Fun to Imagine | 5: Big Numbers

In this brain-boggling session from Professor Feynman, the scientist reveals how imagination leads the way when trying to understand such cosmic phenomena as black holes, quasars and pulsars. He also provides a fascinating explanation as to why Earth's mountains are no higher than Everest.

While working on the Manhattan Project, a secret US programme to build an atomic bomb before the Nazis during World War II, Feynman claimed to be the only spectator present at the first of the bomb trials to view the nuclear explosion without wearing the standard dark glasses. He was confident that ultraviolet rays were the only thing that could potentially damage his eyesight and viewing the spectacle through a truck windscreen would provide sufficient protection against these.