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The Large and the Small (1957)
About this film
Ninety-three million miles from the earth to the sun, one hundred thousand light years from one end of our galaxy to the other (remember that light travels 186,000 miles in one second), the size of the red blood cell: one three-thousandth of an inch. These are everyday figures in the language of science and scientists, and yet they are so incredibly large and unbelievable small that the non-scientist finds difficulty in imaging them. Before the dawn of science, man could only understand what he could see, touch and measure directly; today he understands and uses these fantastic sizes with ease. In "The Large and the Small," Professor Le Corbeiller shows how man has learned to measure such quantities far beyond his sight and grasp. With simple, animated pictures, he shows step by step how one very large figure - the size of the earth - was discovered in classical times. With Le Corbeiller, you examine more modern problems of extreme scale: the electron microscope measuring the size of viruses: the control and measurement of unseen reactions taking place in pressures and temperatures phenomenally high by our everyday standards. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfich…
Directors & creators
WGBH Educational Foundation
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, Science, Physics, Astronomy, Measurement, Scale, Atoms, Molecules, Galaxies, Universe, Units of measurement, Scientific instruments, Mathematics, Earth, Solar system, Light years, Atomic theory, History of science, Subatomic particles, Electrons, Cosmic particles, Human perception, Time measurement, Nebulae
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