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Chris Higgins
Required Viewing: “Powers of Ten”
by Chris Higgins - November 20, 2009 - 6:09 PM

Required Viewing

If you’ve never seen the classic short “Powers of Ten,” I’ve got a treat for you. Created in 1968 for IBM by Charles and Ray Eames (yes, of Eames Chair fame), the film has a very simple premise: start at a static scene, then start zooming out, at one “power of ten” per ten seconds — for example, from 102 meters to 103 meters. As we zoom out, we see the earth, the solar system, the galaxy, and so forth. Once we reach 1024 meters (the size of the observable universe), the camera then begins a faster zoom-in…and goes beyond the original scene, into the microscopic scale and beyond.

For me, “Powers of Ten” is an educational touchstone — it’s a film I was shown several times in science classrooms, and to this day, I find it captivating in its simplicity and power. All you do is zoom way out and zoom way in — the universe is just a matter of perspective.

For more, check out “Powers of Ten” on Wikipedia, and the official “Powers of Ten” website.

(Thanks to Kottke.org for pointing to this YouTube clip!)

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Comments (11)

  1. I thought it was fascinating how similar each boundary, whether in space or in a human hand, was to each other, and then how the quarks look like static on a TV. Wow.

    posted by Pete on 11-20-2009 at 9:31 pm

  2. I’m sure all the people on acid in 1968 loved this.

    posted by Drew on 11-20-2009 at 10:21 pm

  3. Total perspective vortex.

    posted by Rob on 11-20-2009 at 11:12 pm

  4. oid anyone else start to think of the ‘Total Perspective Vortex’ from \Hitch-hiker’s Guide\??

    I don’t know how I missed this in science classes back in the ’60s or ’70s, but I did. I’m glad I saw it now.

    Captcha: 1010 (10 to the 10th?) puzzlers

    -\BB\-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 11-20-2009 at 11:13 pm

  5. I love this short. So imformative.

    posted by Karl on 11-20-2009 at 11:24 pm

  6. I think I actually saw this at the Air & Space Museum as a child in the early 70’s. How wonderful that it’s still around for others to see.

    posted by Rory on 11-21-2009 at 9:59 am

  7. Saw the powers of 10 short just this semester at college in Physics class.

    posted by Bethany on 11-21-2009 at 2:30 pm

  8. I saw this in my eighth grade science class… in 2001! Yes, they still show it in schools!

    posted by Elise Rivera on 11-22-2009 at 3:09 pm

  9. I saw this at the Ontario Science Centre as a kid back in the late 60’s / early 70’s. There it was shown on a \big\ screen (well, maybe not that big, but bigger than my present-day computer monitor). Anyway, I remember a distinct feeling of vertigo when the view went from very far to very close in a relatively short period of time. I thought it was way cool!

    posted by Sue W on 11-22-2009 at 8:53 pm

  10. It was known as ‘Cosmic Zoom’ in those days.

    posted by ArtW on 11-23-2009 at 9:46 am

  11. how could anyone watch that and deny intelligent design?

    recaptcha: 17.00 gumdrop

    posted by yayaya on 11-24-2009 at 8:27 pm

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