On the Bottom Half

Isotopes: Principles and Applications

After searching for something of sufficient interest for my readership, I've stumbled across a very scientific failing for a popular cliche.

One often describes the aiming ability of ones peers in reference to being able to hit a barn door (variations: broad size of a barn, etc). Implicit in such a statement is the size of the barn door, which, one would assume, is as big as your average barn door.

However, a 'barn' is a unit used in nuclear (isotopic) science equal to 1 x 10^-24 square-cm (1 x 10^-24 = 0.000000000000000000000001 square-cm). To put that into perspective, draw a box on a sheet of paper that is 1 cm by 1 cm. Now visually divide that space into a trillion trillion equally-sized smaller boxes that all fit within the 1 square-cm box you originally drew. One of those boxes is one barn. For another reference, your personal mass (in kilograms) forms the same proportion of the entire mass of the Earth as does one barn form the same proportion of area in your 1 square-cm box.

So, it is in fact very good aim indeed that could hit a 'barn-sized' door. Those who have trouble hitting 'barn doors' can now take solace in that fact.

posted by Kyle @ 03:00