Powers of Ten (1977) - full transcript
A scientific film essay, narrated by Phil Morrison. A set of pictures of two picnickers in a park, with the area of each frame one-tenth the size of the one before. Starting from a view of the entire known universe, the camera gradually zooms in until we are viewing the subatomic particles on a man's hand.
The picnic near the
lake side in Chicago
is the start of a lazy
afternoon early one October
We begin with a
seen one meter wide
which we've used from
just one meter away
Now every ten seconds we will
look from ten times farther away
and our field of you
will be ten times wider.
This square is ten meters wide
and in ten seconds the next
square will be ten times as wide
Our picture will center
on the picnickers
Even after they've
been lost to sight
One hundred meters wide
The distance a man
can run in ten seconds
cars crowd the highway
powerboats lie at their docks
the colorful bleachers
are soldiers field
This square is kilometer a
wide, one thousand meters
the distance a racing car
can travel in ten seconds
We see the great
city on the lake shore
Ten to the fourth meters
ten kilometers
the distance a supersonic
airplane can travel in ten seconds
we see first the rounded
end of lake Michigan
then the whole great lake
ten to the fifth meters
the distance and orbiting
satellite covers in ten seconds
Long parades of clouds
the day's weather
in the middle west
ten to the sixth
a one with six zeros
a million meters
soon the earth will
show as a solid sphere
we are able to
see the whole earth now
just over a minute
along the journey
Earth diminishes into
the distance
but those background stars are
so much farther away
they do not yet appear to move
a line extends at the
true speed of light
in one second it half crosses
the tilted orbit of the moon
now we mark a small part of the path
in which the earth moves about the sun
now the orbital paths
of the neighbor planets
Venus
And Mars
and Mercury
Entering our field of view is the
glowing center of our solar system
the Sun
Followed by the
massive outer planets
Swinging wide
in their big orbits
that odd orbit belongs to Pluto
a fringe in the myriad comets too faint
to see completes the solar system
ten to the fourteenth
as the solar system shrinks
to one bright point in the distance
our Sun is plainly now
only one among the stars
Looking back from here we note four southern
constellation still much as they appear
from the far side of the earth.
this squares ten to
the sixteenth meters
one light year
not yet out to the next star
our last ten second step took us ten light
years further the next will be one hundred
Our perspective changes so much in each
step now
that even the background
stars will appear to converge.
Last we pass the bright star
Arcturus and some stars of the dipper.
Normal but quite unfamiliar stars
and clouds of gas surround us.
As we traverse the
milky way galaxy.
giant steps carry us into
the outskirts of the galaxy
And as we pull away we begin to
see the great flat spiral facing us.
The time and path we
chose to leave Chicago
has brought us out of the galaxy along
a course nearly perpendicular to its disk.
the two little satellite galaxies of our
own or the clouds of Magellan
ten to the twenty second power
million light years
Groups of galaxies bring a new
level of structure to the scene.
Glowing point are
no longer single stars
but whole galaxy
of stars seen as one.
We passed the Virgo ago cluster
of galaxies among many others.
One hundred million
light years out.
As we approach
the limit of our vision.
We pause to start back home.
This lonely seen
the galaxies like dust
is what most of
space looks like.
This emptiness is normal.
The richness of our own
neighborhood is the exception.
Trip back to the picnic on the lakefront
will be a setup version reducing
the distance to the earth's
surface by one power of ten.
Every two seconds.
In each two seconds we will appear to
cover 90% the remaining distance
back to earth.
Notice the alternation between
great activity and relative inactivity.
A rhythm that will continue all the way
into our next goal a proton in the nucleus
of a carbon atom beneath the skin on the
hand of the sleeping man at the picnic.
ten to the ninth meters
ten to the eight
seventh
sixth
five
four
three
two
one
we are back at
our starting point
we slow up at one meter
ten to the zero power
Now we reduce the
distance to our final destination
by ninety percent
every ten seconds
Each step much smaller
than the one before.
At ten to the minus two
One one hundredth of a meter
one centimeter we approach
the surface of the hand.
In a few seconds with
the entering the skin.
Crossing layer after layer
from the outermost dead cells
into a tiny blood vessel within.
Skin layers vanish in turn.
An outer layer of cells
felty collagen
The capillary containing red blood cells
and a ruffly lymphocyte
we enter the white cell
among it's vital organelles the porous
wall of the cell nucleus appears.
Nucleus within and holds
the heredity of the man
in the coiled coils of DNA.
As we close in we come
to the double helix itself.
A molecule like long twisted ladder who's
rungs of paired basis spell out twice
in an alphabet of four letters
words of a powerful
genetic message.
At the atomic scale
the interplay of form and
emotion becomes more visible.
We focus on one commonplace group of three
hydrogen atoms bonded by electrical forces
to a carbon atom.
Four electrons makeup the
outer shell of the carbon itself
they appear in quantum motion
is a swarm of shimmering points
at ten to the minus ten
meters, one angstrom
we find ourselves right
among those outer electrons.
Now come upon the two inner
electrons held in a tighter swarm.
As we draw toward the atoms attracting
center we enter upon a vast interspace.
At last the carbon nucleus.
So massive and so small.
This carbon nucleus was made
up of six protons and neutrons.
We are in the domain
of universal modules.
There are protons and
neutrons in every nucleus.
Electrons in every atom.
Atoms bonded into every
molecule out to the farthest galaxy.
As a single proton fills our seen we've
reached the edge of present understanding.
Are these some quirks
that intense interaction?
