Powers of Ten is a 1968 American documentary short film written and directed by Charles and Ray Eames. The film depicts the relative scale of the Universe in factors of ten (see also logarithmic scale and order of magnitude). The film is an adaptation of the book Cosmic View (1957) by Dutch educator Kees Boeke,[1] and more recently is the basis of a new book version.[2] Both adaptations, film and book, follow the form of the Boeke original, adding color and photography to the black and white drawings employed by Boeke in his seminal work.
The film was rereleased in 1977.[3] In 1998, "Powers of Ten" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4][5]
[edit] Narrative summary
The film begins with an overhead view of a man and woman picnicking on a lawn — a one-meter-square overhead image of the figures on a blanket. The viewpoint, accompanied by expository voiceover by Philip Morrison, then slowly zooms out to a view ten meters across (or 101 m in scientific notation). The zoom-out continues (at a rate of one power of ten per 10 seconds), to a view of 100 meters (102 m), then 1 kilometer (103 m), and so on, increasing the perspective—the picnic is revealed to be taking place in Burnham Park, near Soldier Field on Chicago's lakefront—and continuing to zoom out to a field of view of 1024 meters, or the size of the observable universe. The camera then zooms back in at a rate of a power of ten per 2 seconds to the picnic, and then slows back down to its original rate into the man's hand, to views of negative powers of ten—10−1 m (10 centimeters), and so forth—until the camera comes to quarks in a proton of a carbon atom at 10−16 meter.
[edit] Errors, omissions, and commentary
There are some errors that occur at various points in the film. For instance, what is shown as one square meter is actually somewhat more than that at times. When zooming out, the 107 m rectangle fits snugly around the Earth, but in reality the planet is somewhat bigger (when zooming back in, Earth's size is shown with even greater inaccuracy).[citation needed]
[edit] Related works
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Boeke, Kees. Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps. John Day Co., 1957.
- ^ Morrison, Philip, et al. Powers of Ten: About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe. Scientific American Books, 1990.
- ^ Overbye, Dennis (April 26, 2005 (correction April 28, 2005)). "Philip Morrison, 89, Builder of First Atom Bomb, Dies". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/26/science/26morrison.html?pagewanted=2. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
- ^ Films Selected to The National Film Registry, 1989-2010.
- ^ "About Powers of Ten". Powers of Ten website. Eames Office. 2010. http://www.powersof10.com/film. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
- ^ Eva Szasz (1968). Cosmic Zoom (film). Ottawa River: National Film Board of Canada.
- ^ Philip and Phylis Morrison (1982, revised 1994). Powers of Ten: A Book About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding another Zero. Scientific American Library. ISBN 978-0716760085.
- ^ Bayley Silleck and Morgan Freeman (1996). Cosmic Voyage (IMAX). Venice, Italy: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 41°51′53.93″N 87°36′48.21″W / 41.8649806°N 87.6133917°W / 41.8649806; -87.6133917
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