Difference between revisions of "1389: Surface Area"
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For {{w|4 Vesta|Vesta}} and {{w|Proteus (moon)|Proteus}} (the most likely candidate for the unlabeled area next to triton) the area is calculated from their mean radius (i.e. they are not spherical). See also above in the explanation, also for calculating the area of all human skin... | For {{w|4 Vesta|Vesta}} and {{w|Proteus (moon)|Proteus}} (the most likely candidate for the unlabeled area next to triton) the area is calculated from their mean radius (i.e. they are not spherical). See also above in the explanation, also for calculating the area of all human skin... | ||
+ | |||
+ | The surface for a given object is also given as a ''Fraction of Earth’s surface'', and from this the number of times the object could be placed on the Earth's surface is given as one divided by this fraction. For instance it can be seen that The Moon's surface can be placed more than 13 times on top of that of the Earth. | ||
{| class="wikitable sortable" | {| class="wikitable sortable" | ||
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!Type | !Type | ||
!Surface area (km<sup>2</sup>) | !Surface area (km<sup>2</sup>) | ||
− | ! | + | !Fraction of Earth’s surface |
+ | !1/fraction | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Io (moon)|Io}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="41900000"| 4.19×10<sup>7</sup>||0.082 | + | |{{w|Io (moon)|Io}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="41900000"| 4.19×10<sup>7</sup>||0.082||12.2 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Callisto (moon)|Callisto}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="73000000"| 7.30×10<sup>7</sup>||0.143 | + | |{{w|Callisto (moon)|Callisto}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="73000000"| 7.30×10<sup>7</sup>||0.143||7 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="30900000"| 3.09×10<sup>7</sup>||0.061 | + | |{{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="30900000"| 3.09×10<sup>7</sup>||0.061||16.4 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="87000000"| 8.70×10<sup>7</sup>||0.171 | + | |{{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="87000000"| 8.70×10<sup>7</sup>||0.171||5.8 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="2800000"| 2.80×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0055 | + | |{{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="2800000"| 2.80×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0055||180 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|4 Vesta|Vesta}}||Asteroid||data-sort-value="870000"| 8.70×10<sup>5</sup>||0.0017 | + | |{{w|4 Vesta|Vesta}}||Asteroid||data-sort-value="870000"| 8.70×10<sup>5</sup>||0.0017||590 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Asteroids}} (1 km+)||Asteroid||N/A||N/A | + | |{{w|Asteroids}} (1 km+)||Asteroid||N/A||N/A||N/A |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Proteus (moon)|Proteus}} (not labeled)||Moon of Neptune||data-sort-value="550000"| 5.50×10<sup>5</sup>||0.00011 | + | |{{w|Proteus (moon)|Proteus}} (not labeled)||Moon of Neptune||data-sort-value="550000"| 5.50×10<sup>5</sup>||0.00011||9100 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Triton (moon)|Triton}}||Moon of Neptune||data-sort-value="23000000"| 2.30×10<sup>7</sup>||0.045 | + | |{{w|Triton (moon)|Triton}}||Moon of Neptune||data-sort-value="23000000"| 2.30×10<sup>7</sup>||0.045||22.2 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Asteroids}} (100 m+)||Asteroid||N/A||N/A | + | |{{w|Asteroids}} (100 m+)||Asteroid||N/A||N/A||N/A |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Oberon (moon)|Oberon}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="7290000"| 7.29×10<sup>6</sup>||0.014 | + | |{{w|Oberon (moon)|Oberon}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="7290000"| 7.29×10<sup>6</sup>||0.014||71.4 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Miranda (moon)|Miranda}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="700000"| 7.00×10<sup>5</sup>||0.0014 | + | |{{w|Miranda (moon)|Miranda}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="700000"| 7.00×10<sup>5</sup>||0.0014||714 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Ariel (moon)|Ariel}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="4210000"| 4.21×10<sup>6</sup>||0.008 | + | |{{w|Ariel (moon)|Ariel}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="4210000"| 4.21×10<sup>6</sup>||0.008||125 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Umbriel (moon)|Umbriel}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="4300000"| 4.30×10<sup>6</sup>||0.008 | + | |{{w|Umbriel (moon)|Umbriel}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="4300000"| 4.30×10<sup>6</sup>||0.008||125 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Titania (moon)|Titania}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="7820000"| 7.82×10<sup>6</sup>||0.015 | + | |{{w|Titania (moon)|Titania}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="7820000"| 7.82×10<sup>6</sup>||0.015||66.7 