# Interesting examples of "To put it in perspective" things **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 13, 2022, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752 "2022-01-13T20:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/1 "2022-01-13T20:52:00Z")
Quotes like _“Cleopatra was closer in time to the iPhone than she was to the Pyramids of Giza”,_ etc. Or _“The United States, as a nation, is so young that it is only about as old as the lifespan of 3 octogenarians put end on end.”_ Or _“The mirrors used for making some semiconductor chips these days have to be so perfect that if they were stretched to the size of Germany, there could not be any bumps larger than a fingernail.”_ What are some other good factoids to share/quote for trivia discussions? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/2 "2022-01-13T22:17:01Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > _“The United States, as a nation, is so young that it is only about as old as the lifespan of 3 octogenarians put end on end.”_ A guy I used to work for liked to tell the story of when he was in college, and a bunch of his frat brothers were sitting around one night discussing American history like it had all happened ages ago. Finally this guy from Germany, who had been sitting there the whole time listening to the conversation, piped up and said “You know, my parents’ house is older _than your entire country_.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/3 "2022-01-13T22:21:12Z")
From John McPhee’s _Basin and Range_: > With your arms spread wide again to represent all time on earth, look at one hand with its line of life. The Cambrian begins in the wrist, and the Permian Extinction is at the outer end of the palm. All of the Cenozoic is in a fingerprint, and in a single stroke with a medium-grained nail file you could eradicate human history. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/4 "2022-01-13T22:24:25Z")
[Kansas is flatter than a pancake](https://www.usu.edu/geo/geomorph/kansas.html). ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/5 "2022-01-13T22:26:37Z")
1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is about 31.5 years. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/6 "2022-01-13T22:29:28Z")
We have lost 844K American to covid, over 2 years. More Americans than died in the Civil War, the bloodiest American war _over 4 years._ Some experts claim that about 500k of those were preventable. That is more than we lost in all of WW2. We are on track to have covid kill more Americans that all the wars combined. (about 1.3 Million or so) ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/7 "2022-01-13T23:37:23Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Finally this guy from Germany, who had been sitting there the whole time listening to the conversation, piped up and said “You know, my parents’ house is older _than your entire country_ .” This one hit me like a granite brick when I was standing in Westminster Abbey. As I understand it, the most recent construction is older than the USA. It first opened like two USAs ago. And Europe is full of stuff like that. Mind bending. Tyrannosaurus Rex is closer in time to an iPhone than to Stegosaurus. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/8 "2022-01-14T00:35:06Z")
Yes, but with those little hands, how could T. Rex use it? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/9 "2022-01-14T00:48:06Z")
If you shrank the earth down to the size of a cue ball. The earth would be smoother. That blew me away. Even Phil Plait looked at those numbers (The Bad Astronomer) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/10 "2022-01-14T02:33:40Z")
Jacksonville, Florida is further west than Youngstown, Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/11 "2022-01-14T10:50:37Z")
Indiana is only 200 miles from Arkansas. mmm ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/12 "2022-01-14T12:10:40Z")
The movie “Toy Story” is closer in time to the Viet Nam war, than to the present day. The introduction of the Big Mac is closer in time to World War 1 than to the present day. This one boggles my mind: The Apollo moon landings are closer to the 1929 Wall Street crash than the present day. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/13 "2022-01-14T12:24:58Z")
St John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, is closer to London, England, than to Vancouver, British Columbia. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/14 "2022-01-14T12:34:28Z")
Texarkana Texas is closer to Chicago Illinois (794 miles) than it is to El Paso Texas (814 miles). I heard about it this way: “There’s a company with a branch office in Texarkana and the office manager asks the office in El Paso to send out a consultant for a particular job. El Paso responds, ‘Ask the office in Chicago to send someone - they’re closer.’” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/15 "2022-01-14T13:40:12Z")
The westernmost national capital in the Americas is Mexico City. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/16 "2022-01-14T13:43:17Z")
The first school in England was founded 1,179 years before the USA. [The King’s School, Canterbury - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_School,_Canterbury) ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/17 "2022-01-14T14:51:17Z")
A few years ago, with the help of the Dope, I [crunched the numbers](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-interesting-factoid-about-space-exploration/667829). If the Milky Way galaxy was shrunk down to the size of the Pacific Ocean, then the Voyager spacecraft, in its lifetime, would have traveled about nine inches. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/18 "2022-01-14T15:00:30Z")
How big is Alaska? Bigger than the next three biggest states combined (Texas, California, Montana). ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/19 "2022-01-14T15:16:40Z")
Kane Tanaka is the world’s oldest person who celebrated her 119th birthday on January 2, 2022. That means she was 19 when Betty White was born. Mathematically, she could be Betty White’s mother! ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/20 "2022-01-14T16:19:30Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > The movie “Toy Story” is closer in time to the Viet Nam war, than to the present day. The movie _Gone With the Wind_ is closer in time to the actual Civil War than to the present day. Wil Wheaton is now older than Patrick Stewart was when _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ premiered. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752.md?page=2)