The Scale of the Universe - a Flash-based Gadget

The Scale of the Universe is a Flash-based scale gadget created by Newgrounds.com programmer Fotoshop, with credits for additional audio given to Cliff Martinez. This flash-based scale of the universe was submitted to Newgrounds.com on January 23, 2010, and received rave reviews. The submission was awarded the Daily Feature award on January 24, 2010, as well as the Weekly Users' Choice award on January 27, 2010.

Gadget Overview

Basically, The Scale of the Universe is a flash-based submission that lets one see the relative size of things in a simple, user-friendly way. The only thing that users have to worry about it scrolling left to right, or right to left. Other than that, there are no other controls to be distracted with or worry over.

When the flash animation begins, you will be shown an image that indicates approximately the middle of the scroll bar, which is located below the image. To control the scroll bar, simply click on it and move it left and/or right. You can also use your keyboard's arrow keys, namely the left and right ones, to control the scroll bar. Using the keyboard's arrow keys can be helpful in making smaller incremental steps up and down the scroll bar.

Below the scroll bar, you can see a general outline of where things are relative to each other in terms of size. Moving to the right will allow you to see bigger and bigger things, and moving to the left will allow you to see smaller and smaller things.

The Scale of the Universe includes sizes ranging from the Planck length (10 to the power of -35 meters) to the estimated size of the universe (93 billion lightyears).

Gadget Review

The Scale of the Universe is truly an amazing flash-based gadget that displays the relative sizes of things in a simple, easy-to-use fashion. It is probably the most addicting yet educational flash-based submission to date. You can easily spend an hour just scrolling through the many images to get a sense of the depth of the universe and everything in it. At the end of your exploration, you will find that this flash-based submission offers not only an enjoyable interactive tool but also a truly humbling experience. Furthermore, the calm, soothing, cosmic music is fitting for this submission, as it not only relaxes the mind but also creates a thought-provoking atmosphere that places users in a contemplative state, leaving them pondering their relative existences in the universe. Not many submissions can accomplish that.