This needs some explanation

[brooklyn77]

Please bare with me, i will try to explain this as clear as possible. If you or i stood still and moved our arm in a big circle at a rate of say (if you could time it) for example an inch per second, it might take for example (a pure guess here) 90 seconds. Now if there was such a thing as life on a bit of dust, you know a whole world or galaxy within a bit of dust, then a 'human' would be really tiny, you know, so small we would never be able to see it. Then in theory a human on the dust world would take less time than us to move its arms in a circle. Can anyone give a rough estimate how long in our time it would take for a 'dust' human to circle his arm? would it amount to a split second? therfore making it possible for a 'dust' world to exist for hundreds or thousands of years when for us it would pass in a few hours???? Any ideas at the time ratios?

[rja211077]

as obscure questions go this is right up there with the designer of the 1992 Lithuanian olympic costume or whatever it was. Anyway, surely the time taken has nothing to do with the relative sizes of us and 'dust man'. It is only to do with the rotational velocities of our arms. If we both rotate our arms at 1 degree per second then it will take the same time for us to complete a circle. If we start measuring in distance instead of degrees then your question just gets silly - how can someone who lives on a world the size of one of our specks of dust rotate their arm at a rate of one (of our) inch per second? eh?

[nwmadden]

First off, as a tiny universe existing on a piece of dust is a nonsense idea that requires an extreme leap of faith (Or a very idol mind!) I think the answers you get to this question are going to be of a similar nature! i.e Nonsense! I have one question to ask though: Do you think the hands on a clock face that is 20 foot in diametre move at a different rate to the hands on a wrist watch? No. The larger hands on the larger clock travel a greater distance but they move with the same angular velocity as the smaller clock. So taking the reduction in size futher, why can't the tiny hands (or arms for that matter!) on the tiny wrists of the tiny people in the world on your bit of dust travel around at the same rate they would if they were the same size as us. I need to lie down now.

[strozzi]

You've got two very good answers there. I was about to add a third and dusted my brain in readiness then got totally confused with the amount of dust ................. so I've given up.

[mizz_e21]

Brooklyn I think to even post a question like this show's that u have more time on ur hands then u like to admit!! Maybe u should use ur time cleaning out ur bird or helping me with the housework instead of thinking up such idiotic questions on here!! And to those of u answering him!!! Ur just as bad!! lol. I came straight to this question to get the point across to my other half, so I'm no where near as bad as u lot!! lol. Have fun anyway entertaining him with ur answer's!! lol

[mikewall01]

Well well well Mizz_e21, if you really are Brooklyn's other half then you've played a blinder. Just like dragging the old man out of the pub at sunday lunch time.

[Squirrel]

If there was a real reason for asking this, such as writing a sci-fi story, then taking "Mini time" to be the same as "Normal time" is usually acceptable. However, if you wanted to be totally realistic, if you know what I mean, then there aren't even enough atoms in a spec of dust to create a miniature galaxy, planet or even a miniature ant. These things are already as small as they can possibly be in order to behave as they do. Spec-of-dust-sized humans would die if they had the same dimensions as us because their cells (being of normal size) would suddenly be huge in comparison with their bodies, and it would just be too weird. If you're designing a microscopic world, you can almost rule out intelligent life, unless a machine is invented that is more compact and efficient than an actual brain'so, getting back to the question, why not time how long it takes for an amoeba to rotate its flagella 360� and use that?

[brooklyn77]

Thanks to everyone who answered so far (including my partner) i know it sounds like i have a lot of idol time on my hands, which may be true to some extent but i am a busy person with an over active imagination. Any way, why cant there be a world of a different dimension and different laws of physics that we know nothing about, thats right!! even in your own bed.There are many things we cant explain. Maybe when it rains...it really is an unseen 'gigantic' human taking a wee on us. You never know. Besides humans cant explain everything. Probably a load of tosh but its fun to imagine. (Not the leak thing)

[Squirrel]

You would make an excellent novelist, brooklyn, that's for sure.

[hal]

idle not idol (sorry)

[honkytonkman]

Hey brooklyn, I've thought similar things. Say for example, when looking into atom we see little quark things whizzing about.. We can't really see any smaller than that (with the limits of our laws of physics or technology) but perhaps OUR universe is really inside the quark of an atom of an altogether gigantic larger living entity.. And THAT giant creature's universe is an atom in another yet more gigantic entity. Bit like Russian Dolls! I'm not prepared to discount anything like this, as with the limits of our abilities, altogether weirder and more far-fetched things might be going on that we can't comprehend.