9 mind-blowing comparisons that put huge numbers into perspective

"Mindblowing" has become a shorthand for "pretty cool," but the science suggests it's true: There are plenty of tasks that are simply too overwhelming for the human brain to handle.

Comprehending size is one of them.

Sure, the Empire State Building is big, but so are the Earth and the solar system. And all of those things are big at wildly different magnitudes.

That's where scale models come in handy.

Sometimes the only way to understand the world at its extremes is to put it in terms we use every day.