About The Energy Scale
Created by Nolan Schleiff
Scroll down to go from all the energy locked up in the observable universe to a single photon of Earth's faintest natural radio hum, about 103 powers of ten. The big number in the top left is the energy you're looking at, in joules. Each stop is shown with how many times more energy it has than the next one.
A joule is a small, everyday amount of energy: about what it takes to lift a small apple one metre.
What's Simplified
- Energies are real but often approximate. Some, like lightning bolts, supernovas and the asteroid impact, are estimates that vary between studies.
- Energy can't be drawn to scale, so every stop is drawn at the same size on screen. The numbers tell you how different they are.
- Some stops are energy released (an eruption, a day of a hurricane), some are energy stored (a fuel tank, a moving car), and some are single photons, whose energy is set by their frequency (E = hf). All are measured in joules so they can be compared.
- The universe's figure is its ordinary matter turned entirely into energy with E = mc². Nothing could actually release it all.
- Animations are illustrations, not simulations.
Sources
- Planck energy, proton mass and the constants behind photon energies: CODATA recommended values.
- Black hole merger GW150914: LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration, Physical Review Letters (2016).
- The Sun's output, sunlight reaching Earth and Earth's spin: NASA fact sheets.
- World energy use: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy (2024).
- Hurricane energy: NOAA Hurricane Research Division.
- Mount St. Helens: U.S. Geological Survey.
- Home electricity use: U.S. Energy Information Administration.
- Oh-My-God particle: Fly's Eye cosmic ray detector, University of Utah (1991).
- Large Hadron Collider beam energy: CERN.
- Cosmic microwave background temperature: COBE and ESA Planck mission results.
Get Involved
Spotted a mistake or want something added? Leave a suggestion. Enjoying it? Support the project.
A text version of every stop is available for screen readers.
See the other scales on the home page.
Scale Of Everything™ · © 2026 Nolan Schleiff. All rights reserved.