Scale

Human beings have a hard time with scale. How do you get your mind around a grain of sand compared to a planet? A decade of a person’s life compared to billions of years in the life of a star? In these scale activities and lessons, you’ll get a Big History perspective on humanity and our Universe. Use it to help students master the art of scale switching, a tool that will change the way they think.

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Scale
Lesson 1.1
Big History Project
What Is Big History?
Scale
The secret to the challenge of Big History’s 13.8-billion-year timeline is to look at each topic at the appropriate scale. We zoom out and in, from the broadest timelines to the narrowest, from the lives of individuals to the formation of planets.
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Featured Materials

Scale – Human History on a String
Big History Project
Activity

Scale – Human History on a String External link

How do you compare a 13.8-billion-year history of the entire Universe with a timeline of human accomplishments? All you need is a calculator and some string!
Scale – Timelines
Big History Project
Activity

Scale – Timelines External link

Timelines are extremely useful tools to help understand the scale of history, but how do you fit all the important events on one line?
Scale – Big History on a Football Field
Big History on a Football Field
Big History Project
Activity

Scale – Big History on a Football Field External link

Put the time scale of Big History into perspective using your school's football field.
To Scale: The Solar System
To Scale: The Solar System
Big History Project
Video

To Scale: The Solar System External link

If the Sun is a huge beach ball and the Earth is a little marble, how far apart should they be if you are making a true scale model of the Solar System?
Scale – History of Me
Big History Project
Activity

Scale – History of Me External link

Time to compose your own history, but you have to think big. Tell your story thinking about your family, your community, your nation, and the planet as a whole.

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