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The Missouri Review 29.1 (2006) 142-161



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What Size is the Universe?

The Cosmic Uroboros


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[End Page 142]

The size of a human being is at the center of all the possible sizes in the universe. This amazing assertion challenges not only the centuries-old philosophical assumption that humans are insignificantly small compared to the vastness of the universe but also the logical assumption that there is no such thing as a central size. Both assumptions are false, but we have to reconsider the key words of the assertion—center, possible, size, and universe—to reveal the prejudices built into them that constrict and distort our picture of reality. In the modern universe there is a largest and a smallest size, and therefore a middle size. The size of a thing is not arbitrary but crucial to its nature, which is why scale models can never really work. Only by understanding size and its role in determining [End Page 143] which laws of physics matter on different size scales can we can get an accurate perspective on anything outside the narrow realm of human experience. This discussion will develop a new symbolic picture of the universe that portrays us in our true place among everything else that exists.

There are wildly different-sized objects in the universe. Betelgeuse is the bright star at the upper left corner of the familiar winter constellation Orion. It is a red giant so monstrously larger than our sun that it could fill the orbit of Mars. Earth is a mere pebble beside it. But compared to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, Betelgeuse is just a spark in a raging forest fire. Clearly, these sizes are relative, and we need a language in which to discuss them without falling back on vague words like "huge," "tiny," or, the most misleading of all, "infinite."(Just because a size is too big to grasp does not mean it is literally boundless.) The concept of "size scale" is a mental framework with which to define a chunk of reality. It describes our range of conscious focus at any given moment. A size scale is not a physical entity but a setting of the intellectual zoom lens. The size scale of an object is a region large enough to include the entire object but not so large that the object becomes insignificant.

Even if you don't like math, you can still easily compare $10 and $10,000. Comparison and manipulation of numbers are such different activities that they are performed in opposite hemispheres of the brain. You think differently about buying something if it costs $10 than if it costs $10,000. In this case, the numbers are not something you have to manipulate; instead they define a certain general category. Price alone does not tell you everything. Is $1,000 a lot? Well, it is for a dinner but not for a car. As with prices, the number that defines a size doesn't tell you whether something is "big" or "small." It only helps you compare it to something else. Unlike prices, which are usually expressed to the dollar or even penny, the numbers we use are mostly not intended to be precise but instead to suggest general ranges of size. Size scale is an approximate concept, but for the universe that is all we need. [End Page 144]

The basic length unit we use is the centimeter, which is a little less than half an inch. There are 100 centimeters in a meter. The height of most people is between 1 and 2 meters (that is, between about 3 feet, 3 inches and 6 feet, 7 inches). This chapter is not going to pay any attention to size differences this small—1 meter is the same as 2 meters for our purposes. Since the number 100 is written exponentially as 102, the height of people is in the 102-cm range. The raised exponent refers to the...

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