I once heard there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on earth. Bloody impossible I say?
Anyone?
Answers:
That's a tough call. But let's take a look anyway.
Our galaxy alone contains somewhere in the neighborhood (no pun intended) of 300 to 400 billion stars. Now the estimated number of galaxies in the Universe is around 125 billion. Now let's do some math (based upon the assumption that the Milky Way is an average sized galaxy):
(3.5 x 10^11) x (1.25 x 10^11) = 4.375 x10^22
Thats 43,750,000,000,000,000,000,000
So are there more grains of sand on the Earth? Probably. but some of the above answers lead me to believe that it's a close race. You do have to keep in mind that the Universe is expanding constantly.
Also, some have mentioned that the Universe is infinite. However, if you subscribe to the idea that the Universe is expanding then I would like to point out that you cannot believe it is infinite. The two ideas are incompatible.
I've heard that as well, but can't see how!
its true.The universe is never ending,therefore you would never finish counting the stars.Sand on the other hand could be counted although i wouldnt like to try.
How is it impossible! Surly there is a finite number of grains of sand on the earth (be it a hight number!) However the universe is infinte. Therefor there must be more stars than sand!
who was stupid enough to count them all in the first place
Contrary to above comments, the Universe is not infinite, but there are a staggering number of stars. There are Billions of galaxies each containing millions of stars, so don't be surprised at the number of stars in the Universe.
If you wish to get an idea of the size of the Universe, look up the "Hubble Deep Field" picture. It will blow your mind
And why do you say that? (The correct saying is there are more stars than sand in all the beaches on the earth)
There are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy and about 100 billion galaxies which means there is somewhere around 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Stars - which is quite a lot.
Let's say a grain of sand in a tenth of a millimetre across. If there were the same number of stars as grains of sand the sand would have a volume of 10 billion cubic kilometres which is more sand than on all the beaches on earth.
Extra.
katjha2005's - there is only ONE star in the solar system and that's the sun. Oh and the universe is NOT infinite just really big
Extra Extra
I noticed another comment about how do I know that the universe isn't infinite. Well given the Big Bang is correct (and if you want to can can explain why) and the universe has expand from a point from then on, the universe must have a finite size. Because all the matter was created in the big bang there must be a finite number of stars.
Hope that clears that up for everyone.
Your question you start counting
the universe never ends so there must be zillions of stars
Read the Bible
You can tell people there are billions of stars in the sky and they'll believe you. Tell them that the paint is wet and they have to test it!
Sure, Earth is only one planet....the UNIVERSE is vast...hell, Sand on Earth and the stars you see up above are just what you can see visually with your eyes...and this is only in the Milky Way Galaxy...we aren't the only galaxy out there with planets and a system..just in the past few years I recall the telescope picking up on the glimpse of one of the first distant galaxies we've been able to see....and who knows how many other ones are out there with their own stars, etc, etc. Makes ya think.
you cann't count the no of stars as it is always increasing but the grains of sands are fix on earth now u have to decide.
I have heard the stars & grains of sand from cosmologists and you are the first I have heard that feels this is impossible.
I suppose this means you are going to have to ally yourself with some band of conspiracy theorists for support.
I can't say I know that for a fact, because I'm not thinking someone has actually gone and counted every grain of sand and every star in the universe but if you look at the larger picture.. the Earth is actually very small so what seems like a lot to you in the bigger picture may not be that much. The universe is never ending - there are millions of stars just in our solar system alone much less the universe. There are different size star also, so some are "babies" and you can't see them. then you have stars the size of the sun that are obvious. so looking at the big picture I would have to say there's a good chance that it is probably an accurate statement.
This might help. This is a picture from the Hubble telescope called the Hubble Deep Field. It's a picture of all the galaxys that show up in a segment of sky that is only the size of a grain of sand if you hold about an arms length away. It's an incredibly small area, yet there are about 10,000 galaxies in it. Galaxies contain between ten million to one trillion stars. Estimates of the number of grains of sand are about 2000 billion billion, max.
Phew, my head hurts.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 - 1001,1002,1003,1004, 14,234,671 erm.lost count. ah well 1,2,3,4.
