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Everest is kind of the tallest mountain above sea level..... except our planet isn't round and sea-level isn't the same distance from the center of the earth everywhere. It's a mind twist but here's Neil deGrasse Tyson Explaining it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ9tRRyA4cw&ab_channel=StarTalk

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Mar 5Liked by Andrew Smith

Really love the color of the visuals here. So much of your writing is about perspective and scale and our place in space and time. Definitely felt that with this one.

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Thanks, Kristi! I've gotten more into graphic novel style illustrations lately, and can't get enough of them. I'm not sure why except: nostalgia!

I really love trying to put things into perspective that seem overwhelming. I think that's what I enjoy most.

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Mount Everest is big. It's amazing that such big objects exist. Think about the largest volcano on Mars, also the solar system’s tallest mountain. It's about 374 miles in diameter, so big, it covers about the same amount of land as the state of Arizona.

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Keep thinking about the scale of things! I think this is incredibly useful, and so few people ever do this type of thinking.

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Mar 5Liked by Andrew Smith

That is some seriously heavy sand! Perfect for pranking your mortal enemies.

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"Heavy Sand" could be a great 90s nu metal band name.

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Mar 5Liked by Andrew Smith

Title of this post could have been, "Mt Everest in a grain of sand", Nice post and great topic, though. One more point o of wonder for me about the universe for me: the denser an object gets, the fewer distinguishing characteristics it can have. Black holes famously "have no hair", and differ only in their mass.

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Thanks, Bob! I struggled with the title last. I think that's evident.

I like the concept that black holes take up zero space, and I've been baffled by prominent physicists saying they think this will be better explained in the future. If this is how reality seems, perhaps this is the way it is.

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