Editing 2417: 1/1,000th Scale World

{{comic
| number    = 2417
| date      = January 27, 2021
| title     = 1/1,000th Scale World
| image     = 1_1000th_scale_world.png
| titletext = We're worried that a regular whale will get into a 30-foot-deep ocean trench section and filter-feed on all the tiny whales.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is the third in the [[:Category:Scale World|Scale World]] series.

Yet again, [[Randall]] has a seemingly complete {{w|scale model}} of {{w|Earth}}, this time at a larger {{w|Scale (ratio)|scale}} of 1:1000 – that is, 1 meter in this scale world represents 1000 meters in the real world. (This is ten times the size of Randall's [[2411|original scale world]].) Again, real-world features and phenomena (such as several underground {{w|neutrino detector}}s) are depicted at scale and labeled with warnings. Several of the warnings point out humorous consequences of the scale, such as non-scaled goldfish eating scaled-down blue whales.  Other than the usual homo sapiens, the introduction of non-scaled animals into the scaled world (with consistently humorous consequences) is an addition to the earlier comics of the series.

===Table===
{| class="wikitable"
!Rule
!Reason
!Notes
|-
| Keep hot objects off the ice sheet over the south pole neutrino observatory
| Hot objects may melt the ice that shields the detectors from particles other than neutrinos.
| The fact that people are not supposed to create false positives implies that the neutrino detector is functional.
|-
| Be patient: Niagara falls will take a few minutes to fill your water glass
| The flow rate is scaled down with the size. According to the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|147|Niagara Straw}}'', the Niagara Falls flow is regulated to 100,000 cubic feet per second on the tourist season and to 50,000 cubic feet per second offseason and at night. Once scaled to 1/1000, that flow would be 2.83 or 1.41ml per second. If a standard glass of water is 250ml, it would take about 90&ndash;180 seconds for the waterfall to fill it. 