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Earth}}||Planet||data-sort-value="510000000"| 5.10×10<sup>8</sup>||1 | + | |{{w|Earth}}||Planet||data-sort-value="510000000"| 5.10×10<sup>8</sup>||1||1 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Tethys (moon)|Tethys}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="4940000"| 4.94×10<sup>6</sup>||0.01 | + | |{{w|Tethys (moon)|Tethys}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="4940000"| 4.94×10<sup>6</sup>||0.01||100 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Enceladus}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="799000"| 7.99×10<sup>5</sup>||0.0016 | + | |{{w|Enceladus}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="799000"| 7.99×10<sup>5</sup>||0.0016||625 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Dione (moon)|Dione}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="3970000"| 3.97×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0078 | + | |{{w|Dione (moon)|Dione}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="3970000"| 3.97×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0078||128 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Iapetus (moon)|Iapetus}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="6700000"| 6.70×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0132 | + | |{{w|Iapetus (moon)|Iapetus}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="6700000"| 6.70×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0132||75.8 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |All {{w|Human skin|humans skin}}||Human organ||data-sort-value="11500"| 1.15×10<sup>4</sup>||0.000023 | + | |All {{w|Human skin|humans skin}}||Human organ||data-sort-value="11500"| 1.15×10<sup>4</sup>||0.000023||43400 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Rhea (moon)|Rhea}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="7340000"| 7.34×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0144 | + | |{{w|Rhea (moon)|Rhea}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="7340000"| 7.34×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0144||69.4 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="83000000"| 8.30×10<sup>7</sup>||0.163 | + | |{{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="83000000"| 8.30×10<sup>7</sup>||0.163||6.14 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Mercury (planet)|Mercury}}||Planet||data-sort-value="75000000"| 7.50×10<sup>7</sup>||0.147 | + | |{{w|Mercury (planet)|Mercury}}||Planet||data-sort-value="75000000"| 7.50×10<sup>7</sup>||0.147||6.8 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Moon|The Moon}}||Moon of Earth||data-sort-value="37900000"| 3.79×10<sup>7</sup>||0.074 | + | |{{w|Moon|The Moon}}||Moon of Earth||data-sort-value="37900000"| 3.79×10<sup>7</sup>||0.074||13.5 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |Various small {{w|Natural satellite|moons}}, {{w|comet}}s, etc.||N/A||N/A||N/A | + | |Various small {{w|Natural satellite|moons}}, {{w|comet}}s, etc.||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Mars}}||Planet||data-sort-value="140000000"| 1.40×10<sup>8</sup>||0.2745 | + | |{{w|Mars}}||Planet||data-sort-value="140000000"| 1.40×10<sup>8</sup>||0.2745||3.64 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Makemake (dwarf planet)|Makemake}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="6400000"| 6.40×10<sup>6</sup>||0.013 | + | |{{w|Makemake (dwarf planet)|Makemake}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="6400000"| 6.40×10<sup>6</sup>||0.013||76.8 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Haumea (dwarf planet)|Haumea}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="6800000"| 6.80×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0133 | + | |{{w|Haumea (dwarf planet)|Haumea}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="6800000"| 6.80×10<sup>6</sup>||0.0133||75.2 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="18000000"| 1.80×10<sup>7</sup>||0.0353 | + | |{{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="18000000"| 1.80×10<sup>7</sup>||0.0353||28.3 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Pluto}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="17000000"| 1.70×10<sup>7</sup>||0.0333 | + | |{{w|Pluto}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="17000000"| 1.70×10<sup>7</sup>||0.0333||30 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}||Moon of Pluto||data-sort-value="4580000"| 4.58×10<sup>6</sup>||0.009 | + | |{{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}||Moon of Pluto||data-sort-value="4580000"| 4.58×10<sup>6</sup>||0.009||111 |
|- | |- | ||
− | |{{w|Venus}}||Planet||data-sort-value="460000000"| 4.60×10<sup>8</sup>||0.949 | + | |{{w|Venus}}||Planet||data-sort-value="460000000"| 4.60×10<sup>8</sup>||0.949||1.05 |
− | | | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== |
Revision as of 21:58, 3 July 2014
A larger version of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd - which can be reached easily from here as always, by clicking on the comic number above.
