Google: making even more enormous dorks out of us all.

[maradydd]

While taking a break from working on the GUI for my site-directed mutagenesis app, I noticed on BoingBoing a link to an article about the world's largest cylindrical aquarium. I had to wonder about that; the article says it's five stories high, and I know for a fact that the one in the restaurant at the Downtown Aquarium in Houston is a couple of stories high as well. Which was larger?

Well, the Aquarium's site says theirs holds 200,000 gallons; the AquaDom is 52 feet in depth by 36 feet in diameter. Why bust out a calculator when there's Google? Turns out that 200,000 gallons in cubic meters is about 757 m³, and 18 feet times 18 feet times 52 feet times pi comes out to about 1499 m³. Berlin has Houston beat by a factor of just under two.

Sorry, Houston. :( But don't you all feel just a little geekier now?

Edit: Okay, so there's an elevator down the centre of the AquaDom, so obviously there's some missing volume there. Using the humans in the picture for perspective, I'm going to guess the shaft is about 10' in diameter, accounting for about 115 m³, so Berlin still takes the cake.

Comments

[suppafly.livejournal.com]

haha.. thats about the geekiest lj post i've read for a while..

i like the pick with the scuba diver in the aquarium.. that would be freaky.. guess you could feel what a goldfish feels like.

[kekhmet.livejournal.com]

totally OT, but NAthan has the Vespa now. I've got to dig upand drop off the rest of the papers to him as I finsh packing my "important currenly needed stuff pile"

let me know when you're ready to pay and take delivery - I told Ms. Dragonfly Vespa to have fun zooming around with you ;-)

[steer.livejournal.com]

Awesome... I love aquaria -- and, come to think of it, Berlin. [Starts to save pennies for trip.]