Scale and Tale of the Universe
Directions:
1. Convert the ages and size of objects into scientific notation so they can be compared. You
can refer to the conversion table that shows equivalences between English and metric units.
In addition, 1 light year = 9.46 x 1012 km.
Object
Age
(in years)
Size
(of radius)
Observable
universe
Surtsey (earth’s
newest land)
Pleiades (a
galactic cluster)
First living
organisms on
Earth
Pangaea (Earth’s
prehistoric
supercontinent)
First homo
sapiens
First
Tyrannosaurus
rex
Eukaryotes
Earth
Milky Way
Galaxy
First atoms
13.7 billion
1026 meters
40 years
0.5 miles
100 million
32.6 light years
4.6 billion
0.00005 meters
200 million
4500 miles
100 thousand
100 centimeters
200 million
20 feet
2 billion
5 billion
14 billion
0.00005 meters
6400 kilometers
50000 light years
13.7 billion
Our Sun
Our solar system
5 billion
5 billion
0.0000000001
meters
1 gigameter
I tetrameter
Conversion:
1 in=2.54 cm = 0.0254 m
1 ft = 30.5 cm = 0.305 m
1 yd = 91.4 cm = 0.914 m
1 mi = 1609 m = 1.609 km
1 light year = 9.461012 km or 5.88 trillion miles
Age (in years)
Size
(in meters)