What happens when you change perspective by visiting a very small world?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Jonathan Swift’s 1726 book Gulliver’s Travels took us to both Lilliput (where people are twelve times smaller than us) and Brobdingnag (where people are twelve times larger than us). Changing sizes gives us a new and different perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three recent xkcd cartoons by Randall Monroe take the idea of Lilliput much further and, as shown above, imagine rules for visiting 1/1000th (January 27, 2021), 1/10,000th  (January 13, 2021), and 1/100,000th (January 15, 2021) scale worlds.Click on an image to see a larger, clearer view.

 

In a 1/1,000th scale world the 623 foot tall St. Louis Gateway arch becomes a tripping hazard. In a 1/10,000th scale world standing up puts your mouth at too high of an altitude for getting enough oxygen to breathe, so you need to:

 “avoid hypoxia by regularly sitting to bring your lungs below the death zone.”

 

In a 1/100,000th scale world you need to:

“wear sunscreen; the ozone layer only protects you below the knees.”

 

The image was adapted from one at Wikimedia Commons of Gulliver visiting Brobdingnag.