3 ms·

If they want people to relate to their numbers, they have to use units people understand, and also they need to be accurate about which dimension they are talki

If they want people to relate to their numbers, they have to use units people understand, and also they need to be accurate about which dimension they are talking about. If it's mass the correct popular science dumb reporting unit is the blue whale. Ie "The mass of this black hole is almost 3 x 10^35 blue whales" If it's size, the correct popular science dumb reporting unit is the football field unless it's specifically length, in which case it's acceptable to either go with football field or switch to double-decker bus or blue whale.

galaxytachyon 4y ago
Well, most people can't properly understand the scientific notation, as in getting a proper scale of how big one order of magnitude is supposed to be. They may see ^35 and say "oh, so it is like less than 100 of something, meh". If you doubt that, remember the quarter pounder ads where they made people think 1/4 is kinda more than 1/2 because 4>2...
- seanhunter 4y ago
  The point is how are people ever going to get intuition about the numbers if they don't report them in blue whales/football pitches/double decker busses?
  - samus 4y ago
    At these scales, it really doesn't make much of a difference, as a sibling commenter pointed out.
    - seanhunter 4y ago
      I was being sarcastic. Pretty sure it's impossible for the vast majority of people (myself definitely included) to gain any kind of intuition for numbers of this scale. I also don't gain any intuition for things by comparing them to a blue whale etc (and I'm not really sure anyone else does either) and find it pretty weird that it seems to be a go-to comparison for science articles in the press.
AlbertCory 4y ago
Armadillos. Now we use armadillos as our unit of measurement.
awb 4y ago
> 3 x 10^35 blue whales That’s way more confusing. Most people have never seen a blue whale to scale, let alone can imagine how dense it is. Once you’re at 10^35, why not just increase the exponent and use humans, basketballs or soda cans. I would imagine that the best scale of measurement would be between 1/100 and 100x. If the Milky Way is about 1.9T solar masses, then this black hole is about 1.5% the mass of our galaxy. It’s still a pretty meaningless number, but at least I can look at a picture of the Milky Way and envision 1.5% collapsing into a single object much more easily than I can envision 10^35 of anything.
- idiotsecant 4y ago
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galaxytachyon 4y ago

Well, most people can't properly understand the scientific notation, as in getting a proper scale of how big one order of magnitude is supposed to be. They may see ^35 and say "oh, so it is like less than 100 of something, meh". If you doubt that, remember the quarter pounder ads where they made people think 1/4 is kinda more than 1/2 because 4>2...

seanhunter 4y ago
The point is how are people ever going to get intuition about the numbers if they don't report them in blue whales/football pitches/double decker busses?
- samus 4y ago
  At these scales, it really doesn't make much of a difference, as a sibling commenter pointed out.
  - seanhunter 4y ago
    I was being sarcastic. Pretty sure it's impossible for the vast majority of people (myself definitely included) to gain any kind of intuition for numbers of this scale. I also don't gain any intuition for things by comparing them to a blue whale etc (and I'm not really sure anyone else does either) and find it pretty weird that it seems to be a go-to comparison for science articles in the press.

AlbertCory 4y ago

Armadillos. Now we use armadillos as our unit of measurement.

awb 4y ago

> 3 x 10^35 blue whales That’s way more confusing. Most people have never seen a blue whale to scale, let alone can imagine how dense it is. Once you’re at 10^35, why not just increase the exponent and use humans, basketballs or soda cans. I would imagine that the best scale of measurement would be between 1/100 and 100x. If the Milky Way is about 1.9T solar masses, then this black hole is about 1.5% the mass of our galaxy. It’s still a pretty meaningless number, but at least I can look at a picture of the Milky Way and envision 1.5% collapsing into a single object much more easily than I can envision 10^35 of anything.

idiotsecant 4y ago
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