What's so Great about the number 108?
Here is one fact --among many 108 facts I could talk about, and might yet-- that I find very beautiful,
and I'm trying to tell it in the most poetic way I can.
Think of the sizes of and distances between our three most familiar celestial bodies: Earth, Earth's moon, and Earth's sun.
Now, imagine a Giant who can cross the moon in one step.
That Giant could walk from the Earth to the Moon in 108 steps.
Now, imagine a bigger Giant who can cross the Earth in one step.
That bigger Giant could walk from one end of the sun to the other in 108 steps.
Now imagine the biggest Giant who can cross the Sun in one step.
That biggest Giant could walk from the Earth to the Sun in 108 steps.
NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive
Earth Equatorial radius (km) 6378.137
Moon Equatorial radius (km) 1738.1
“ “ diameter (km) 3476.2
Mean values at opposition from Earth
Distance from Earth (equator, km) 378,000
Sun Volumetric mean radius (km) 695,700 à diameter sun 1,391,400 km
Earth volumetric mean radius (km) 6371
109.2 = Sun/Earth radius ratio (same as diameter ratio)***
Distance earth to sun
149.6 x 10^6 km
Comparison: Ratio of earth’s mean distance to moon TO moon’s diameter
378000. km / 3476. km = 108.6
Comparison Ratio of Earth’s mean distance to sun TO sun volumetric mean diameter
149.6 x 10^6 km / 1,391,400 km
149.6 x 10^6 km / 1.391 X 10^6 = 107.5
Proportion of ratios to number 108
The 107.5, 108.6 and 109.2 ratios above are proportionally very close to the ratio under discussion "108"
107.5/108 = 0.995; 108.6/108 = 1.006; 109.2/108 = 1.011