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Scientific American Library Series #1
Powers of Ten: About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe
Photographs take the reader from distant galaxies to our solar system
150 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 5, 2008
A fun little classic little science book. It's about the size of things. And our units of measurement. For adults it hopefully impresses that right sense of scale. (When you start at 10^26 meters, you can get an idea of how infinitely small you are.) I want to share this with my child some day.
April 12, 2010
Just as cool as I remember. This book may change the way you look at the world!
September 16, 2013
Can't tell you how many times I saw this film during my grade school years in the 70s. Fun nostalgia.
May 29, 2017
This book has been on my shelf for some time and finally worked through it. "Powers of Ten" is a companion to the 1977 short film of the same name that illustrates the nature of the universe at a different scales of measure by multiplying or dividing the view by ten. The scale spans the limits of the known universe (for 1977) down to the limits of subatomic measures, while centering around the human level of 1 meter. It, like the film, is a rather beautiful and succinct way of showing the power of changes of mathematical magnitude and how different the experience can be at different scales of being.
The only detractor is that in the last 40 years some of the information needs updating, however as it was written for a lay audience, the newer details may go unnoticed.
The only detractor is that in the last 40 years some of the information needs updating, however as it was written for a lay audience, the newer details may go unnoticed.
June 25, 2017
Really awesome book!
August 23, 2021
A fascinating exercise in illustrating scale and the powers of ten. A very worthwhile supplementary text to the famous Charles & Ray Eames short.
January 11, 2022
Great. You can Look at it for hours.
November 25, 2022
Nice premise and some interesting images but the accompanying text is a little dated now.
January 1, 2017
This is a coffee table style work with illustrations on every page depicting the range in size of objects in our world from the very large to the very small.
Published in 1982 the physics is somewhat dated but is interesting. There is a brief discussion of each illustration to give the reader a feeling for the physics involved.
Published in 1982 the physics is somewhat dated but is interesting. There is a brief discussion of each illustration to give the reader a feeling for the physics involved.
July 11, 2007
There is a lot more to this book, but the crux of it is a progressive series of images taken from the original movie. You start way off in space, and the each subsequent image shows an area of 10% the size. By the end, you are zooming deep into the nucleus of an atom. It blew my mind when I was a little kid, and it still does today. I doubt any book could ever hope to capture, in such a simple way, the extent to which modern science has totally transformed our understanding of everyday existence.
March 25, 2012
Based on the short film of the same name, Powers of Ten takes the reader on a voyage into the biggest and smallest frames of reference we can currently imagine. Packed with notes and artwork, this book makes a perfect supplement to a classic, mind-blowing short scientific film.
May 19, 2014
This book was inspired by world-famous designers. The concept? Increasing one's view by powers of ten takes one to the subatomic and universal levels rapidly. Zooming out and in. Neat! But I couldn't make my way through a whole book on the strength of that concept, and returned it to the library early on.
February 15, 2008
This book starts out with imagery of the universe and slowly backs down by powers of ten to the smallest image available. This is an incredible book if you have any interest in science and the universe as we see it.
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August 8, 2008I wrote a 'book report' for math class on this in high school and in the opening sentence unwittingly used the word "astronomical" to which my dry-humored teacher wrote largely something to the effect of that being a pun, or just rewrote the word largely across the top, exclamation point.
May 4, 2008
AWESOME book! Shows how significant - and insignificant - we all are
October 6, 2009
All the way in and all the way out in pix--turns out they look the same. Brilliant idea, endlessly fascinating.
May 23, 2011
A wonderfully imaginative book, and important to me personally.
May 20, 2013
About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe.
Facinating.
Facinating.
November 15, 2013
Classic book about relative size of things. It zooms in/out from Cosmos to quark. Recommend. Enjoyed it that I bought its Flip book as gifts for kids.
January 23, 2016
This book does a good job of describing the very small in the universe, to the very large. It is a bit out of date, but still a very good read.
January 10, 2017
Letto tanti anni fa, mai dimenticato, comprato, riletto, sempre affascinante. Per me un classico della scienza.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews