smoother than an ordinary billiard ball—and the ocean would be an all but unnoticeable mist of dampness over 70 percent of its surface." - Meaning and context.">
Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos (1982), p. 85

Earth is a ball that is over 12,000 kilometres in diameter, and if it were modelled into an object the size of a billiard ball, with all its surface unevenness reproduced exactly to scale, the model would be smoother than an ordinary billiard ball—and the ocean would be an all but unnoticeable mist of dampness over 70 percent of its surface.

— Isaac Asimov

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Earth is a ball that is over 12,000 kilometres in diameter, and if it were modelled into an object the size of a billiard ball, with all its surface unevenness reproduced exactly to scale, the model would be smoother than an ordinary billiard ball—and the ocean would be an all but unnoticeable mist of dampness over 70 percent of its surface." in the context of "Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos (1982), p. 85" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Isaac Asimov" (Quotes, General sources, 1981–1992) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Isaac Asimov

About Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov (c. 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, his works include the Foundation series and I, Robot.