Excellent topic. I have thought of this myself, and even pitched it to some friends awhile back who thought I was crazy. It is amazing how size is perceived relative to the object, like the termite analogy. I remember this one time, not long ago, I drove from my house to my grandmothers house, with a frog holding on for dear life right behind my windshield wiper. It was only a couple miles away, but this frog made it. So this frog, who lived in my bushes since probably birth, went through hell to get to this new spot. Ear splitting wind, under a bridge, a couple traffic lights, and finally a jump into a new life. This isn't very far for us, pretty far for the frog, but he could make it back, but the mites that are on the frog have not a clue that they are miles away from where they were before, and the mites on those mites...

Most of us will never travel to another country because it is to far away. But since the earth is the size of a grain of sand from only a few million meters up, how far away is it really?

This little frog story is just one more reality concept that I find myself daydreaming about on almost a daily basis. WATS to you!

shoktek - thanks for posting "Powers of Ten" (narrated BTW, by the Late Great Philip Morrison). I remember seeing that in high school science and thinking it was the coolest film ever.

It would be interesting the see that updated today, especially the "small" scale, seeing that we have a little more knowledge past the proton level (quarks, Higgs boson, etc.) than in the late 1970's when this film was made.

Back to the Original Post: nataylor, you are correct in saying that the solar system behaves nothing at all like an atom, as suggested by the OP. However, the "spirit" of the OP is a very interesting Thought experiment and has evolved into some interesting dialogue.

All this reminds me of the idea of the 1950's beatnik contemplating his own fingertip saying "wow man...each atom in the skin on the tip of my finger could contain a tiny universe, and our universe in turn could be part of a finger of a giant." (ad infinitum).


(edited - spelling counts!)

[edit on 13-2-2007 by Soylent Green Is People]

Good question. Asked myself many times. Though my final conclusions has based that the truth is far too esoteric for us to comprehend. Therefore we are lost inside speculation. But, I also think that perhaps one of our guesses may inadvertantly be correct, so let's keep guessing for retrospective appreciation.

I believe that we are all a isololated frequencies of light, with the power to manifest matter through thought expression, which if true, would completely rewrite the rules of our assertions.

AAC

Originally posted by Quasar
Excellent topic. I have thought of this myself, and even pitched it to some friends awhile back who thought I was crazy. It is amazing how size is perceived relative to the object, like the termite analogy. I remember this one time, not long ago, I drove from my house to my grandmothers house, with a frog holding on for dear life right behind my windshield wiper. It was only a couple miles away, but this frog made it. So this frog, who lived in my bushes since probably birth, went through hell to get to this new spot. Ear splitting wind, under a bridge, a couple traffic lights, and finally a jump into a new life. This isn't very far for us, pretty far for the frog, but he could make it back, but the mites that are on the frog have not a clue that they are miles away from where they were before, and the mites on those mites...

Most of us will never travel to another country because it is to far away. But since the earth is the size of a grain of sand from only a few million meters up, how far away is it really?

This little frog story is just one more reality concept that I find myself daydreaming about on almost a daily basis. WATS to you!

I have a similar experince. I remeber when I was younger, I tied a lizzard to a balloon with helium and watched him float away. Now even with a strong wind he would only have gone a limited amount of miles. For you or me, a quick car ride, nothing to it. But to that lizzard it was a whole world apart. Imagine if one of us were tied to some intergalatic "balloon". We would be the lizard.

why do any of us care, it's not like we'll ever get there.

Good question...
Just our nature I think

But when you err.... think about it, we have brains for a reason, does anyone
on this forum think for a second that we are supposed to working stiffs ? I doubt it !

Where does infinity come into play ? Is it real ?

Originally posted by TheLizardKing
I have a similar experince. I remeber when I was younger, I tied a lizzard to a balloon with helium and watched him float away. Now even with a strong wind he would only have gone a limited amount of miles. For you or me, a quick car ride, nothing to it. But to that lizzard it was a whole world apart. Imagine if one of us were tied to some intergalatic "balloon". We would be the lizard.

Hahaha

That's too funny. Suppose he managed to survive the fall back. Would he have the consciousness to realize what had happened? I know he would only be a few weeks old, and not be able to comprehend and think from experience, but it would be like he was teleported into a whole new world, depending on where he landed. I see you live in Cape Coral, so he could have floated over into the gulf, and landed into the water just to be eaten by something, or he could also have floated over the woods and land where there is plenty to eat. Like a lizard heaven, either way it's crazy to think about.

Another funny similarity is that during thunderstorms, the POSITIVELY charged earth interacts with CLOUDS of NEGATIVELY charged particles floating around at specific heights in our atmosphere, almost sounds like the structure of an atom itself...

I have thought about that too.

When I was a kid, I looked up at the stars and thinking to myself we are inside of the ice cube. The stars are twinkling becuase its melting from the sun.

Originally posted by TheLizardKing
Perhaps it has been stated before, Im not sure, but theres two things I think about alot. More probable than not they are just moronic thoughts floating through an idle mind but what do you think?


What if our solar system was really just an atom?

Wow duuuude......You just freaked me out maaaaaaaan.
You mean that... like one little atom.... in my fingernail..... could be a whole other universe??????

What a mind blower man.


No insult intended to the OP.
Just a fun rip-off from Animal House.