Ever so often the human mind tries to imagine the scale of the universe it lives in, and ever so often it gets boggled by it. This is why the two short scientific essay type films that the brothers Charles and Ray Eames made way back in 1977 still fascinate the viewers to date.

The short videos are easily available on YouTube if you would like to take a look at the magnitude of the universe in a relative context. It starts with the normal human eye’s view that one would see with the naked eye, then it begins to increase the scope of area by powers of ten. This takes you through city, state, and country pretty quickly. Soon you are looking at the Earth and its place in the solar system, and the milky way galaxy.

Eventually the view expands to the entire known universe. Then it retraces back to normal human eye view, only to begin a reverse journey by shrinking the view by the power of ten. The final stop is coming down to a single atom whose quarks can be observed. That is when this science project helps you realize that the vast regions of outer space and the tiny atom within, are actually pretty similar. Quiet a fascinating concept.