex]
But that's not all. Not even close. Let's say the average person weighs 150 lbs or ~68 kg (doesn't matter, google calculator converts everything).
Then the average person, relative to the visible universe is:
[tex] \frac{150 lbs * 100}{M_{Sun} * 5x10^{11} * 125,000,000,000} \sim 5.5x10^{-50} \% = 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000055 \%[/tex]
Oh but we don't stop there folks. According to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and other instruments, the density distribution is given as 74% dark energy, 22% dark matter, and 4% matter, where 0.4% is all the stars and galaxies. (Yes I know it's density but density is a function of mass and this is order of magnitude so who cares)
So the Earth relative to what we know as everything in the universe (visible and invisible):
[tex] \frac{M_{Earth} * 100}{(M_{Sun} * 5x10^{11} * 125,000,000,000)/0.004} \sim 2x10^{-29} \% = 0.00000000000000000000000000002 \%[/tex]
And so a man or woman, relative to the whole universe:
[tex] \frac{150 lbs * 100}{(M_{Sun} * 5x10^{11} * 125,000,000,000)/0.004} \sim 2.2x10^{-52} \% = 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000022 \%[/tex]
Why do we still have wars and other petty BS?