Simultaneous travel: City, infinite evolution

Chapter 258 Showing the First Emperor a World Map (Part Two)
"This place is the flattest continent in the world, with few mountains and lots of sand, making it unsuitable for large-scale agriculture. Only some alluvial plains near the sea are suitable for planting."

However, it is rich in minerals, with abundant resources and a complete range of types.

Its iron ore is naturally of high grade, and its reserves of high-quality iron ore rank first in the world, accounting for more than 28% of the world's total reserves.

It has the world's largest bauxite reserves, accounting for 35% of the world's total reserves.

It has abundant coal reserves, including a large quantity of high-quality thermal coal and coking coal.

Its gold reserves are the largest in the world, reaching 1.2 tons, which is equivalent to 40 shi (a unit of dry measure) of the Qin Dynasty.

In addition, there are lithium, nickel, zinc, diamond, uranium, and lead deposits, all with astonishing reserves.

Ying Zheng and the other two were stunned.

Although they didn't understand much of what Chen Hong said.

But with the world's largest gold reserves, they understood.

Gold! 40 shi!
What an enormous fortune!
This is no longer just being richer than a country.

Even if you plundered the entire Qin Dynasty, you still wouldn't be able to produce this much gold.

If we get our hands on so much gold, will we still have to worry about not having enough money and supplies to support so many projects?

Unfortunately, these ancient people didn't understand what inflation was.

If productivity doesn't keep up, no amount of gold will change anything but stones.

If there were only 10 kilograms of grain in the whole world, then 10 tons of gold could only buy one grain of rice.

The problem with the Qin Dynasty was not the lack of currency, but the excessive exploitation of its people, leading to a difficult life.

After explaining this principle to them, I finally dispelled their unrealistic ideas.

Otherwise, they would try to exploit the people again and try to fool them with stones once more.

How is this any different from Emperor Wu of Han using white deer skin to fool the people?
Although their values ​​differ, their nature is the same.

Meat-eating is despicable.

The map continues to extend, reaching the Antarctic continent.

"This is Antarctica, the coldest place in the world, covered entirely by ice sheets."

It is home to a social animal called penguins, and also has abundant mineral and freshwater resources.

However, it is too cold and desolate to be developed.

With a wave of his hand, Chen Hong's 3D projection switched, and they arrived in the Arctic region.

"This is the Arctic, with the Arctic Ocean at its core, surrounded by landmasses and islands from Asia, Europe, and North America."

With numerous islands and a vast continental shelf, its climate is much warmer than that of Antarctica.

It possesses abundant mineral resources and substantial fishery resources.

With a flick of his wrist, Chen Hong caused the newly completed virtual projection map to slowly rotate.

It is exactly the shape of a sphere.

"This... the world we live in is actually a sphere?"

Despite their suspicions, Ying Zheng and his two companions were still deeply shocked.

Are we standing on a ball?

"Then why didn't we fall?"

Why do we feel that the earth is flat?

Faced with such a classic question, Chen Hong scoffed.

That's because the Earth is too big.

Humans standing on it appear as dust, unable to see the whole picture.

Look.

Chen Hong rotated the Earth projection, changing the angle to show them the mainland.

"see it?
This continent of North and South America is curved.

It has an arc and a curve, and it's attached to the surface of the ball.

And this African continent, the connected European and Asian continents, all the continents, are curved, they all have curves.

Just like pieces of fabric stuck to a ball.

The same is true for the mainland where our Chinese civilization is located.

A simple proof is that when we see a large ship in the far distance, we always see the mast first, and then gradually see the hull.

This is because the world we live in is inherently round, a sphere.

Ying Zheng and the other two stared in shock at the virtual projection, as if discovering the secrets and truths of the world for the first time.

"Then...then if we stand on the big sphere, even if we are as small as dust, won't we be blown away by a strong wind?"

And with so much water in the ocean, why doesn't it flow downwards and drip down, instead sticking to the ball and flowing away?

Looking at the three curious children, Chen Hong explained with a smile:
"This is because our Earth has gravity, which holds everything together."

"Universal gravitation, what is that?" Ying Zheng and the other two were completely dumbfounded.

Simply put, it's a kind of attraction. Have you ever seen a magnet?

It's like the invisible force that attracts iron to a magnet.

After Chen Hong explained it this way, the three of them understood.

"So that's it."

"It's an invisible force that's drawing us in."

"Could this be the power of heaven and earth?"

Chen Hong found it somewhat amusing and did not elaborate further.

The ancients certainly couldn't understand the nature of gravity or the curvature of spacetime.

A simple understanding is sufficient.

Naïve materialism, isn't that still materialism?

The young Ying Zheng continued to think outside the box.

"Sir, you said our world is a sphere, so what about the sun, moon, and stars we see?"

Chen Hong gave the young Ying Zheng an approving look.

"That's right, it's pretty much what you guessed."

"The sun is a ball, the moon is a ball, and all the stars are balls."

It's similar to the Earth we live on.

Everyone was shocked, their eyes wide.

"The difference is that the moon is just a small ball that is very close to us."

Chen Hong began to slide the map, outlining the shape of the satellite moon.

"This...this...there's no Moon Goddess or Guanghan Palace on the moon?"

