20 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
vee-kayNov 2025Strongly recommends
I think the video I have linked above is Google's tribute to this Power Of Ten video (linked below, thanks to user dtgriscom for sharing the link in another comment), a classic video that demonstrates the scale of the Universe from the micro to the macro perspectives in a scaling increase by a factor of ten for each scene. Power of 10: ▶ this video Another relevant video (thanks to user christev for sharing the link): A Brief History of Geologic Time: [link] Absolutely humbling to realise how infinitesimally small and irrelevant our existence is, in the grand scheme of theme. Nature and science are amazing.
in “Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth” · View on HN
yogsotothNov 2025Recommends
I think there are a few movies that made me realize how much the space is vast, empty and adverse to life. I think it would be nice for people to take a look at them: - Aniara (2018) - High Life (2018) and maybe in a less artistic view: - Powers of Ten (1977) yt: ▶ this video
in “Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth” · View on HN
photochemsynMar 2023Recommends
The 1977 film Powers of Ten is short and simple but gives one a better feeling for what infinity represents (40 orders of magnitude isn't much in contrast to infinity, but is very large): ▶ this video There's also an hour-long talk by Prof. Raymond Flood on Cantor's Infinities on YT that covers all the mathematical history.
in “A Bad Trip to Infinity” · View on HN
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_MicroftOct 2020Recommends
If you don't mind watching a nearly 50 year old video then I can recommend "Powers of Ten" [0], attempting to visualize the different scales on which things are happening in the universe we know of. It is a very short video, just 9 minutes long. [0] ▶ this video
in “A New Map of All the Particles and Forces” · View on HN
cam_lAug 2018Recommends
It is, i remember being captivated by this film in the (mid? late?) 90s.. (from the late 70s, pieced together by hand). Never imagined it would be (partly) possible in realtime.. some 10 years later. (eagerly hanging out for orbit view milky way, but probably not in my lifetime) ▶ this video
in “Google Maps is no longer a flat map” · View on HN
jacquesmOct 2015Recommends
The base of that goes back to a very simple realization: On a cosmic scale nothing that we do is of great importance. This planet likely is not as special as we would like to think it is and we are not as special as we like to think we are. We are to the universe as a single bacterium is to us. ▶ this video Is a nice recap of just how vast the universe really is and how utterly insignificant we are within it, in spite of all we're figured out and have achieved collectively. It certainly humbles me.
in “The Benefits of a Quiet Ego” · View on HN
kecDec 2025Cites it
These are all riffs on "Powers of 10", a film made in the 70's for IBM by Charles and Ray Eames: ▶ this video
in “Size of Life” · View on HN
xtiansimonAug 2025Cites it
I like this work exploring magnitude. The Eames film does this explicitly, “Powers of Ten” (1977) A happy find is an exhibition catalogue on the theme of the numinous pre- and post-photography: Clair, Jean. Cosmos from Goya to De Chirico, from Friedrich to Kiefer: art in pursuit of the infinite (2000) ▶ this video [link]
in “What Does One Billion Dollars Look Like?” · View on HN
socalgal2Jun 2025Cites it
Not the same but related? Powers of 10 by Eames ▶ this video Interestingly, that Hawking visualization makes all the same affordances mentioned in the 1 pixel visualization. They show the earth and moon to scale, then the video shows an aerial view with all the planets much too large. Jupiter is 2x the size of the sun. Saturn and its rings 2x that.
in “If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)” · View on HN
chiphDec 2024Cites it
Yes, the Eames were much more than furniture designers (often for Herman Miller) - they also made films like the famous "Powers of Ten" ▶ this video
in “Why did so many mid-century designers make children's books? (2022)” · View on HN
dcgeibMar 2021Cites it
Thanks, I finally understand the beauty of A4. The rest reminds me of a video I watched in physics class. ▶ this video
in “CGP Grey: Metric Paper and Everything in the Universe” · View on HN
baumgarnDec 2020Cites it
Thanks for posting this, haven't seen it before! Original author of the Zoomquilt here. Also noticeable is the Eames' movie Powers of Ten ▶ this video and a similar movie Cosmic Zoom, [link] . They are both from 1968 and both based on a childrens book about the relative size of things in the universe, to my knowledge the first implementations of an infinite zoom effect.
in “Zoomquilt 2 (2007)” · View on HN
TomMckennyMar 2019Cites it
>Space ▶ this video Made in 1977 and we can already comfortably go two orders of magnitude larger. Not bad.
in “The periodic table is 150 years old this week” · View on HN
DonHopkinsOct 2018Cites it
Wow, it's like the two extreme endpoints of "Powers of Ten". ▶ this video Those two transistors had better be hella good to justify the price difference.
in “The 555 and How It Got That Way” · View on HN
Double_CastSep 2016Cites it
> You’re free to think about computation as acting on bits… but for those bits to do us any good, they have to actually represent something (e.g., data structures). I suspect this is a case of confusing epistemology with ontology. Galaxies are ontologically composite in that they're the highest holonym in the supervenience hierarchy [0]. Atoms are ontologically fundamental in that they're the the lowest meronym in the supervenience heirarchy. Galaxies are epistemically abstract in that the notion of galaxy is far removed from everyday experience. Atoms are also epistemically abstract in that the notion of atoms are also far removed from everyday experience. What's epistemically fundamental are the immediate objects of our everyday experience, like chairs and food. (My impression of Zen is that it advises to focus more on things like chairs and food [1].) [link] In the xkcd, which is more "fundamental", Math or Economics? Well, it depends. Likewise, what's more "fundamental", bits or ADT's? Well, it depends. [0] powers of 10: ▶ this video [1] [link]
in “On Two Views of Computation in Computer Science” · View on HN
PetitPrinceApr 2013Cites it
Isn't that (loosing yourself in the grand scheme of things) the whole point of the animation ? A bit like Power of Ten [1] and Scale of the Universe [2] but with time instead of space. [1] ▶ this video [2] [link]
in “Here is today” · View on HN
natepMar 2012Cites it
(Edit: I'm responding to each question in its own paragraph) What do you mean, 'infinite in dimension'? The universe has only 4 dimensions, 3 spatial, 1 in time. Your question barely makes sense to me. Why do you need to invoke infinite speeds and times? If 2 particles stay in the same place, and do not interact with each other (gravitationally, electromagnetically, etc) then the distance between those 2 particles would increase over time, due to the expansion of the universe. Yes, there is an infinite amount of matter in the universe [1] Maybe. If you pick a random direction and travel really fast for a really long time, the chances of you running into any other matter is extremely remote. [2] [1] [link] [2] ▶ this video
in “What is 'Space' expanding into?” · View on HN