Charles and Ray Eames were incredibly influential American designers – one of their most famous projects was a short film called Powers of 10. It was produced in 1977 and I was a little surprised to find that it’s still amazing to watch. It’s available for viewing on the Powers of 10 site – you do have to register, but it seems pretty benign, they don’t ask for money or anything.
The ultimate Eamesian expression of systems and connections, Powers of Ten explores the relative size of things from the microscopic to the cosmic. The 1977 film travels from an aerial view of a man in a Chicago park to the outer limits of the universe directly above him and back down into the microscopic world contained in the man’s hand. Powers of Ten illustrates the universe as an arena of both continuity and change, of everyday picnics and cosmic mystery. The film also demonstrates the Eameses’ ability to make science both fascinating and accessible.
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12 thoughts on “Powers of 10 by Charles and Ray Eames”
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I’m reading the bow Powers of 10: The universe in 42 jumps now based on this. Very cool.
I was in Oklahoma recently, and while I wasn’t too impressed with the state, the science museum in OKC was pretty good. They had this video looping on one of their television screens, and I really enjoyed the fect that this allows the ordinary person to wrap their minds around powers of 10.
Someone send me a link to a video on youtube about the Hubble Deep Field Image, which relates quite well to Powers of 10.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw
I saw this at The Smithsonian at the Air and Space Museum in the 80s.
Thank god for the metric system.
@Georg, I think it was actually the French who invented the metric system, but, yeah. :)