Universal Zoom: All About Sizes and Distances (for iPad) - Review 2022

Universal Zoom ($1.99) is an iPad app that explores the scale of the universe and the relative size of various objects and altitude between them, from the tiniest subatomic particle to superclusters of galaxies. Information technology depicts representative objects of different sizes for comparison, and is an splendid choice for a pupil or a curious layman who wants to learn more virtually the globe around the states.

Universal Zoom is similar in concept to Cozmic Zoom, but it depicts far more individual objects. Likewise, I experienced none of the operational glitches that I did in testing Cozmic Zoom. Information technology too bears some similarity to Back in Fourth dimension , exploring space and concrete dimensions much similar that app does with time.

Design and Features
I tested Universal Zoom with an iPad Air two . The app works with the iPad, the iPhone, or the iPod affect. The opening screen shows a human silhouette, with the label Average Male Human Beingness: 5 feet 9 inches in height. To the man's left are illustrations of progressively smaller creatures, all presented to scale: an emperor penguin, a porcupine, a meerkat, a hedgehog, and others. To the right of the man is a cartoon of an ostrich. Along the bottom and left-hand edges of the screen are horizontal and vertical axes, with 5-human foot intervals marked, At the tiptop of the screen are tiny thumbnail icons, with the middle ane again depicting the person. Icons showing progressively smaller objects, downward through cells, atoms, and particles, are bundled to the left, while icons ranging up through mountains, planets, stars, and our galaxy lie to the right.

When you click on the characterization identifying ane of the approximately 200 objects or creatures depicted in the app, a voice recites the label'south text, and a popup window provides a description. For example, clicking on the human's characterization reveals that the boilerplate height for each sex within a population varies significantly. The tallest human being in modern history was eight feet 11 inches, while the shortest man is one pes 9.5 inches in height. The popup too includes an Explore button, which allows you to compare the sizes of objects. For instance, you lot can find that 20 walruses can fit (lengthwise) in an Airbus A380 jetliner.

In the superlative correct corner of any screen is a Gear icon that, when touched, opens a Settings menu. You tin toggle the music and the narration voice on and off, or you can gear up the narration voice for any of 5 unlike English-speaking countries, so you tin can hear a robotic vox narrate in English with an American, British, Australian, South African, or Irish accent! Yous can increase or decrease the text size. You tin also switch the unit system between Imperial/US, Metric, and Scientific. In that location are links to study a trouble, and to write a review of Universal Zoom in the App Store.

The Large and the Small of It
Navigation is like shooting fish in a barrel: Clicking on one of the thumbnails at the top of the screen enlarges the thumbnails and labels them. For instance clicking on the silhouette labels it as Human; to its left are Insects, Cells, and DNA construction, while to its correct are Trees, Mountains, and Planets. The thumbnails move carousel-style if yous swipe them, revealing a whole new prepare of larger, or smaller, items. Tapping on one of the thumbnails takes you lot to a view of the object that's represented. For instance, touching Trees takes you to a view showing the largest sequoias (Full general Sherman and Hyperion), as well every bit the comparably sized Statue of Liberty, Large Ben, SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, and the Leaning Belfry of Pisa. They are grouped by size, rather than object type.

: Universal Zoom: All about Sizes and Distances (for iPad)

You can also navigate by swiping the screen right or left. Moving your finger to the right reveals smaller objects, and shrinks the scale, while a new prepare of smaller creatures and objects appears. (Soon the axes are divided into one-foot increments.) Moving it left shows larger things. After the human and ostrich come up a walrus, a Tesla Model S, an elephant, a giraffe, a whale shark, a sperm whale, an Airbus A380. The pick of object seems somewhat arbitrary. While some of the objects are the largest of their kind, others are representative.

At the far stop of the scale are clusters and superclusters of galaxies, which the app depicts beautifully, and finally the size of the appreciable universe (some 28 billion calorie-free-years in diameter)—at least the size based on the distance of galaxies at the time the light we're seeing was emitted from them. The app notes that the diameter of the observable universe is now some 90 billion light years, as the galaxies we meet are moving rapidly away from united states of america, and they have been traveling billions of years since the light we're now seeing set out from them.

At the other farthermost is the micro scale. Molecules, then atoms, and so diminutive nuclei are shown to scale. Protons and neutrons are the smallest particles shown whose approximate size can exist measured. Neutrinos and electrons are depicted, but they are effectively bespeak-like and don't have a measurable size as we know information technology. The smallest thing depicted is not an object but a unit of measurement, the Planck length (some 1.616 times ten to the -35th power, to be precise), which is derived from several physical constants and is many orders of magnitude smaller than whatsoever current instruments could discover.

Determination
Universal Zoom is an excellent educational app for exploring the scale of the universe. It's well-designed, like shooting fish in a barrel to utilise, and lets you compare the relative sizes of almost 200 dissimilar objects, from subatomic particles to cells, animals, mountains, planets, and galaxies. And it'south great fun.