Approximate Numbers Everyone Should Know
The Scale of Things
"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely,
mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way
down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."
Douglas Adams, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy .
- Human Scale = (1.6 x ) 1 meter
- Mouse Scale = 10^-1 meter = 10 cm
- Bug Scale = 10^-2 meter = 1 cm
- Grain-of-sand Scale = 10^-3 meter = 1 mm
- Cell Scale = 10^-5 meter = 10 microns
- Atomic Scale = 10^-10 meter = 1 Angstrom
- Nuclear Scale = 10^-15 meter
- Planck Scale = (1.6 x ) 10^-35 meter
(structure of space breaks down ??)
- House Scale = 10 meter
- City Block Scale = 100 meter
- Village Scale = 1000 meter = 1 km
- Metropolis Scale = 10^5 meter = 100 km
- Earth Scale = (1.3 x) 10^7 meter = 10K km
- Earth Orbit Scale = 10^11 meter = 100M km (a bit inside Venus)
- Solar System Scale = 10^13 meter = 10B km (a bit past Pluto)
- Interstellar Scale = 10^16 meter = 10T km = 1 light year
- Galactic Scale = 10^21 meter = 100K ly
- Intergalactic Scale = 10^23 meter = 10M ly (local group)
- Observable Universe Scale = 10^26 meter = 10B ly
(This one is a bit tricky as the computed parallex/brightness
distance given above does not equal the round-trip light time,
which does not equal a "where is it now" extrapolation. For
distances under a few billion ly, all these values are equal to
below the accuracy of our best measurements).
- Universe in Planck Lengths 10^61
The River of Time
- Human event scale = 1 second
- Eye blink = 1/10 = .1 second
- Time for a yellow-jacket's wings to beat = 1/100 = .01 = 10^-2 second
- Time for sound to travel 1 foot = Time for a balloon to pop =
camera flash time = 1 millisecond = 10^-3 second
- AM Radio wave oscillation time = 1 microsecond = 10^-6 second
- Time for light to travel 1 foot =
Computer operation time (2000) = 1 nanosecond = 10^-9 second
- Chemical reaction transition time = .1 picosecond = 10^-13 second
- Oscillation time of visible light = (2 x ) 1 femtosecond =
10^-15 second
- Nuclear reaction transition time = 1 attosecond = 10^-18 second
- Planck Time (shortest physically meaningful period??) =
(.5 x ) 10^-43 second
- Minute = (.6 x ) 10^2 second
- Hour = (3.6 x ) 10^3 second
- Day = (.86 x ) 10^5 second
- Week = (.6 x ) 10^6 second
- Year = (3.1 x ) 10^7 second
- Human lifetime = 70 (100) year = (2 x ) 10^9 second
- Civilization = 6000 years = (2 x ) 10^11 second
- Behaviorally modern humans = 50,000 years = (1.5 x ) 10^12 second
- Anatomically modern humans = 200,000 years = (.6 x ) 10^13 second
- Genus Homo = 2M years = (.6 x ) 10^14 second
- Monkey-like primates = 40M years = (1.2 x) 10^15 second
- Land vertebrates (amphibians) =
(1.2 x) 400M years = (1.2 x) 10^16 second
- Complex multi-cellular life = 500M years = (1.5 x ) 10^16 second
- Simple multi-cellular life = 1B years = (3 x ) 10^16 second
- Oxygen respiration 2B years = (.6 x ) 10^17 second
- Photosynthesis = 3B? years = 10^17 second
- Life = 4B? years = (1.2 x ) 10^17 second
- Age of Earth = 4.6B years = (1.4 x ) 10^17 second
- Age of Universe = 13.7B years = (.4 x ) 10^18 second
- Age of Universe in Planck units = (2 x ) 10^61
- Current space-time volume of Visible Universe in Planck units = 10^245
Mathematics
- Pi = 3.14 (3.14159 265 3589793 23846 2643383 2795 02884)
- e = 2.7 (2.71828 1828 459 045)
- sqrt(2) = 1.4 (1.4142 1356 2373)
- sqrt(3) = 1.73 (1.732 0508 07568877)
- sqrt(10) = 3.16 (3.16 227766 0186)
- Golden Ratio (Phi) 1.62 = (1 + sqrt(5)) / 2
- All the squares from 1 to 20
1 4 9 16 25 36 49 64 81 100 121 144 169 196 225 256 289 324 361 400
- Powers of 2 up to 12 or so
1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024 2048 4096
- P(x < 1 std) = 84% for normal distribution
- P(x < 2 std) = 98%
- P(x < 3 std) = 99.9%
- Approximate base 10 log pattern of Fibbonacci sequence
log(2) = .3, log(3) = .5, log(5) = .7, log(8) = .9, log(13) = 1.1
(10 points to the first person to explain this)
- Approximate ratio of circle to square = 3/4 (Pi/4 = .78540)
- Approximate ration of sphere to cube = 1/2 (Pi/6 = .52360)
Names and prefixes for big and small numbers
- 10^3, thousand, kilo, milli
- 10^6, million, mega, micro
- 10^9, billion, giga, nano
- 10^12, trillion, tera, pico
- 10^15, quadrillion, peta, femto
- 10^18, quintillion, exa, atto
- 10^21, sextillion, zetta, zepto
- 10^24, septillion, yotta, yocto
Common Unit conversions
- 1 inch = 2.54 cm.