Well, lets do some back of the envelope math, because these numbers are just way to big for any person to just say, "That sounds about right" or, "That sounds way wrong."
The Earth is about 6000 km in radius, or 6000000 meters. The surface area would be 4 * pi * 6000000^2 or about 4.5E14. If we can guess that there are enough sand grains to cover the Earth 1 meter deep, that is 4.5E14 cubic meters of sand. If a sand grain is 1mm, then there are 1000 cubed or 10E9 grains in every cubic meter, so there are 4.5E23 grains of sand on Earth.
Now the Milky Way galaxy is estimated to have 100 billion stars, or 10E11 stars. It is also estimated that there are 100 billion galaxies in the universe, again, 10E11. So multiplying those numbers gives 10E22 stars. That is 45 times less than 4.5E23. Now maybe you say that only 1/100 of the Earth is covered by sand 1 meter deep. Then there are more stars in the universe than sand grains on Earth. Of course all these numbers are not very well known, especially the number of sand grains on Earth, but the numbers do seem to be in the same ballpark.
There are over 600 billion stars in our Galaxy and then there are over 50 billion Galaxy's and that's just the ones that we can just see with Hubble and other space telescopes.
If you do the math that's one hell of allot stars and earth the place we live on its tiny!. We are nothing compared to the size of the universe.
it depends on ur imagination.
well you'd be wrong
How come some of you say with conviction that the universe is not infinite? You don't know.
That's a question I would consider an "imponderable". I think that the comparison of stars in the universe to grains of sand on the beaches is just a figure of speech to give the average person an inkling of just how enormous the universe is.
While it may not be "infinite", as some people have posited, it is certainly a size that is beyond the reach of the most creative imagination.
It is good to see people putting so much thought into questions like this!
The universe is a huge place with more stars than we can count. It's true.
A couple corrections to the above.
There's a lot more than one sand grain per cubic millimeter---depending on the size of the sand grain, somewhere between 50 and 1000. Let's say it's 100. Then to equal the number of stars in the Milky Way, you need about 10 cubic meters of sand---the capacity of a single truck.
The surface of the Earth is about 4x10^14 square meters, so the total amount of sand is maybe 10^15 to 10^17 cubic meters.
That's about 10^14 galaxies worth of sand. Maybe less, if you mean really nice, clean beach or desert sand.
There aren't 10^14 galaxies between us and our event horizon 13.7 billion lightyears out, there are (as people have pointed out) only about 10^12. But it's close.
However, the Universe is definitely bigger than our event horizon. We see one light-day further each day, and that light-day of stuff is just like the other stuff we see already. How much further does it go on? The current best guess, based on inflationary Big Bang models, is LOTS and LOTS---at least 10^20 times further, and possibly much more than that. Maybe infinite. That would argue that there are "now" at least 10^72 stars in the Universe, out to the point that was once in causal contact during the early inflation. Way, way more than all the grains of sand on the Earth.
yes, it is true
Just because you can't fathom it does not mean it is not possible. However, as stars are constantly being born, and in the same note sand is constantly being formed then who could ever tell. Why don't you try asking a question that is of importance instead of one that is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
true the universe is ever growing and there's a theory that the universe started growing when the big bang happened and eventually its just going to stop growing and like a elastic band retract and destroy everything like it created everything as it grew so until the universe stops growing more and more stars will be created but on earth were basically stuck with the same amount of sand
The universe is not (as far as we know) infinite but as the hitchikers guide to the galaxy said:
"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."
A good a description of an unimaginably vast number as any other I have come across.
The number of galaxies is mind-bogglingly vast and each galaxy contains a mind-bogglingly vast number of stars.
There are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in our universe
mathematicians at the University of Hawaii tried to guess how many grains of sand are on the world's beaches. They came up with 7,500,000,000,000,000,000, or seven quintillion five quadrillion grains of sand.
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars
7,500,000,000,000,000,000 grains of sand
so to every 1 grain of sand there is 133 stars
the universe is a wee bit on the large side, if i think about to much i get a pain in the head. thank god you didn't ask for how many atoms are in the universe?
how does the pebble size change as you move downstream. Are the rocks biggest and sharpest upstream?
my son asked me how heavy is the world can anyone help me so i can tell him?
does sound travel faster through the dark or through light?
why don't space craft burn leaving earth?