Our journey has taken us
through forty powers of ten.
If now the field as one unit
then when we saw many
clusters of galaxies together
it was ten to the fortieth
or one and forty zeroes.
lake side in Chicago
is the start of a lazy
afternoon early one October
We begin with a
seen one meter wide
which we've used from
just one meter away
Now every ten seconds we will
look from ten times farther away
and our field of you
will be ten times wider.
This square is ten meters wide
and in ten seconds the next
square will be ten times as wide
Our picture will center
on the picnickers
Even after they've
been lost to sight
One hundred meters wide
The distance a man
can run in ten seconds
cars crowd the highway
powerboats lie at their docks
the colorful bleachers
are soldiers field
This square is kilometer a
wide, one thousand meters
the distance a racing car
can travel in ten seconds
We see the great
city on the lake shore
Ten to the fourth meters
ten kilometers
the distance a supersonic
airplane can travel in ten seconds
we see first the rounded
end of lake Michigan
then the whole great lake
ten to the fifth meters
the distance and orbiting
satellite covers in ten seconds
Long parades of clouds
the day's weather
in the middle west
ten to the sixth
a one with six zeros
a million meters
soon the earth will
show as a solid sphere
we are able to
see the whole earth now
just over a minute
along the journey
Earth diminishes into
the distance
but those background stars are
so much farther away
they do not yet appear to move
a line extends at the
true speed of light
in one second it half crosses
the tilted orbit of the moon
now we mark a small part of the path
in which the earth moves about the sun
now the orbital paths
of the neighbor planets
Venus
And Mars
and Mercury
Entering our field of view is the
glowing center of our solar system
the Sun
Followed by the
massive outer planets
Swinging wide
in their big orbits
that odd orbit belongs to Pluto
a fringe in the myriad comets too faint
to see completes the solar system
ten to the fourteenth
as the solar system shrinks
to one bright point in the distance
our Sun is plainly now
only one among the stars
Looking back from here we note four southern
constellation still much as they appear
from the far side of the earth.
this squares ten to
the sixteenth meters
one light year
not yet out to the next star
our last ten second step took us ten light
years further the next will be one hundred
Our perspective changes so much in each
step now
that even the background
stars will appear to converge.
Last we pass the bright star
Arcturus and some stars of the dipper.
Normal but quite unfamiliar stars
and clouds of gas surround us.
As we traverse the
milky way galaxy.
giant steps carry us into
the outskirts of the galaxy
And as we pull away we begin to
see the great flat spiral facing us.
The time and path we
chose to leave Chicago
has brought us out of the galaxy along
a course nearly perpendicular to its disk.
the two little satellite galaxies of our
own or the clouds of Magellan
ten to the twenty second power
million light years
Groups of galaxies bring a new
level of structure to the scene.
Glowing point are
no longer single stars
but whole galaxy
of stars seen as one.
We passed the Virgo ago cluster
of galaxies among many others.
One hundred million
light years out.
As we approach
the limit of our vision.
We pause to start back home.
This lonely seen
the galaxies like dust
is what most of
space looks like.
This emptiness is normal.
The richness of our own
neighborhood is the exception.
Trip back to the picnic on the lakefront
will be a setup version reducing
the distance to the earth's
surface by one power of ten.
Every two seconds.
In each two seconds we will appear to
cover 90% the remaining distance
back to earth.
Notice the alternation between
great activity and relative inactivity.
A rhythm that will continue all the way
into our next goal a proton in the nucleus
of a carbon atom beneath the skin on the
hand of the sleeping man at the picnic.
ten to the ninth meters
ten to the eight
seventh
sixth
five
four
three
two
one
we are back at
our starting point
we slow up at one meter
ten to the zero power
Now we reduce the
distance to our final destination
by ninety percent
every ten seconds
Each step much smaller
than the one before.
At ten to the minus two
One one hundredth of a meter
one centimeter we approach
the surface of the hand.
In a few seconds with
the entering the skin.
Crossing layer after layer
from the outermost dead cells
into a tiny blood vessel within.
Skin layers vanish in turn.
An outer layer of cells
felty collagen
The capillary containing red blood cells
and a ruffly lymphocyte
we enter the white cell
among it's vital organelles the porous
wall of the cell nucleus appears.
Nucleus within and holds
the heredity of the man
in the coiled coils of DNA.
As we close in we come
to the double helix itself.
A molecule like long twisted ladder who's
rungs of paired basis spell out twice
in an alphabet of four letters
words of a powerful
genetic message.
At the atomic scale
the interplay of form and
emotion becomes more visible.
We focus on one commonplace group of three
hydrogen atoms bonded by electrical forces
to a carbon atom.
Four electrons makeup the
outer shell of the carbon itself
they appear in quantum motion
is a swarm of shimmering points
at ten to the minus ten
meters, one angstrom
we find ourselves right
among those outer electrons.
Now come upon the two inner
electrons held in a tighter swarm.
As we draw toward the atoms attracting
center we enter upon a vast interspace.
At last the carbon nucleus.
So massive and so small.
This carbon nucleus was made
up of six protons and neutrons.
We are in the domain
of universal modules.
There are protons and
neutrons in every nucleus.
Electrons in every atom.
Atoms bonded into every
molecule out to the farthest galaxy.
As a single proton fills our seen we've
reached the edge of present understanding.
Are these some quirks
that intense interaction?
Our journey has taken us
through forty powers of ten.
If now the field as one unit
then when we saw many
clusters of galaxies together
it was ten to the fortieth
or one and forty zeroes.