User talk:Eequor/Reference/Magnitude

Largest things made by humans

What is the most voluminous human-made object, and what is the heaviest? elpenmaster

See also: orders of magnitude (mass), orders of magnitude (volume)

Agglomerations

• I should have thought of this sooner - The most voluminous human-made object would most likely be the telephone network. It is certainly the biggest and most complicated machine. You could definately argue that it is comprised of every PSTN which are totaly interconnected, plus the whole of the physical internet, with more tenuous links to the wireless networks and geostationary satellites. If you separate it from the planet its embedded in, you would have an object which is mostly a big hollow ball of wire with a volume about the same as the Earth (perhaps chop a bit off if the poles aren't connected). Anybody care to estimate how much it weighs? -- Solipsist 13:44, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

To which you would have to add the electric power grid, parts of which are fed off oil pipelines, (artificial) rivers and dams, gas networks and tidal races. Plus those items whic are fed by these power sources. Rich Farmbrough 20:59, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)

But I don't think the power grid is so interconnected. The power grids for most US states and Canada are interconnected, as is much of Europe. There is a cross channel electricity link between Britain and France, and I recall a gas pipeline being proposed too, but I'm pretty sure there isn't a transatlantic link, and I doubt much of Africa is interconnected. -- Solipsist 13:18, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I would propose that the largest agglomeration ever constructed would be the system of paved roads and highways; either the system in North America or Eurasia. It would surely weigh more than the telephone network. Whether it could be considered one object might depend on whether there is a single name for everything from freeways to asphalt-paved trails. The Interstate Highway System or Pan-American Highway alone might qualify even if smaller roads are not included. GUllman 19:32, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Extended structures

The Suez Canal from Earth orbit

• The Suez Canal is 165 km × 325 m × 14.5 m (average), with a volume of 777 million m³. These numbers might represent only the interior of the channel itself, so its total volume may be greater than this. This volume of water masses 777 billion kg; if accompanying structures are included, it may be more massive than the Great Wall of China (and keep in mind that the Wall is not solid granite, as is used below for convenience). --Eequor 16:37, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• The Panama Canal is 81.6 km × 150 m × 30 m (average), for a volume of 367 million m³ and mass of at least 367 billion kg. --Eequor 16:47, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• A classic answer to this is the Great Wall of China. I've heard that you can see it from space, although I've also heard that you cannot. Either way there's an awful lot of it. Rhymeless 03:24, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Its visibility from space is mostly an urban legend. From the article:

One shuttle astronaut reported that "we can see things as small as airport runways [but] the Great Wall is almost invisible from only 180 miles up."

. . .

Regardless of how visible the Great Wall is when viewed by the unaided eye from low earth orbit, the notion that the Great Wall has a unique and superlative visibility, exceeding that of other great public works, is a myth.

I agree its mostly a myth, but this story contains a current counter claim. -- Solipsist 12:15, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The main difficulty in seeing the wall from orbit is that it was constructed using rock quarried near the site of its construction, so it is roughly the same color as the surrounding landscape.

As for its volume and mass, the average height of the wall is 10 m and the average width is 5 m, while its length is 6,400 - 6,700 km, so its volume is 320 - 335 million m³. Assuming it to be composed of solid granite with a density of 2691 kg/m³, its mass is up to 861 - 902 billion kg. --Eequor 11:56, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Biology

• The entire human population. As there are around 6.3 billion humans, total mass is somewhere above 200 billion kg (Orders of magnitude (mass) suggests 400 to 500 billion kg, but obviously that isn't considering children). The average density of a human body is 985 kg/m³, so the total volume is at least 203 million m³. --Eequor 01:23, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Just a note: these calculations show that the Great Wall of China is about 50% larger and more than twice as heavy as the entire human population. - Plutor 17:04, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Single structures

• The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest concrete structure, containing 28 million m³ of concrete. It masses about 60 billion kg. --Eequor 01:38, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Zones of effect

• The biggest is surely the hole in ozone layer but I don't know how you would measure that volume. Too complicated for someone as dense as me.Scraggy4 00:04, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The "hole" isn't really a physical hole in any normal sense of the word. The ozone layer is a region of the atmosphere between 10 and 50 km above Earth's surface, containing trace amounts of ozone. Out of every ten million molecules in Earth's atmosphere, ozone accounts for three of them. An "ozone hole" is really just a portion of the atmosphere where ozone molecules (O₃) have decomposed into normal oxygen molecules (O₂); the amount of gas is unchanged. --Eequor 02:25, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• if you're willing to take this most liberal definition of "object", then the emission shell created by Marconi's first radio transmissions (a hemisphere with a radius of over 100 lightyears) would be a "zone of human effect" of titanic size. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:32, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)
  • What about the Zone of the light of the first forest fire started by a human? Rich Farmbrough 21:02, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)