Explanation
This map shows the total surface areas of all terrestrial planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids and minor planets that are larger than 100 m in the Solar System. They have all been represented as regions of a single massive landmass - a supercontinent like Pangaea - which is clearly surrounded by some kind of ocean.
On the area that signifies Earth the continents are drawn using a map projection that keeps the scale of the continents correct. (This is something that Randall cares about as can be seen in 977: Map Projections). The part of the surface of the Earth that are covered in oceans are also included in the surface area of the Earth (i.e. the map shows the Earths crust). An extra layer of 3-4 km of water seems rather insignificant when comparing to the Earth's radius of 6,370 km.
The Moon has been inlaid in this map next to Antarctic which thus makes a great comparison of how small the Moon is compared to the Earth (there are room for more than 13 lunar surfaces on the Earth). Similar it is clear that the planet Venus is almost as big as the Earth.
This is also the general idea of the map - to give an idea about how big the Earth are and how small many of the other known planets etc. are; both compared to earth and to each other. The map drawn on the Earth are probably there mainly as a guide to size, because none of the features that are know on some of the other objects, especially The Moon (i.e. craters and "seas") and on Mars (i.e. Olympus Mons), are included.
The objects mentioned by name on the map are all but one amongst those that have reached hydrostatic equilibrium and these are all included on this List of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System.
The one named object that is not on the above list is the asteroid Vesta, which is included because it is the second largest object in the Asteroid belt. It is placed right next to the largest object in this belt, the dwarf planet Ceres, which is no longer considered an asteroid. And next to these two are the rest of the asteroids in two areas (see below), which thus groups all asteroids together
The only object from the above list, (that qualifies for having a solid surface in hydrostatic equilibrium), which is not included is the Saturn moon Mimas, which is also clearly the smallest object on the list.
This moon should have been located amongst the other five smaller moons of Saturn between the Earth and Titan (the largest of Saturn's moons). Mimas has a surface area of 490,000 km2 which is somewhat smaller than the smallest included Saturn moon Enceladus with a surface area of 799,000 km2.
Generally the moons that belong to a given planet (for those with more than one moon large enough to be included), have been clustered together. Apart from the six (not seven...) moons of Saturn to the right of Earth, the four Galilean moons moons of Jupiter are located above the Earth, the five included moons from Uranus is located to at the top to the far right.
The last planet to have many moons is Neptune, but only Triton is included. This is a fairly large moon, and the only of the 14 known moons of Neptune to be on the above list. However, there is one other moon, Proteus which is notable for being as large as a body of its density can be without being pulled into a spherical shape by its own gravity. It has a length of 424 km in the longest direction, and a mean radius of 210 km. A rough calculation of it's surface area from this mean radius gives an area of 550,000 km2, making the surface area slightly larger than Mimas. As there are an unlabeled area located right next to the other Neptune moon Triton, it is most likely that this small area should represent Proteus, and that it is an error that it was not labeled (or it was a test for followers of xkcd...)
As this is the smallest area, then the cut-off of objects could have been at 500,000 km2, as also Vesta is larger than this, which would make room for Proteus, but explain the missing Mimas.
Two of the included objects also have moons that are large enough to be included: Earth, of course, and the dwarf planet Pluto with it's moon Charon. In both cases these moons have been inlaid in the area of their mother planet.
Whereas the moons of the gas giants and the asteroids have been located above and to the right of the Earth, the planets and dwarf planets have been included below earth (along with the two moons mentioned above). Mercury, Mars and Venus all touching Earth, and then below them the four Trans-Neptunian dwarf planets - the Plutoids.
On the list from above there are, however, also these 10 objects which have not been included with name on the map. These object are, however, only likely candidates for being dwarf planets (depending on whether they have reached hydrostatic equilibrium or not), and on the map they have thus been relegated to the sections without individual names. These object are thus probably grouped together (along with other relatively small objects like comets and smaller moons) in the area labeled Various small moons, comets, etc, which is located at the bottom of the map between Mercury and Mars. The surface area for all of these object, when the surface area have been estimated, are larger than 1 million square kilometer, and thus larger than several of the named objects. So it is not the size that is the reason why such objects as Sedna and Quaoar are not included with name, but probably the fact they are not investigated enough yet.
The remaining objects in the Solar System with a solid surface are the minor planets, which on the map has been labeled as asteroids even though these objects are grouped together in several other "belts" than the Asteroid belt. Here they have been assigned to two regions at the top of the map. Above the right part of the Earth area is the area Asteroids (1 km+) which include any object not already included larger than 1 km. (As these objects are no longer round it is the largest dimension, the length, that should be at least 1 km long). And finally the area Asteroids (100 m+) thus include any object not already included larger than 100 m.
Most of the rest of the objects that have been included in these three sections can likely be found on this List of Solar System objects by size.
Tiny objects smaller than 100 m down to space dust are excluded altogether as explained in the note below the headings. This is probably because their total surface area is impossible to estimate accurately, and also because any estimate would likely be too large to fit easily into the map.
Between Earth and Titan is a tiny speck noted all human skin, which is an interesting sort of solid surface. A rough estimate of the average body surface area and thus of the average area of all humans skin can be made from these average values and from population pyramids as this pyramid for 2015. Average adults have a skin area of around 1.7-1.8 m2, but as a large part of the human population are children (with skin area down to about 0.25 m2 for infants) the total average will be smaller. By extrapolating the given values an average area of about 1.6 m2 can be found. This would make the area 7.2 billion × 1.6 m2 ≈ 11,500 km2. This is 60 times smaller than the smallest of the labeled moons Miranda (of Uranus) with a surface area of 700,000 km2.
The title text explains that this comic is not actually for information, it is something Randall thinks we should really do - that is, to stitch all the solar system's solid surfaces together, as the sub-sub heading says. To do this, we would obviously need a giant spool of thread and then something he has to go get in Seattle... This must of course be the Space Needle, a needle like tower in Seattle, which should then be used in this grand project.
Since the land areas are on the surfaces of spheres, this would seem impossible as it would involve lots of deformation and be particularly challenging. It will also be very gruesome when he comes to the part of collecting (and stitching) all human skin together. The inclusion of this speck on the map is, however, also there to make it clear what the real intention is with the planets. Their surface is to be "skinned" of them, as you would have to do with the humans! Then it is all these "planet skins" that should be stitched together using the space needle. This also explains the ragged edges, and why the continents keep their correct size. It would make Randall into a planetary version of The Silence of the Lambs movies character Buffalo Bill, a serial killer who tried to make a suit out of the skin from the women he killed.
Randall would also need quite a lot of space for the very large ocean. However, the whole supercontinent is just somewhere between 3-4 times larger than the area of the Earth. And the area of the entire image is less than 9 times the area of the earth. As the formula for calculation surface areas for spheres (4*π*r2) goes with the radius (r) squared, the diameter of the planet needed for the experiment do not need to be larger than 3 times that of the earth. Although there are no objects in the Solar System with this particular size, it is still much much smaller than the gas giants, the smallest of these have a radius of almost 4000 times that of the earth! Exoplanets with this range of diameters have certainly been found, however, already at 1.7 times the earth radius most planets size to be of the Super-Earth type and turns in to the gas dwarf type of planets. So an ocean of the size needed are not easy to come by...
As has been explained above the earth's surface is included disregarding surface water (oceans) and the same is valid for other objects with surface water, as the Saturn moon Titan which has great lakes (or even oceans) of liquid methane on the surface or the Jupiter moon Europa which is covered in a deep ocean with a thick cap of ice. (Interestingly this moon is placed on the map very near to the continent of Europe - maybe for easy comparison of these two areas).
The gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune has, however, not been included because they do not have any "solid surfaces"; even if they had a solid core (which is itself not clear), this would not comprise any "surface". The gas giants are believed to lack any well-defined surface at all, with the gases that make them up simply becoming thinner and thinner with increasing distance from the planets' centers, eventually becoming indistinguishable from the interplanetary medium. But if they were included via some sort of surface definition, the map of this comic would become a tiny speck amongst the map of the gas giants. Similarly the surface of the Sun is also not considered a solid surface but hot plasma; if it was included it would reduce even a map of the gas giants to a tiny speck.
The map is drawn in a similar style to the two maps of the Internet that Randall has created in the past:
Data table
Below is a table listing the object roughly in the order they would be read of the map (the same order as in the transcript.) But they can be sorted by each of the columns.
The data is taken when possible from the following table: List of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System, and surface area is given with three significant digits.
For Vesta and Proteus (the most likely candidate for the unlabeled area next to triton) the area is calculated from their mean radius (i.e. they are not spherical). See also above in the explanation, also for calculating the area of all human skin...
The surface for a given object is also given as a Fraction of Earth’s surface, and from this the number of times the object could be placed on the Earth's surface is given as one divided by this fraction. For instance it can be seen that The Moon's surface can be placed more than 13 times on top of that of the Earth.
Object | Type | Surface area (km2) | Fraction of Earth’s surface | 1/fraction |
---|---|---|---|---|
Io | Moon of Jupiter | 4.19×107 | 0.082 | 12.2 |
Callisto | Moon of Jupiter | 7.30×107 | 0.143 | 7 |
Europa | Moon of Jupiter | 3.09×107 | 0.061 | 16.4 |
Ganymede | Moon of Jupiter | 8.70×107 | 0.171 | 5.8 |
Ceres | Dwarf planet | 2.80×106 | 0.0055 | 180 |
Vesta | Asteroid | 8.70×105 | 0.0017 | 590 |
Asteroids (1 km+) | Asteroid | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Proteus (not labeled) | Moon of Neptune | 5.50×105 | 0.00011 | 9100 |
Triton | Moon of Neptune | 2.30×107 | 0.045 | 22.2 |
Asteroids (100 m+) | Asteroid | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Oberon | Moon of Uranus | 7.29×106 | 0.014 | 71.4 |
Miranda | Moon of Uranus | 7.00×105 | 0.0014 | 714 |
Ariel | Moon of Uranus | 4.21×106 | 0.008 | 125 |
Umbriel | Moon of Uranus | 4.30×106 | 0.008 | 125 |
Titania | Moon of Uranus | 7.82×106 | 0.015 | 66.7 |
Earth | Planet | 5.10×108 | 1 | 1 |
Tethys | Moon of Saturn | 4.94×106 | 0.01 | 100 |
Enceladus | Moon of Saturn | 7.99×105 | 0.0016 | 625 |
Dione | Moon of Saturn | 3.97×106 | 0.0078 | 128 |
Iapetus | Moon of Saturn | 6.70×106 | 0.0132 | 75.8 |
All humans skin | Human organ | 1.15×104 | 0.000023 | 43400 |
Rhea | Moon of Saturn | 7.34×106 | 0.0144 | 69.4 |
Titan | Moon of Saturn | 8.30×107 | 0.163 | 6.14 |
Mercury | Planet | 7.50×107 | 0.147 | 6.8 |
The Moon | Moon of Earth | 3.79×107 | 0.074 | 13.5 |
Various small moons, comets, etc. | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Mars | Planet | 1.40×108 | 0.2745 | 3.64 |
Makemake | Dwarf planet | 6.40×106 | 0.013 | 76.8 |
Haumea | Dwarf planet | 6.80×106 | 0.0133 | 75.2 |
Eris | Dwarf planet | 1.80×107 | 0.0353 | 28.3 |
Pluto | Dwarf planet | 1.70×107 | 0.0333 | 30 |
Charon | Moon of Pluto | 4.58×106 | 0.009 | 111 |
Venus | Planet | 4.60×108 | 0.949 | 1.05
Transcript
DiscussionFYI to whoever writes this: the Seattle reference is the Space Needle. 108.162.221.65 05:03, 2 July 2014 (UTC) Or maybe the GPS that is stuck trying to go to seattle in #1837?172.68.141.166 03:57, 2 December 2017 (UTC) Uranus is larger than all of these combined. Of course, it isn't on this map because it is full of gas. 173.245.62.62 05:50, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
Well, the cores are only non-gas because they are under so much pressure. If we tried to stitch them together, we would first have to dig away some of the gas on top... which would create more gas, because of less pressure. Take away all of the gas, and there is nothing left.RedHatGuy68 (talk) 03:30, 20 April 2016 (UTC) And of course the earth is not correctly displayed: we have water which - in most cases - is not solid. -- jesterchen 141.101.75.19 07:23, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
Anyone else notice the alliteration in the title? It doesn't really matter but I like it. 108.162.216.77 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
There is also small section named "All human skin" (between Earth and Titan)... if you think about thread and needle... ugh... --JakubNarebski (talk) 07:01, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
This seems to be an island floating on something, maybe it's floating on the sun's plasma? --BelgianAtheist (talk) 08:24, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
So, what's the area surrounding Earth's landmass? It's not named, or am I blind? 141.101.99.218 09:46, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
Don't think it is strictly accurate to say that earth is included 'for scale' -- surely it is included because it qualifies to be on the map. Otherwise it's a bit like saying that Belgium is included in maps of Europe 'for scale' (as 'the size of Belgium' is a well-known unit of land area as in 'Amazonian rainforest the size of Belgium is cut down every week') -- Devonian Earache
