This page's content is no longer being maintained. Links may be broken, information may be outdated, and parts may not function correctly. 2025-02-15.
Resources
Celebrate the powers of 10 on the tenth day of the tenth month.
books
(paid link)Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps (paid link). Kees Boeke. New York: John Day (1957). A book! Possibly the book that inspired everyone else. It starts in the courtyard of the Children's Community Workshop (a progressive school) in Bilthoven, Netherlands. The building in the book appears to have been demolished, although the bicycle shed next door is still standing. In 1957 the area around the school was largely undeveloped. Mr. Boeke would barely recognize it today.
Cosmic Zoom. Eva Szasz. National Film Board of Canada (1968). Starts in the Ottawa River near the Parliament of Canada. No numbers or narration — probably because they didn't want to make one version in French and another in English.
Powers of Ten. Charles and Ray Eames (1977). Narrated by Philip Morrison. The most famous film of this type. Starts in Burnham Park near Soldier Field in Chicago.
Eames Office. The Eames Office is dedicated to communicating, preserving, and extending the work of Charles and Ray Eames. The Eames Office also posted info about the film at powersof10.com for a while. As of 2024 it is now a website run by "a team of experts committed to publish legit info".
YouTube. The official Charles and Ray Eames channel.
Cosmic Voyage. National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian Institution (1997). Narrated by Morgan Freeman. Starts in the Piazza San Marco in Venice.
The Known Universe. American Museum of Natural History (2009). Starts in the Himalayas. Zooms out and back, but not really in. Completely computer generated, but based on the latest astronomical and geographic data.
interactive web pages
Cell Size and Scale. Genetic Science Learning Center. University of Utah (no date). Zoom in from the size of a coffee bean to the size of a carbon atom. A nice, simple interactive JavaScript (at least, that's what I think it is).
Scale of the Universe. Cary Huang and Michael Huang (2010). A nicely illustrated, interactive webpage with swirly, distracting new age music. Now Adobe Flash-free.
