Powers of Ten: A Book About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero [Paperback]

Philip Morrison (Author), Phylis Morrison (Author), Office of Charles and Ray Eames (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: W H Freeman & Co (Sd) (October 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0716760037
• ISBN-13: 978-0716760030
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Ride Through The Powers Of Ten., January 22, 2001

By 

CPUGuy1 "Steve" (Newnan, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Powers of Ten: A Book About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero (Paperback)

With a start at 10e+25 meters, from the far end of the universe (~1 billion light years), the book takes 1 power of ten steps downward to the subatomic level, about 10e-16 meters - or smaller than a hydrogen atom. A very good book to get lost in the comparison from one power to the next - be it higher (bigger) or lower (smaller).

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A genuine classic of popular scientific writing. Buy it!, July 15, 2007

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Powers of Ten: A Book About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero (Paperback)

`Powers of Ten' by Philip and Phylis Morrison and `The Office of Charles and Ray Eames' is one of those non-fiction classics which everyone gets around to buying or at least browsing in the library before they reach the age of forty. In fact, I'm quite surprised to see that the book was copyrighted in 1982, since it seems as if it has been around for decades, easily going back as far as the 1950's.

Part of this impression may be due to the fact that the concept is so simple. The heart of the book is a series of forty-two (42) photographs, or simulated photographs, each showing a view exactly 1/10th the size of the previous view. One thing that confirms the vintage of the book is that the views near the middle of the series, those from near outer space, are genuine photographs from some NASA platform or other.

One similar book that comes to mind is `Flatland', the `fictional' description of a three-dimensional person visiting a two-dimensional world. A similar work, far more whimsical than these two, is `The Point and the Line'. One advantage the geometrically premised works have on `Powers of Ten' is that their underlying mathematical bases are virtually secure for the ages. Not so with our `Powers of Ten'. Even my layman's knowledge of modern physics can spot at least two out of date aspects in the book. The first I spotted was the statement that the largest share of mass in the universe is in stars. Modern theory posits a mysterious moiety called `dark matter', which now explains a lot of facts about astrophysics which were a mystery under the `all mass in stars' point of view. The second out of date perspective is the absence of any fine detail at the sub-atomic particle level. In the early 1980's, the most advanced physics relied entirely on a particle-based paradigm for sub-atomic structures (The last quantum physics advance cited is the hypothesis of quarks). Since the mid-1980s, the theory of choice is based on strings or even `superstrings'. The conjectural pictures at this level know nothing of vibrating strings. The `big' perspectives also don't really do justice to hypotheses about deep space entities such as black holes and quasars.

Still, this is a great classic. If, for no other reason than it is a great tutorial on getting someone acquainted with the metric system of measuring distances, as all steps are in tenths or tens of a meter. On a more general level, this is a great little lesson in the history of physical science, as the book contains a chronology of the discoveries that pushed our perceptions of the world in one direction (big) or the other (small).

Any family with at least one scientifically curious child should own a copy of this little gem!