Speech: A Sense of Scale

Hi everyone!

On June 8th 2019, I will be thrilled to present my speech “A Sense of Scale”. For this project, I am required to practice using the Internet as a medium for references before and after the speech. This simulates real-life professional seminars of a technical nature. I will be evaluated on the quality and use of the Internet as a tool.

The speech will aim to share a sense of scale of this amazing Universe in which we exist. While Astronomy studies and defines objects (planets, stars, galaxies…), I am even more fascinated by Cosmology, the science that studies the Universe as a whole – how it works. The first step in the appreciation of those two sciences is an understanding of the scale. Just how big is the Sun, really? And how far is it? And how far is the nearest galaxy?

To do this, I will cover 3 topics: A sense of Size, a sense of Distance, and a sense of Time. Prepare to  have your mind blown!

If this topic interests you, or if you want to get a first glimpse at those topics, I highly recommend checking those 2 pages:

This fun video gives you a great metaphor to get an idea of how big and how far certain things are, such as planets and the nearest star to the Sun. It’s a 10-minutes demonstration – very fun.

https://www.space.com/25126-big-bang-theory.html

There are countless articles about the Big Bang Theory. This is a very interesting but very technical article that might give you a great overview of what we know of how the Universe came to be. I will not be going over this in the speech – but it will give you a sense of Time and an appreciation for Cosmology.

Lastly, I invite you to leave comments below – ask any question you may have, or post links to other great videos and articles.

Daniel, DTM