How does the wind change direction?
What is light?
Is fog just very low-lying cloud?
What`s behind the universe? Is there something behind?
Answers:
That's a tough call. But let's take a look anyway.
Our galaxy alone contains somewhere in the neighborhood (no pun intended) of 300 to 400 billion stars. Now the estimated number of galaxies in the Universe is around 125 billion. Now let's do some math (based upon the assumption that the Milky Way is an average sized galaxy):
(3.5 x 10^11) x (1.25 x 10^11) = 4.375 x10^22
Thats 43,750,000,000,000,000,000,000
So are there more grains of sand on the Earth? Probably. but some of the above answers lead me to believe that it's a close race. You do have to keep in mind that the Universe is expanding constantly.
Also, some have mentioned that the Universe is infinite. However, if you subscribe to the idea that the Universe is expanding then I would like to point out that you cannot believe it is infinite. The two ideas are incompatible.
I've heard that as well, but can't see how!
its true.The universe is never ending,therefore you would never finish counting the stars.Sand on the other hand could be counted although i wouldnt like to try.
How is it impossible! Surly there is a finite number of grains of sand on the earth (be it a hight number!) However the universe is infinte. Therefor there must be more stars than sand!
who was stupid enough to count them all in the first place
Contrary to above comments, the Universe is not infinite, but there are a staggering number of stars. There are Billions of galaxies each containing millions of stars, so don't be surprised at the number of stars in the Universe.
If you wish to get an idea of the size of the Universe, look up the "Hubble Deep Field" picture. It will blow your mind
And why do you say that? (The correct saying is there are more stars than sand in all the beaches on the earth)
There are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy and about 100 billion galaxies which means there is somewhere around 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Stars - which is quite a lot.
Let's say a grain of sand in a tenth of a millimetre across. If there were the same number of stars as grains of sand the sand would have a volume of 10 billion cubic kilometres which is more sand than on all the beaches on earth.
Extra.
katjha2005's - there is only ONE star in the solar system and that's the sun. Oh and the universe is NOT infinite just really big
Extra Extra
I noticed another comment about how do I know that the universe isn't infinite. Well given the Big Bang is correct (and if you want to can can explain why) and the universe has expand from a point from then on, the universe must have a finite size. Because all the matter was created in the big bang there must be a finite number of stars.
Hope that clears that up for everyone.
Your question you start counting
the universe never ends so there must be zillions of stars
Read the Bible
You can tell people there are billions of stars in the sky and they'll believe you. Tell them that the paint is wet and they have to test it!
Sure, Earth is only one planet....the UNIVERSE is vast...hell, Sand on Earth and the stars you see up above are just what you can see visually with your eyes...and this is only in the Milky Way Galaxy...we aren't the only galaxy out there with planets and a system..just in the past few years I recall the telescope picking up on the glimpse of one of the first distant galaxies we've been able to see....and who knows how many other ones are out there with their own stars, etc, etc. Makes ya think.
you cann't count the no of stars as it is always increasing but the grains of sands are fix on earth now u have to decide.
I have heard the stars & grains of sand from cosmologists and you are the first I have heard that feels this is impossible.
I suppose this means you are going to have to ally yourself with some band of conspiracy theorists for support.
I can't say I know that for a fact, because I'm not thinking someone has actually gone and counted every grain of sand and every star in the universe but if you look at the larger picture.. the Earth is actually very small so what seems like a lot to you in the bigger picture may not be that much. The universe is never ending - there are millions of stars just in our solar system alone much less the universe. There are different size star also, so some are "babies" and you can't see them. then you have stars the size of the sun that are obvious. so looking at the big picture I would have to say there's a good chance that it is probably an accurate statement.
This might help. This is a picture from the Hubble telescope called the Hubble Deep Field. It's a picture of all the galaxys that show up in a segment of sky that is only the size of a grain of sand if you hold about an arms length away. It's an incredibly small area, yet there are about 10,000 galaxies in it. Galaxies contain between ten million to one trillion stars. Estimates of the number of grains of sand are about 2000 billion billion, max.
