ANSWERS: 1
  • The question the way it is stated is unanswerable. The size of the universe is unknown. It is not even known as of yet if the universe is finite or infinite. Now, if you were wondering how many grains of sand it would take to fill the observable universe, this question could be answered. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, "Scientists define sand as grains that measure from 1/400 inch (0.06 millimeter) to 1/12 inch (2.1 millimeters) in diameter.", so if we take a medium sized grain with a diameter d = 1.02 mm then the volume of the sand Vs = (4/3)*Pi*(d/2)^3 = .556 mm^3. From Wikipedia, the comoving volume of the observable universe (assuming that the region is perfectly spherical) is 1.9x10^33 ly^3. So now we need to either convert ly^3 to mm^3 or vice versa, so I guess we'll convert the size of the observable universe to mm^3. Big numbers are always fun. 1 ly = 9,460,730,472,580,800 m ~ 9.46x10^18 mm => 1.9x10^33 ly^3 = 1.61x10^90 mm^3. So, (1.61x10^90 mm^3)/(.556 mm^3) = 2.89x10^90 grains of sand.

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