figures on a blanket surrounded by food and books they brought with them, one of them being The Voices of Time by J. T. Fraser. The man (played by Swiss designer Paul Bruhwiler) then sleeps, while the woman (played by Eames staffer Etsu Garfias) starts to read one of the books. The viewpoint, accompanied by expository voiceover by Philip Morrison, then slowly zooms out to a view across (or in scientific notation). The zoom-out continues (at a rate of one power of ten per 10 seconds), to a view of () (where they are shown to be in Burnham Park, near Soldier Field, then () (where we see the entirety of Chicago), and so on, increasing the perspective and continuing to zoom out to a field of view of , or a field of view 100 million light years across. The camera then zooms back in at a rate of a power of ten per 2 seconds to the picnic, and then slows back down to its original rate into the man's hand, to views of negative powers of ten: (10 centimeters), and so forth, revealing a skin cell and zooming in on it—until the camera comes to quarks in a proton of a carbon atom at . Related books Related films Cosmic Zoom (1968), an eight-minute short from Canada. Cosmic Voyage (1996), a loose remake of Powers of Ten in IMAX format for the National Air and Space Museum. Our Universe is SO big, it's mindblowing! (2021) See also Cosmic Eye (2012), remake of Powers of Ten Orders of magnitude Earth's location in the universe References External links Official website: Exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences "Powers of Ten" essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 752-753 1968 films 1977 films 1968 short films 1977 short films United States National Film Registry films Documentary films about science Documentary films about mathematics American short documentary films Orders of magnitude Films set in Chicago Holism Films directed by Charles and Ray Eames Films scored by Elmer Bernstein 1970s English-language films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films 1970s American films