A Matter Of Scale by K.C. Cole Assignment 2

Class Assignment from Tuesday September 11th, 2012:

Page  91
Instructions answer questions under "Seeing" #'s 1 & 2.

Answer 1:

Cole finds something magically seductive in the wonders of a world smaller then ours saying it "casts spells that take us far beyond the realm of everyday living into exotic landscapes only accessible through the imagination." She seems to be awe struck by the almost magical feats things smaller then ourselves can accomplish as well as wonder what it would be like to be on their level.

Image Source: http://www.giantspectacular.com/

Cole's essay showed me a lot of things I had never realized before because I really do perceive things on my own scale.The most entertaining of my realizations was about the giant. Most people would think a giant is a scaled up human so naturally everything works out as far as the bodies support systems and ability to cope with the weight. When realistically if you were to double the size of a human with every step they would break their own bones! 

I think the fact that I really never put any thought into is rather simple the smaller you are the more electrical forces rule your physical abilities and limitations and the bigger you get the more molecules and gravity are in control. It seems like such a simple idea but when she mentioned how a ant sized typewriter could not work because the keys and the paper would stick together in a way that would make them useless.

Another rather amazing fact to me was how the size of something effects the lifespan of a being. The idea that a smaller creature runs on a faster internal clock and a bigger animal runs on a slower internal clock is amazing to me! It is fascinating how much the size of someone or something really effects how it lives and what it can do beyond the common sense limitations.

Image Source: http://blog.flickr.net/en/2007/05/30/there-aint-no-flies-on-us/

How will these ideas change my view on my daily world. Honestly I don't know if they really will. I know for a fact though it will cause me to question more why things happen the way they do. The example in this book (Seeing an Writing 4) about how I would view a fly landing in my soup after finding that liquid pulls on insects like gravity does on humans is a prime example of the things I would really think about more. It would cause me to ask "Is that fly just dumb and flew into my soup on purpose? Or maybe it was hungry and though it was solid? Or more likely did the fly come to close and get pulled down into the soup by the intense electric forces that act upon it at a molecular level." It may sound like absurd questions to ask yourself but they are now something for me to consider given this new information.


Answer 2

Image Source: http://freddysopenmind.blogspot.com

Cole seems to reference many different authorities in her essay to sum up her thoughts, drive home a point, or even to segue into another train of thought. The segment from Schrodinger Cole uses to end her essay really just brings everything back to where she began, the inability to comprehend the truly fantastic yet in some way unreal world of what happens at such a microscopic level.