Are there more grains of sand or more stars in the universe?

Answer 1

Since you've extended the question to ALL possible sand grains in the universe and not just on Earth, there are implied answers.

Since we can only estimate the number of both, it's also a moot point.

For the record, the further we are able to see, the more stars we see - in every direction, so the potential for the number of stars is infinite. Check out the Hubble Space telescope deep space field..
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1996/01/

Sand has so far been verified on only 3 planets (Earth, Venus and Mars) . The Outer planets cannot be verified as having sand, since they have extremely dense atmospheres. There are, however, several moons and asteroids which have sand sized material.

Having said that, there exists the potential for there to be more sand grains than stars, since there exists the possibility of planets (and other objects which may have sand) around every star.

We don't know how many stars have planets. If only 1 out of 1 million stars have a planet with sand as is found on Earth, sand would win.

If you limit your question to sand on Earth as opposed to stars in the universe, stars win big.

Answer 2

There are more stars in the universe than they are grain of sand why because the universe is made up of many galaxies that hold billions of stars. The universe is endless but the sands in earth ends somewhere.

Answer 3

I recently saw a program on the Discovery Channel or something that said there were more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the Earth. I personally find that hard to believe. In theory there is no number so high as to not be able to be expressed through mathematics. That number would problably stretch to the nearest star.

Answer 4

There are more stars, explanation, the Galaxy is constantly expanding and growing as well as grains of sand from erosion on earth, the fact that stars and matter are being formed constantly do to expansion, leave me to believe that the universe has been around much longer and basically had a head start, if you were to see a picture from voyager you would realize that earth is just a speck in the the grand scheme of an expanding universe that stretches to infinity.

Answer 5

Well....the last time I counted...Sand grains. There are about 300 billion stars in our galaxy and maybe 300-500 billion galaxies. There are Trillions and trillions of grains of sand just on one beach. If you REALLY want to look at a big number you should ask "How many Sub-atomic particles are in the whole Universe?" Because that's what it's ALL made up of. All Mass and Energy are made of either force carrying or mass carrying particles. Just think how many of them are out there?

Answer 6

i would go for more stars in the universe because if we just talk about sand grains on earth than the grains are limited. but if we go for the whole universe then i would go for grains because there can be grains of sand on other planets too.

Answer 7

There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth. There are fewer hairs on your head than either.

Answer 8

Grains of sand

Answer 9

If you're interested, Archimedes wrote something about your question in "The Sand Reckoner". He explained a method to calculate how many grains of sand there could possibly be in the universe - maybe you could use his method to calculate how many stars there could be, and compare the two answers?

Answer 10

There is more stars in the universe (but not in our "Milky way" galaxy). The Universe is considered infinite, so it is clear that there must be more stars in an infinite space, than calculable and countable sand grains on just one planet in the Universe.