However, a 1/1000th replica of scale Niagara falls would be over a meter wide, so without some kind of system to divert the whole flow into one spot, it would not be possible to fill a glass this quickly. Also, the height of the scaled-down Niagara falls would be 5cm, with another 5cm between the water level and the riverbed, so it might be difficult to fill a glass depending on its height.
| This item may be a reference to the famous Arthur C. Clarke quote: "Getting information from the internet is like getting a glass of water from the Niagara Falls."
|-
| Watch for small planes
| Taking the popular Cessna 172 as an example, 1/1000th scale small planes would be about 8mm in length, and cruise at speeds of about 6cm/s, much slower than comparable flying insects. A Cessna of that size travelling at that speed would probably cause much more damage to itself than a person if it crashed into one, so the warning is probably there to protect the models rather than the guests. The planes are flying along 1-foot {{w|Flight level|flight levels}} according to the direction they are flying in, following the {{w|Flight level#Semicircular/hemispheric rule|semicircular rule}} of aviation.
| 
|-
| Warning! Choking hazard! Keep small children away from ascending/descending airliners
| Airplanes are apparently small enough for children to fit into their mouths but large enough to potentially make them choke.
| In the US, small parts are defined by [https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manufacturing/Business-Education/Business-Guidance/Small-Parts-for-Toys-and-Childrens-Products 16 C.F.R. Part 1501.2] as fitting in a cylindrical test fixture of 1.25 inches diameter that approximates the size of the fully expanded throat of a child under three years old. Once scaled, any object smaller than 31.75 meters would fit in that cylinder. A lot of medium-sized and small airplanes would qualify. Furthermore, since pieces that break off during testing that simulates use or abuse by children could also pose a choking hazard, even large airliners are also a choking hazard because stripped wings and parts of the fuselage would fit in the required size.
|-
| Do not remove safety caps
| This is similar to the warning, "Be careful not to step on cities with especially pointy towers, like Toronto, Seattle, and Dubai" from [[2411: 1/10,000th Scale World]]. It's possible that many visitors to that scaled world did not heed the warnings and complained to the scaled world's creators, causing them to cover pointy towers with safety caps for this scaled world.
The buildings pictured are the {{w|CN Tower}} of Toronto, the {{w|Burj Khalifa}} of Dubai and the {{w|Eiffel Tower}} of Paris.
| It is not clear whether the {{w|Egyptian pyramids}} are included in the warning. In this model they are located adjacent to the other structures and appear to also have safety caps, but unlike the other structures there is no arrow pointing to them from the warning.
Seattle's {{w|Space Needle}} is notably absent from this model.
|-
| No open flames in Zeppelin area
| The iconic Zeppelins, as with many other early airships, were filled with hydrogen to give them the buoyancy required to fly. However, hydrogen is very flammable and prone to explosions. The most famous of these disasters was when the {{w|Hindenburg disaster|Hindenburg}} caught fire in 1937.
In more modern times, almost all airships, blimps and balloons use either helium or hot air (sometimes both). This includes the six operational 'Zeppelin NT' craft, a modern semi-rigid design produced by the spiritual and economic successor to the original Zeppelin company.
| The inclusion of Zeppelins in an otherwise modern model is an amusing anachronism.
Normal-sized flames would likely be a serious danger to many elements in the scale model.
|-
| Do not bother the meteor crater ducks
| It is unclear whether the 'meteor crater' represents specifically {{w|Meteor Crater}} in Arizona, or some other unspecified or abstract meteor crater. The former is over a kilometer wide, so at 1/1000 scale it could be a small duck pond of 1.186m in diameter, and 17cm deep at its lowest point. This is (barely) enough space for a duck to swim in if filled to the brim with water. Meteor craters often leave behind lakes as they become filled with water, with examples being {{w|Lake Siljan}} in Europe. The ducks appear to be regular-sized as opposed to scaled-down, so they have probably added afterwards as an attraction as opposed to them coming with the landscape.
| Even though a lot of craters are filled with lakes, Meteor Crater is not filled with water, or ducks, in real life. {{Citation needed}}
|-
| Trip hazard: The Gateway Arch
| The {{w|Gateway Arch}} is a monument in Saint Louis, Missouri. Being a 192 m high arch once scaled it would be 19.2 cm high, ideal for tripping.
| 
|-
| Drone altitude limit
| The FAA drone altitude limit is 400ft above the ground, which would be about 12cm on a 1/1000th scale. This appears to be the number Randall is using, as the limit in the comic is about the same height as the pyramids, which are also around 400ft tall in the real world.
| 
|-
| Do not mix up the USS Enterprises
| 
The ship is presumably a model of the USS ''Enterprise'' (CVN-65), until recently the longest naval vessel ever built, which would be 34cm long on a 1/1000th scale.
The spaceship is the USS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701) from the Star Trek franchise.
It's unclear whether mixing up the models is prohibited because it would damage them, or simply because that's not where they are supposed to be.
The Starship ''Enterprise'' might be corroded by seawater, or unable to handle external pressure (spacecraft are designed for the exact opposite pressures in a vacuum). If lifted into the air, the Aircraft Carrier ''Enterprise'' would probably fall back down because it can't fly {{Citation needed}}.
| The Enterprise from the Kelvin timeline in the JJ Abrams films has been seen to hide underwater and take off again without significant problems, however the Original Series version has not been seen to fly lower than Earth's outer atmosphere. Based on the depiction of the ''Enterprise'', it is hard to tell exactly which version of the ''Enterprise'' it is, and thus its exact capabilities.