The map of Earth doesn't look like the Waterman Butterfly projection. If it did, the continents would be angled in toward each other, and Australia would be up in the corner. The only thing that is even similar is that Antarctica is shown in "normal" proportions rather than stretched across the bottom. Prometheusmmiv (talk) 11:41, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
What's the area on the coast between Asteroids (1km+) and Triton? 108.162.222.50 11:44, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
(My first contribution here!) About the Earth/water surface issue, I think Randall is talking about planets' surface, and then it counts both earth and water (like if it were a sphere) 173.245.52.173 12:31, 2 July 2014 (UTC) I changed the explanation of the title text. The previous explanation, "all the matter in the solar system converted to a string" cannot be correct. First, he said "first we'll need a gigantic spool of thread". The title text obviously refers back to the title itself, about "stitching" the solar system's solid surfaces together. 108.162.221.79 13:17, 2 July 2014 (UTC) Regarding the table, perhaps it would be better to make a separate "Surface area relative to Earth" column? Or may be just a numeric order according to size? The scientific notation of areas does not sort by ascending/descending order very well. 173.245.62.62 14:09, 2 July 2014 (UTC) Also, the average adult skin is around 1.73 square meters. For a newborn, it is 0.25.[2]. Very roughly estimating 1 sq. meter as the mean BSA, we get 7 billion sq. meters, or 7000 sq. km of human skin. That would be slightly larger than the area of either Palestine or Delaware. 173.245.62.62 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Should there not be a pixel (or perhaps a slightly grey pixel) for Asteroid 4942 Monroe - area of about 1-3×102 Km2?? Esp666 (talk) 16:34, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
Why are Sedna and Quaoar not included? I mean, Sedna is so fantastically far away that I can sort of understand not including it. But Quaoar is only 10% further from the sun than Pluto or Haumea, and it's actualy closer than Makemake! 108.162.238.165 13:33, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
The numerical column needs to be rewritten (preferably as two columns) in order for sorting to be useful. - Frankie (talk) 14:27, 2 July 2014 (UTC) Well the "blank" spot around the earth continents is obviously all the other "solid" stuff we know earth is made up of, the continents are all above sea level are displayed as we see them from space - the rest of the "blank" area is solid mass under the ocean we don't see from up above but know is there through the sciences! 173.245.52.181 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I think that should be Buffalo Bill. Hannibal ate his victims, Bill sewed their skins into "clothing". --173.245.52.153 01:41, 3 July 2014 (UTC)
Doesn't this thing suffer from the Coastline paradox? If that paradox applies to suface areas of 3D objects, then the surface areas of planets and other objects would be infinite or very large. Even if that is not the case, I don't think the 4*pi*r formula would work properly. Theme (talk) 09:40, 3 July 2014 (UTC)
I have been trying to check if Randall has drawn the areas in the correct relative size (to Earth). For instance I could find that the area of The Moon fit more than 13 but less than 14 times on top of the area of Earth (as it should do 13.5 - see new column in the table with these numbers.) Similarly I have checked that there are room for just a little more than 6 Titans on Earth, and that Earth is slightly larger than the Venus area. Also Mars have been checked against earth. It do not have to be checked against earth. For instance if Titan checks out, this can be used to check other object. In this way I have use Titan to see if the area of the moons of Jupiter and Mercury fits. Ganymede, Titan, Mercury and Callisto come in that order. And the other three fit well with Titan, as do Europa. However, I find that Io is not only half the size of Titan (as it should be, but it can be rather difficult to measure.) It would be cool if someone could check on the other areas. So far I have checked (to my satisfaction) that the following fits with the area of Earth:
And only found that I'm uncertain with
Kynde (talk) 22:10, 3 July 2014 (UTC) "This could also have been a reference to the Seattle seamstresses if it weren't for the fact that it's not." I feel this addendum could fit well on several of these "This could also be a reference to..." lines in explanations that keep popping up. 172.71.222.162 19:02, 19 June 2023 (UTC) |