- 1 meter = 39 inches
- 1 mile = 1.61 km (= 5280 ft.)
- 1 light year = 6 trillion miles = 10 trillion km.
- 1 liter = 1(.06) quarts = .264 gallons
- 1 tsp = 5 ml
- 1 barrel oil = 42 US gallons = 160 (159) liters
- 1 kg. = 2.2 lbs.
- 1 oz. = 28(.35) grams
- 1 calorie = 4.2 joules
- 1 btu = 1000 (1055) joules
- 1 quad = 1 quadrillion (10^15) btu = 10^18 joules
- 1 megaton = 10^15 cal.
- 1 kg mc^2 = 20 megatons
- 1 horsepower = 550 ft-lbs/sec = 750 watts (746)
- 1 atmosphere = 15 psi (14.7) = 100,000 pascals = 34 ft of water
- 1 gigapascal = 150,000 psi
- 1 Celcius degree = 9/5 Farenheit degrees
- 0 C = 273 K = 32 F
- 1 year = 31 million seconds
- Speed of light = 186,000 miles/s = 300,000 km/s
- Avogadro's number = 6.02 * 10^23 molecules/mole
The Earth
- Diameter = 8000 miles (7930) = 13,000 km. (12,800)
- 1 degree on surface = 80 miles
- Area = 200 million square miles (198M) = 500M km^2 (515M)
- Oceans = 71% of surface
- Highest point = 29,000 (29,028 or 29,035) feet = 8850 m.
(Surveying and GPS values don't agree. Look up uncertainty of
the geoid for a discussion)
- Lowest point = -36,000 feet = -11,000 m.
- Age = 4.6 billion years
- Distance from sun = 93 million miles (avg.)
- Gravity = 32 ft/s^2 (32.2) = 10 m/s^2 (9.8) = 1 G
- Density 5.5 gm/cm^3
- Solar insolation = 1000W/m^2 (surface); 1366W/m^2 (space)
Astronomy
- Sun diameter = 860,000 miles = about 100 earths
- Sun distance = 93M miles = 1 AU
- Sun surface temperature = 5800K = 5500C = 10,000F
- Sun mean density = 1.4 gm/cm^3
- Moon distance from earth = 240,000 miles
- Moon orbital period = 29.5 days full to full; 27.3 days absolute
- Moon diameter = 2000 miles (2160) = about 1/4 earth
- Moon gravity = 1/6 earth
- Mars diameter = 4,000 miles (4200) = about 1/2 earth
- Mars distance from sun = 140M miles = 1.5 AU
- Mars orbital period = 1.9 years
- Mars gravity = 3/8 earth (.376)
- Jupiter diameter = 89,000 miles = about 10 earths (11)
- Jupiter distance from sun = 500M miles (480M) = 5 AU
- Jupiter orbital period = 12 years (11.86)
- Jupiter gravity = 2.5 earth
- Distance to nearest star = 4.3 light years = 25 trillion miles
- Diameter of Milky Way = 100,000 light years
- Stars in Milky Way = 200-400 billion (??)
- Distance to next major galaxy (Andromeda) 2.5M light years
- Age of universe = 14 billion years (13.7)
Water
- Density = 1gm/cc = 1kg/l = 1 lb/pint
- Boiling point = 100C = 212F
- Freezing point = 0C = 32F
- Heat of vaporization = 540 cal/gm
- Heat of fusion = 70 cal/gm
- Speed of sound = about 1 mile/s (4800 feet/s)
Air
- Composition: 78% N2 + 21% O2 + 1 % Ar + .04% C02, + other traces.
- Density = 1.2 gm/l = 1.2 kg/m^3 = 75 lbs/1000ft^3 = 1/800 water
- Speed of sound = 1100 ft/s = 340 m/s
- Sea-level pressure = 15 psi (14.7) = .1 Mpa
- Half pressure height = 18,000 feet, approximately exponential.