Phew, my head hurts.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 - 1001,1002,1003,1004, 14,234,671 erm.lost count. ah well 1,2,3,4.
Well, lets do some back of the envelope math, because these numbers are just way to big for any person to just say, "That sounds about right" or, "That sounds way wrong."
The Earth is about 6000 km in radius, or 6000000 meters. The surface area would be 4 * pi * 6000000^2 or about 4.5E14. If we can guess that there are enough sand grains to cover the Earth 1 meter deep, that is 4.5E14 cubic meters of sand. If a sand grain is 1mm, then there are 1000 cubed or 10E9 grains in every cubic meter, so there are 4.5E23 grains of sand on Earth.
Now the Milky Way galaxy is estimated to have 100 billion stars, or 10E11 stars. It is also estimated that there are 100 billion galaxies in the universe, again, 10E11. So multiplying those numbers gives 10E22 stars. That is 45 times less than 4.5E23. Now maybe you say that only 1/100 of the Earth is covered by sand 1 meter deep. Then there are more stars in the universe than sand grains on Earth. Of course all these numbers are not very well known, especially the number of sand grains on Earth, but the numbers do seem to be in the same ballpark.
There are over 600 billion stars in our Galaxy and then there are over 50 billion Galaxy's and that's just the ones that we can just see with Hubble and other space telescopes.
If you do the math that's one hell of allot stars and earth the place we live on its tiny!. We are nothing compared to the size of the universe.
it depends on ur imagination.
well you'd be wrong
How come some of you say with conviction that the universe is not infinite? You don't know.
That's a question I would consider an "imponderable". I think that the comparison of stars in the universe to grains of sand on the beaches is just a figure of speech to give the average person an inkling of just how enormous the universe is.
While it may not be "infinite", as some people have posited, it is certainly a size that is beyond the reach of the most creative imagination.
It is good to see people putting so much thought into questions like this!
The universe is a huge place with more stars than we can count. It's true.
A couple corrections to the above.
There's a lot more than one sand grain per cubic millimeter---depending on the size of the sand grain, somewhere between 50 and 1000. Let's say it's 100. Then to equal the number of stars in the Milky Way, you need about 10 cubic meters of sand---the capacity of a single truck.
The surface of the Earth is about 4x10^14 square meters, so the total amount of sand is maybe 10^15 to 10^17 cubic meters.
That's about 10^14 galaxies worth of sand. Maybe less, if you mean really nice, clean beach or desert sand.
There aren't 10^14 galaxies between us and our event horizon 13.7 billion lightyears out, there are (as people have pointed out) only about 10^12. But it's close.
However, the Universe is definitely bigger than our event horizon. We see one light-day further each day, and that light-day of stuff is just like the other stuff we see already. How much further does it go on? The current best guess, based on inflationary Big Bang models, is LOTS and LOTS---at least 10^20 times further, and possibly much more than that. Maybe infinite. That would argue that there are "now" at least 10^72 stars in the Universe, out to the point that was once in causal contact during the early inflation. Way, way more than all the grains of sand on the Earth.
yes, it is true
Just because you can't fathom it does not mean it is not possible. However, as stars are constantly being born, and in the same note sand is constantly being formed then who could ever tell. Why don't you try asking a question that is of importance instead of one that is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
true the universe is ever growing and there's a theory that the universe started growing when the big bang happened and eventually its just going to stop growing and like a elastic band retract and destroy everything like it created everything as it grew so until the universe stops growing more and more stars will be created but on earth were basically stuck with the same amount of sand
The universe is not (as far as we know) infinite but as the hitchikers guide to the galaxy said:
"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."
A good a description of an unimaginably vast number as any other I have come across.
The number of galaxies is mind-bogglingly vast and each galaxy contains a mind-bogglingly vast number of stars.
There are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in our universe
mathematicians at the University of Hawaii tried to guess how many grains of sand are on the world's beaches. They came up with 7,500,000,000,000,000,000, or seven quintillion five quadrillion grains of sand.
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars
7,500,000,000,000,000,000 grains of sand
so to every 1 grain of sand there is 133 stars
the universe is a wee bit on the large side, if i think about to much i get a pain in the head. thank god you didn't ask for how many atoms are in the universe?
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