4 ms·
But everyone knows how long a mile is, and can imagine a cube one mile long one mile wide and one mile high. Though we can't truly grasp the scale, we can at le
by driggs 2y ago
But everyone knows how long a mile is, and can imagine a cube one mile long one mile wide and one mile high. Though we can't truly grasp the scale, we can at least understand the magnitude of a value of ~ten million.
But quoting a value of 4.4 x 10^19 liters is meaningless for most people.
"Of course, that's 22,000,000,000,000,000,000 two-liter soda bottles!"
So cubic miles seems like a reasonable unit for this pop-science article, despite the fact that you likely wouldn't use it in a published journal article.
- dgfitz 2y ago> But everyone knows how long a mile is Yeah. Long. I doubt most people can eyeball something in the distance and say with accuracy "yeah that is about a mile away" because a mile is really long and people are bad at estimating things. Now do it for 10 miles. A relatable example like someone has mentioned "its about 10 dead seas worth" would have been a better play.
- tshaddox 2y agoI’d guess a lot of Americans can look at a globe and eyeball 100 miles or 1,000 miles. At least American adults with a lot of driving experience. When you get into the millions of cubic miles of water, I think the best way to visualize it is a cube sitting next to the globe.