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RadiatedEarth t1_je1y7qp wrote

As well as all the fancy math the book smart people do, space is vast and empty. Like REALLY vast and empty. Unconceivably vast and empty. Now I know your picturing in your head something vast and empty, but its nowhere near the level that space is. You can fit every planet in our solar system, equator to equator, between Earth and the Moon, and that's not even a drop in the bucket compared to the space of...well...space

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remorsefulDownfall OP t1_je2049y wrote

It was more the math itself and the simulations and that kind of thing that I was looking for, but I probably could've made that more clear, sorry. I appreciate your answer though, the exact vastness wasn't something that dawned on me outside of basic planetary science taught in school.

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FallenJoe t1_je23ll5 wrote

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Scale is really hard for our meat brains to understand. Here's a fun video that can help a bit to understand, via a medium of printer paper standards.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUF5esTscZI

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EquinoctialPie t1_je2bizh wrote

Here's a website that explains the math to calculate an orbital trajectory. The math isn't really something that can be explained like you're five though. You'll need to have a solid understanding of algebra and trigonometry to be able to use it.

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