Why is our universe so obsessed with large numbers?
01/05/2022
The universe delights in large numbers even when it does not seem to be necessary. Check these out:
- There are approximately 200 billion trillion stars in the universe but just one Earth.
- There are stars as huge as UY Scuti, which is some 1,700 times as wide as the Sun or the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall that measures 10 billion lightyears in length even though our Earth is only 40,075 kilometers across. Technically not even a grain of sand!
- The universe is (nearly) 14 billion years old although we humans have only been around 200000 years. And modern humans with technological advancement less than 2000 years ago! That's not even an eye-blink!
- The universe is 14 billion years old and will probably exist for billion billion years in future although we humans get only about less than a hundred years to live on it.
- A healthy male ejaculates about 250 million sperm cells in one go. However, only one impregnates a woman. The funny thing is, if the sperm count drops below 250 million, she may not get pregnant at all. What the heck then do other sperm cells do?
- There are about 8.7 million of plants and animals species in existence. We humans are the only ones capable of superior intellect. (Don't remind me of dolphins, elephants, Octopus and crows)
- An estimated 10 nonillion (10 to the 31st power) individual viruses exist on our planet-enough to assign one to every star in the universe 100 million times over. Yet it is only one virus (and its mutations) that is still keeping the entire world hostage since two years in a row.
- Scientists estimate that there are more than 400,000 speciesof plants on earth. Of these, we humans are entirely capable of consuming 300,000 species. Ironically, 75 percent of the world's food is generated from only 12 plants and five animal species keeping a significant number of people hungry and dying of hunger.
- Water covers about 71% of the earth's surface. 97% of the earth's water is found in the oceans. Only 3%of the earth's water is fresh which we need. In fact, half of the world's freshwater can be found in only six countries and several countries have already begun to run out of their water!
- There are 7.753 billion people on this earth. There are only a handful of people who are really rich, or happy, or successful, or enlightened. The rest of us all struggle to be like them and lose the race in the end.
But that's just my opinion. Thanks for reading.