|-
| No connecting the Dead Sea to the ocean
| The surface of the Dead Sea is 430.5 metres (1,412 ft) below sea level, so connecting it to the ocean could cause catastrophic flooding of the area.
| This has actually been proposed: {{w|Mediterranean–Dead Sea Canal|Dead Sea Canal}}
|-
| Do not let ants into the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
| The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory was a neutrino observatory located at the 2100-meter depth level of the Creighton Mine in Ontario, Canada.  It has since been upgraded to the SNOLAB facility.  At 1/1000th scale, its meters-scale tunnels would be millimeters across, and its 3,000-meter maximum depth would reach three meters underground.  This would make it ideal for habitation by ants, but as the mine is in rock, and not soil, extracting the ants after they get in would be much more difficult than most pest control operations.  Also, some types of ants would eat the insulation around the wires, causing electrical short-circuits and other problems, which would be bad because, as noted above, the model's neutrino detectors are apparently functional.
| 
|-
| Only one person on the Golden Gate Tightrope at a time
| The {{w|Golden Gate Bridge}} is a suspension bridge in San Francisco, 2.7 km long and 27 m wide. Scaled-down, it would be 2.7 m long and 2.7 cm wide, and it would be tempting to use it as a tightrope.
| The bridge's live load capacity is officially [https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/history-research/statistics-data/design-construction-stats/#deflection 4000 lbs per lineal foot]. Because mass is proportional to volume, which is distance cubed, this suggests that the model bridge would be rated for 0.000004 lbs per scale lineal foot, or 0.004 lbs per 'real-life' lineal foot. If it is able to hold even one person at a time, this model bridge must be several orders of magnitude stronger than its real-life counterpart.
|-
| Do not remove Statue of Liberty LEGO minifig
| Whoever has made this model has decided to use a small LEGO Minifigure rather than a more accurately sculpted replica of the Statue of Liberty. The person would likely not want it to be removed because it would then have to be replaced.
| LEGO has released a [https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/magnet-statue-of-liberty-2016-853600 Statue of Liberty minifigure] which is 5.3cm tall. The real Statue of Liberty, from head to toe, is 46 meters tall. At a 1/1000 scale, this would be a 4.6cm figurine, so the LEGO Minifigure would indeed be an appropriate representation at that scale.
|-
| Please stop releasing goldfish in the ocean. They keep eating the blue whales.
| Blue whales are the largest animal species in the world. They usually grow to about 20m long in real life, meaning that at 1/1000th scale they would be only 2cm long, meaning that they could be consumed by a goldfish. Goldfish are omnivores, so they would eat tiny blue whales. Goldfish are freshwater fish, but there is [https://mashable.com/2017/09/20/saltwater-bearing-goldfish-australia/ evidence] that they can tolerate some amount of saltwater.

| This might also be a reference to the video game ''Tasty Blue,'' in which a goldfish eats animals of increasing size and eventually becomes large enough to eat blue whales.
|-
| We're worried that a regular whale will get into a 30-foot-deep ocean trench section and filter-feed on all the tiny whales.
| The ~10 deepest ocean trenches are in the vicinity of 30,000 ft, so they would be 30 ft deep in the model. A  blue whale is about 15 ft tall, and there are several smaller species of whale, so a full-sized whale would fit into the scaled-down trench. 
Blue whales usually eat {{w|krill}}; the tiny whales would be about the same size, though nowhere near the same density, so any feeding whale would soon go hungry. However, a 15-foot (ca. 5 meters) diameter whale in a trench only 30 feet (ca. 9 m) deep (ignoring displacement, for the moment) might have difficulty feeding anyway.
| Following on to the full-size goldfish:scaled-down blue whale comparison, the title text compares a full-sized whale to the depth of the scaled-down ocean.
|}

==Transcript==
:[At the top of the image, inside the panel, a large title is floating in the air. Megan balances on the Golden Gate bridge, her legs wobbling. Jill is sitting on the ice sheet and Cueball is knee-deep in the ocean.]

:RULES

:For visitors to my 1/1,000th scale world

:1 meter = 1 km   1 ft = 1,000 ft

:[Each of the following rules is written near a character or point of interest on the map.]

[Keep hot objects off the ice sheet over the south pole neutrino observatory]

[Do not bother the meteor crater ducks]

[No connecting the dead sea to the ocean]

[Be patient: Niagara falls will take a few minutes to fill your water glass]

[Trip hazard: the Gateway arch]

[Do not let ants into the Sudbury neutrino observatory]

[Only one person on the Golden Gate tightrope at a time]

[Watch for small planes]

[Drone altitude limit]

[Do not remove statue of liberty LEGO minifig]

[Do not remove safety caps]

[Caution: sharp]

[Do not mix up the USS enterprises:]

[Two zeppelins float in the sky.]

[No open flames in zeppelin area]

[A fish at a size relevant to the characters in the strip faces towards two small two small horizontal lines, presumably whales.]

[Please stop releasing goldfish in the ocean. They keep eating all the blue whales.]

[An arrow points to a small line in the sky resembling an airplane.]

[Warning! Choking hazard! Keep small children away from ascending/ descending airliners]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Illustrations of scale]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Scale World]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|1/10]]
[[Category:Ants]]