Instead, it was a desolate, pitted wasteland?

Ying Zheng and the others were shocked, feeling that the mythical dream world had been shattered.

Ignoring their shattered worldviews, Chen Hong continued sketching, revealing a massive fireball in the center. "This is the sun."

"It is the largest star in our temple, and all our energy comes from it."

The light and heat it emits every moment nourish all living things on our Earth.

Everyone gazed in awe at the enormous fireball of the sun.

Then Chen Hong sketched out one planet after another.

"These are Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune..."

Oh, that is, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn…

The map continued to be drawn, outlining the appearance of other nearby star systems.

"These are other star systems around the Sun."

Alpha Centauri, Barnard's Star, Wolf 359, Sirius Galaxy, Laland 21185, Ross 154, Ross 248, Epsilon Eridani, Tau Ceti (Tau Ceti)...

"This is the Orion Arm, where our solar system is located."

And the surrounding Perseus spiral arm, Sagittarius spiral arm, Gemini spiral arm, Southern Cross spiral arm…

"This is the entire Milky Way galaxy."

The above celestial bodies, along with star systems and spiral arms, are all included within the Milky Way galaxy.

Chen Hong flicked his finger slightly.

The Milky Way began to rotate.

Looking at the Milky Way, which swirls like a vortex, the sky is filled with shining stars.

Ying Zheng, the young Ying Zheng, and Li Si—everyone was stunned.

"What a vast world this is!"

"What a beautiful world this is!"

Chen Hong slightly pulled with two fingers, and the Milky Way galaxy magnified, revealing the enormous shape of a star.

"This...how is this possible?"

Are all stars the same size as the sun?

Everyone was shocked and couldn't understand it.

"That's right, those tiny stars we see now."

Apart from the planets that are relatively close to us, almost all of them are luminous stars.

That is, it's similar to the sun.

Some are smaller than the sun, while others are many times larger.

The distant stars that we can see are all luminous stars.

Ordinary planets do not emit light, and their brightness is too great for us to see with the naked eye.

The farther away the light is, the stronger its light and energy are.

Some lights may appear to be a single point, but in fact, they represent an entire galaxy.

Therefore, each of the seemingly smallest stars in the night sky is actually a star or galaxy comparable to, or even far larger than, the sun.

Ying Zheng and the others were all shocked.

"Are the stars really that great?"

"Is the world really that vast?"

Chen Hong pointed to the rotating Milky Way and drew a straight line.

"Look, the Milky Way has a diameter of about 10 to 18 light-years."

A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year.

"In other words, it would take light 10 to 18 years to travel from the left side of the Milky Way to the right side."

"As for how fast light is, I can only tell you that it takes only a blink of an eye for light to travel from the Earth's South Pole to the North Pole."

Ying Zheng and the other two were so shocked they were numb.

This concept of terror is beyond their comprehension.

"Light takes 10 to 18 years to travel that distance—what a despairing distance!"

Ying Zheng and others all developed a sense of insignificance, like mayflies.

"I'm afraid that even in 10 lifetimes, I would never be able to reach that distant other side of the starry sky."

"Is the world really this vast?"

"I was too superficial."

"It is I who am insignificant."

Chen Hong rotated the Milky Way, revealing its thickness.

"The center of the galactic disk is about 1 light-years thick, and the edge is about 3000–4000 light-years thick. The overall shape is flat and spiral-like."

"In other words, it would take light 1 years to travel from the top to the bottom of the center of the silver disk."

It would take light 3000 years to travel from above to below the edge of the cantilever.

"The Milky Way contains a total of approximately 1000 to 4000 billion stars."

That means there are at least 1000 billion suns.

I'm numb, completely numb.

The three ancient people could no longer comprehend the vastness of the world.

Chen Hong originally intended to tell them about the Local Group, which consists of 54 galaxies, with the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy at its core, covering approximately 1000 million light-years.

Let me tell you about the Virgo Supercluster, which contains about 100 galaxy groups and clusters and covers a diameter of 1.5 million light-years.

Let's talk about the Laniakea Supercluster, which spans 5.2 million light-years and contains about 10 galaxies.

Let's talk about the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex, which spans 10 billion light-years and includes superclusters such as Laniakea. It is one of the largest known filamentary structures.

Let's talk about the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, which spans 100 billion light-years and accounts for 1/9 of the observable universe, and is composed of galaxies and dark matter filaments.

Let's talk about the observable universe, which has a diameter of 930 billion light-years, contains more than 2 trillion galaxies, and has a total of about 10^24 stars.

And that unknown [unobservable universe].

Since the Big Bang, the universe has been expanding rapidly. Beyond the observable world, there must be an even more expansive universe, and it continues to expand.

It could be finite, or it could be infinite; it's completely unknown.

However, Chen Hong did not share this knowledge about the universe beyond the Milky Way with Ying Zheng and the others.

First, they can't understand it; the Milky Way alone is enough for them to comprehend.

Secondly, it's meaningless; they might never even leave the Milky Way in their lifetime.

The size of the universe is no different to an ant.

Ordinary people may never be able to leave the province in their entire lives.

The emperor might never leave the ball in his entire life.

Not to mention beyond the solar system and the Milky Way.

(End of this chapter)