12 surprising size comparisons that fool everyone
Our brains judge size by comparing things we see together. When two things never stand side by side, our guesses go wild. Here are twelve real comparisons from the games.
Animals and machines
- Blue whale vs Boeing 747. A blue whale is about 25 m long. A 747 is 70.7 m. The plane is almost three whales long.
- T. rex vs London bus. A T. rex was about 12.3 m long, a bit longer than a double-decker bus (about 11 m).
- Elephant vs bus. An African elephant stands about 3.2 m tall. The bus is 4.4 m, so the elephant could walk under a tall bridge built for buses.
- Giraffe vs bus. A giraffe is about 5.5 m tall and easily looks over the top of the bus.
Landmarks
- Statue of Liberty vs Statue of Unity. Liberty is 93 m from the ground to the torch, pedestal included. The Statue of Unity in India is 182 m without its base.
- Great Pyramid vs Washington Monument. The pyramid is 138.5 m today. The obelisk in Washington is taller at 169 m.
- Eiffel Tower vs Titanic. The tower is 330 m tall. The Titanic was 269 m long, so standing on end it would reach about four fifths of the way up.
- Burj Khalifa vs Eiffel Tower. At 828 m, the Burj Khalifa is about two and a half Eiffel Towers.
Space
- Earth vs Jupiter. About 11 Earths fit side by side across Jupiter.
- Moon vs Pluto. Pluto is smaller than our Moon: 2,377 km across against 3,475 km.
- Mars vs Earth. Mars is only a little more than half as wide as Earth.
- Everest vs the space station. Everest rises 8.8 km. The International Space Station flies about 400 km up, more than 45 Everests high.
Want to test your own eye? Try today’s True Scale puzzle.