New Britain herald., 1930-06-18
Prof, Cavelti Dazzles Kiwanians
With Statistics About Universe

S--N 1D-J ~ u -4li-S N-dtSoI
Doctors, including an X-ray OK
pert. business men, lawyers, archl-
rects statlsticians and retired real
estate dealers sat up in astonlsh-
ment at a meeting of the kiwanis
club today when the foregoing
statement was hurled at them by
Professor j. f. Cavelti, head of the
department of chemistry at Wesley
an university.
Professor Cavelti had been adver-
tised to speak on a subject Of chem
istry, but chose to change his topic
to The Sizes of Things" He had
MS audience gasplng for breath be
fore he was faily we'll under way
and vas acknowledged after the
meeting as being one Of the most
interesting speakers the club has
heard
He exhibited a glass globe, about
eight inches IN diameter which he
SAID represented the ordinary eight
inch globe used IN schools TO teach
geography to children.
In the olden days the biggest
thing We knew of was the earth.
Now we hear of planets so many
light years away A light year is
based on the ray of hight travelling
10000 miles a second Multiply
this by the number of seconds in a
year and YOU get Z light year a
light ray will go around the earth
seven and a half times a second. Get
measuring these distances and you
pile up SO many hundreds Of thou
sands and millions Of light years
you'll get fuzzy in the upper story.
Then We are told the size Of an
atom is a decimal point with a
a whole lot of zeros. until il hardly
means anything to US.
IF we take this earth and reduce
it 63,too.ooo times smaller than j.
IL. which is about the size Of the
slght-inch globe. the highest noun
tain would be less than one-halt Of
one-hundredths of an inch.
Reduce the universe on the same
scale. The sun then would be mile
and a half away and would be y
feet IN diameter The moon would
be 20 feet away and be two inches
in diameter.
Mars would be two and a half
miles away and would be about the
Size OF an apple Mercury would be
a half mile from the sun and about
? "a inches in diameter. about the
size Of 4 peach. Venus would be one
mile away and about eight inches IN
diameter.
Jupiter would be about seven
feet IN diameter ard about as far
away as Merlden. Saturn would be
SIX feet in diameter and about as
far away as Walhngford. Il would
, show 10 rings sticking out four feet
on each side and two and one
eighth inches thick.
Uranus would be about three feet
in diameter and as far away as New
Haven. NEPTUNE would be about TWO
feet thick and as far away as Bridge
port
Neptune takes 165 years to go
around fhe sun. On this scale It
would have left Bridgeport before
the Revolutionary war and have
travelled as far as Springfield and
now would be getting back to
Bridgeport much astonlshed at the
changes which have taken place
The new planet recently discov-
cred would be about as far away
as South Norwalk and about eight
inches IN diameter,
Remember. light travels $4,000
miles a second II i we're scaled
down IN the same proportion as We
have the universe 1t wouId take
five and half minutes to 90 a
mile.
In the same scale the nearest
fixed star would still be 10000
miles away
Now. let's reduce the universe
sixty-three million times again.
Now we have It so small vA can
put the whole solar system as we
see it under the head OF 4 thumb
tack. The nearest fixed star Is
still 80 feet away.
In this same scale, reduced sixty
three million tour hlndred thousand
times, and then reduced slxfy-three
million times more. the Milky Way
that great galaxy OF stars, would
still be 200 miles in diameter
Light would travel a quarter on
an inch a day Too slow for any
snail that wasn't dead and lust a
little faster than most plants grow.
If since julius Caesars death
and the disintegratlon Of his hodv,
all the waters have been thoroughly
mixed as We are told they have
been, then IN the body OF each and
every one OF Us are at least 900
molecules that once lived in the
body OF julius Caesar. Figure how
small q molecule is.
Now let's take an eight inch
globe and enlarge II to the size OF
the earth The honest to goodness
40 foot whale would become 50
large YOU could balance It on the
earth, it's head would hang over the
orbit OF the moon on one side and
its tail the other a rIcrobe. the
smallest living thing would be 200
feet in diameter. A particle Of
smoke would be 20 feet in diameter.
An atom would be a quarter Of an
inch in diameter and an electron
wouldn't even be visible Light
waves would be 100 feet long AMI
E-ray waves a quarter inch
We read about giants in story
books If men grew 80 feet tall
they would hbe five times as Wild,
FIVE times as thick and 125 times as
heavy, They couldn't have leg