Re: Eons of time (please check the values)

[Dino Guy Ralph <ralph.miller@alumni.usc.edu>]

I think it's a great idea to come up with some way of explaining eons of 
time, but with Crichton's method we're merely replacing one set of 
unfathomably large numbers with another set of mind boggling numbers.

Has anybody estimated the height of a million pages of paper in one tidy 
stack?  Or the length of X million pieces of toilet paper end to end?  Can 
these be cross referenced with the height of well known monuments or the 
distances between cities or the circumference of the earth or the distance 
between continents?

Stacked sheets of paper or lengths of toilet paper could create a vivid 
picture in the mind, whereas the "simplified form," 9824 lifetime/days, only 
prompts my brain to go: "Huh?"  Try that one on an elementary student the 
next time you are approached in the lobby of your favorite museum and see 
how far it gets you.

--------
"Dino Guy" Ralph W. Miller III
Docent at the California Academy of Sciences
proud member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Or is it just me?