Use This Tool to Visualize Large Numbers or Strange Units
Have you ever come across a really large number or dimension in a little-known unit and thought I had no idea how big or how much it really is? Wouldn’t it be easier if you could compare to something you’re familiar with, like the length of a basketball game or the size of a bathtub?
Enter your odd amount in The Measure of Things , and you get a list of comparative and relative numbers, measured in units you can imagine (at least in general terms), such as the volume of a soccer ball or the weight of a cat.
Even if you can not provide the exact distance from New York to Los Angeles, you can probably imagine, that the tenth part (554 kilometers) – a fairly large length. Or, if you live in Seattle, you can probably imagine that 554 kilometers is also roughly equal to 3,000 space needles stacked on top of each other.
You can also use Measuring Things to understand unfamiliar units such as seedlings, shakes, and stones in more standard terms. For reference, a fathom is about the same length as a full-size bed, the concussion is 0.0000000010 times the length of the IndyCar pit stop (so very fast), and the rock weighs about two bricks. The database contains comparisons for measurements of weight, length, speed, time, height, area, volume and computer data.
When you search for your dimension, you will end up with a few to several dozen pages of results, which usually start with the closest possible comparisons (although you can also sort by highest / highest and lowest / lowest). This means that you have many options for finding a measure that you personally relate to.