Adam Hamilton gave me a little word nerd high this morning. He has a post about star gazing – nerdy enough in itself – that has a great illustration about how to make abstract statistics meaningful to people.
Here’s what he wrote:
It is located approximately 640 light years away (which means the light we see with the naked eye left Betelgeuse 640 years ago …. Betelgeuse is known as a red supergiant. In size (diameter) it is between 500 and 1,000 times the size of our sun. Which means, if it were located where our sun is located, it would completely fill our inner solar system, taking out earth and reaching nearly to Jupiter! Imagine a beachball at mid-field at Arrowhead Stadium where the Kansas City Chiefs play. The beachball would be our sun, and Arrowhead Stadium the size of Betelgeuse.
It’s that last bit I like the most. The beachball and stadium comparison wonderfully captures the difference, don’t you think?
I am a part-time local pastor serving 
This love we believe to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy for all the evils of a disordered world, for all the miseries and vices of men. Wherever this is, there are virtue and happiness going hand in hand. There is humbleness of mind, gentleness, long-suffering, the whole image of God; and at the same time a peace that passeth all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Pingback: Word Nerd? « Moderate Christian Blogroll