#size
Questions about “size”.
38 articles
Can you see the Great Wall of China from space?
“The only man-made structure visible from space.” Nearly everyone has heard it. So what do the people who have actually been to space have to say?
Is it true that a banana plant isn’t a tree?
It can grow far taller than a person, yet botanists file it with the grasses and herbs. And its fruit is more of a true “berry” than a strawberry.
What is the largest seed in the world?
Sailors on the Indian Ocean once believed a strange floating fruit grew on trees at the bottom of the sea. Its true origin was a plant on a faraway island.
Is an atom mostly empty space?
Desks, air and our own bodies are all made of atoms. Peer inside an atom, though, and you find a landscape nothing like what you might imagine.
What is the deepest place in the world?
Sink Mount Everest whole and its summit would still lie far below the surface. Fewer people have visited Earth’s deepest spot than have gone to space.
What is the biggest tree in the world?
A tree nearly as tall as a 40-story building stands quietly in a California forest. But change how you measure “big,” and the champion changes too.
How much space junk is there?
Roughly 70 years after humanity first reached space, the things we’ve “dropped” keep piling up around Earth, mostly too small to see.
Why is the sumo ring round?
Boxing rings and judo mats are square, yet sumo alone is fought on a round stage. Getting to that shape involved a long detour.
How thick is the ice in Antarctica?
Antarctica, the white continent. How much thickness lies hidden beneath its snow and ice? The latest map, built from some 60 years of surveys, also reveals surprising terrain under the ice.
How hot is the center of the Earth?
More than 6,000 kilometers beneath your feet lies a place no one has ever been. How did scientists work out its temperature?
What is the biggest star in the universe?
Put this star where the Sun is, and it might reach as far as Saturn’s orbit. But the title of biggest star has changed hands surprisingly often.
Why do soap bubbles shimmer with rainbow colors?
Soapy water itself is almost perfectly clear. Yet the moment you blow a bubble, swirling patterns of color start dancing across its surface.
What is the largest crystal in the world?
Deep in a mine, at the end of a freshly dug tunnel, miners came upon a scene straight out of a fairy tale. But it was not a place where anyone could stay for long.
What is the longest river in the world?
Your atlas has an answer. But some researchers aren’t convinced by it—because measuring a river turns out to be far harder than it sounds.
What is the largest leaf in the world?
Big leaves bring to mind the giant butterbur leaves of northern Japan, wide enough to use as umbrellas. But elsewhere in the world grow leaves that dwarf them.
Would Saturn float in water?
Drop the solar system’s second-largest planet into a giant bathtub: would it sink or bob? The more you think about it, the more fun the thought experiment gets.
What is the biggest flower in the world?
No leaves, no stem, no roots, and a powerful stench. The plant world’s great eccentric, living in the rainforest, sits at the very top of the flower-size rankings.
What is the largest lake in the world?
Look up “the world’s largest lake” in an atlas and you land on a slightly surprising name. The line between a lake and a sea is blurrier than you might think.
Is Everest really the tallest mountain in the world?
There may be more than one answer to “What is the world’s tallest mountain?” Move the yardstick, and a different peak takes the throne.
What is the largest animal in the world?
An animal heavier than any dinosaur is swimming in Earth’s oceans right now. Learn about its heart and its appetite, and “big” starts to mean something new.
What is the longest cave in the world?
A labyrinth of darkness spreads beneath the ground. People have been measuring it for nearly 200 years, and there is still no end in sight.
Do astronauts get taller in space?
Is it really true that going to space makes you taller? A Japanese astronaut’s “9-centimeter incident” offers a good place to start.
What is the largest island in the world?
Is Australia an island or a continent? To name the world’s largest island, you first have to answer a surprisingly tricky question: what exactly is an island?
When was the Great Wall of China built?
The Great Wall snakes endlessly over the mountains of northern China. Many credit it to the First Emperor, but the wall we see in photos dates from a much later age.
Why is a marathon 42.195 kilometers?
Not 40 kilometers, not 42, but an odd number with a tail of meters. The marathon’s awkward distance carries the story of one particular race.
What is the tallest waterfall in the world?
Somewhere, water plunges from a height far greater than Tokyo Skytree. And beneath the sea, an even bigger “invisible waterfall” is flowing.
When did Mount Fuji form?
Japan’s highest peak, a perfectly shaped cone. Beneath that elegant silhouette lie several “earlier Mount Fujis.”
How many times can you fold a piece of paper?
“No matter how hard you try, you can’t fold paper more than eight times.” The person who took on that old saying was a high school student given a math assignment.
What is the tallest mountain in the solar system?
Mount Everest is the roof of our world, but across the solar system there are peaks that dwarf it. Other worlds hold mountains on a scale that is hard to imagine.
What is the nearest star to the Sun?
Of all the countless stars in the night sky, which one is our closest neighbor? Surprisingly, it is a star you cannot see with the naked eye.
What happens if you fall into a black hole?
Imagine leaping feet first into an object not even light can escape. What you experience and what a friend watching from afar sees would be completely different.
Is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot shrinking?
A giant red swirl floats on the face of Jupiter. This storm has raged for nearly two centuries, and lately it has been changing in a way no one can miss.
Why is home plate a pentagon?
First, second and third base are all squares, yet home plate has five sides. In fact, this base has changed shape twice: from a circle, to a square, to a pentagon.
Why are railway tracks 1,435 mm apart?
Much of the world’s railway network runs on tracks an oddly specific 1,435 mm apart. Have you heard that the measurement goes back to the chariots of ancient Rome?
Would your blood vessels really wrap around the Earth two and a half times?
Lay your blood vessels end to end and they’d circle the Earth two and a half times, or so we’re told. Trace the figure back, and you find an imaginary 140-kilogram man.
What is the largest moon in the solar system?
Our Moon looks impressively large in the night sky. But across the whole solar system, where does the biggest moon of all circle its planet?
How much can bamboo grow in a day?
A bamboo shoot that wasn’t there yesterday is as tall as a person today. In a spring bamboo grove, growth that hardly seems plant-like is quietly under way.
What is the smallest flower in the world?
Green specks smaller than sesame seeds float on a pond. They look like nothing more than algae. But what if each one were a flowering plant?