Fire
- Energy from burning carbon, oil, gas = 10,000 cal/gm
- Energy from burning wood, carbohydrates = 5000 cal/gm
- Energy content of TNT = 1000 cal/gm
- Energy content of completely fissioned Uranium = 3M * coal = 30B cal/gm
- Fissionable portion of natural Uranium = 0.7%
- Energy from E = mc^2 = 2B * coal = 20 trillion cal/gm
- Direct sunlight at earth's surface = 1000 W/m^2 = 250 cal/m^2/sec
(1366 W/m^s in space, 150-300 W/m^2 temperate average over full year)
- Total world energy usage (2008) = 15-16 Terawatts = 4 Tcal/sec =
400 tons coal/s = 12 billion tons coal/year = 500 quads/year
- US share = 25% = 100 tons coal/s
- World Petroleum consumption = 30 billion barrels / year; US share = 25%
Melting points
- Mercury = -40C = -40F
- Water 0C
- Aluminum 650C = 1200F
- Copper 1100C (1080) = 2000F >= brass, bronze, silver, gold
- Iron 1500C (1530) = 2800F >= steel
- Tungsten 3400C (3420) = 6200F
Boiling points
- Helium = 4K
- Hydrogen 20K
- Nitrogen = 77K
- Water = 373K = 100C
Material Densities
- Wood .5 - 1 gm/cc
- Water = 1 gm/cc
- Organic compounds, Plastics = .9 - 1.5 gm/cc
- Stone, concrete, brick, glass = 2 - 3 gm/cc
- Aluminum = 2.7 gm/cc
- Titanium = 4.3 gm/cc
- Iron, steel = 8 gm/cc
- Copper = 9 gm/cc
- Lead = 11 gm/cc
- Gold, tungsten, uranium = 19 gm/cc
Common material strengths
- Aluminum alloys = 20,000 - 80,000 psi (tensile, compressive, sheer)
- Steel = 40,000 - 300,000+ psi
- Wood = 4,000 - 8,000 psi compressive, <= 20,000 psi tensile
- Concrete = 2,000 - 4,000+ psi compressive, 0 - 200 psi tensile
- Stone = 2,000 (limestone) - 20,000+ (granite) compressive
- Polystyrene = 6,000 psi
- Silk 70,000 psi
- Kevlar up to 500,000 psi tensile
- Glass fiber up to 700,000 psi tensile (but usually closer to 100,000)
- Carbon fiber up to 800,000 psi tensile
- Carbon Nanotubes: 500,000 psi macroscopic test;
9,000,000 psi microscopic test;
45,000,000 psi theoretical
Humanity
- World Population (2012) = 7.04 B
- World population (2040 estimated) = 9 B
- China (2012)= 1.35 B
- India (2012) = 1.21 B
- US Population (2012) = 0.314 B
- NYS Population (2011) = 19.4 M
- Greater Rochester Population = 1M
- Total ever lived = 50B - 100B+ (??), mostly since agriculture, 5000BCE
- Deaths (2011) = 55M /year
- Births (2011) = 131M /year
Economic
- Gross World Product (Currency, 2011) = $69T = $9,800 per capita
In purchasing power parity (PPP) = $79T = $11,300 per capita
- US GDP (2011) = $15T = $48,000 per capita (14/183, 6/183 PPP),
- China GDP (Currency, 2011) = $11T = $5,400 per capita (88/183)
In purchasing power parity (PPP) = $10T = $8,400 per capita (92/183)
- India GDP (Currency, 2011) $1.7T = $1,400 per capita (140/183)
In purchasing power parity (PPP) = $4.5T = $3,700 per capita (129/183)
- US government expenditures (2011) = $3.6T
- US government debt (mid-2012) $16T;
$9.5T publicly held, $4.5T of that is foreign, $1.1T by China
- US Exports (goods and services, 2011) $2.1T
- US Imports (goods and services, 2011) $2.7T
The following figures are hard to find and somewhat uncertain.
- Total US Personal Income (2011) = $13T = $42K per capita
Bottom 1/10 = 1%, Top 1/10 = 50%, Top 1/100 = 22%, Top 1/10,000 = 5%
- Total US Household Wealth (2009) = $55T = $180K per capita
Bottom 1/4 = 0%, Bottom 1/2 = 2.5%, Middle 1/2 = 13%,
Top 1/4 = 90%, Top 1/10 = 75%, Top 1/100 = 35%
- And just for fun, check
this out.
Simple Formulas
- Area of circle = pi * r^2
- Area of triangle = 1/2 * base * height
- Area of a sphere = 4 * pi * r^2
- Volume of a sphere = 4/3 * pi * r^3
- Volume of a pyramid, cone etc. = 1/3 * base_area * height
- F = m * a = m * dv/dt = dp/dt (Newton's second law)
- E = 1/2 * m * v^2 (Kinetic energy)
- F = k * x (Hook's law for springs)
- p * V = n * R * T (Ideal gas law)
- F = G * m1 * m2 / r^2 (Law of universal gravitation)
- F = k * q1 * q2 / r^2 (Coulomb's law)
- V = I * R (Ohm's law)
- q = C * V; I = C * dV/dt (Capacitor law)
- V = L * dI/dt (Inductor law)
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