# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/41 "2022-01-15T16:12:42Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > My husband’s grad student advisor told the tale of a student from Europe who wanted to buy a cheap used car and see the country. “If it breaks down, I’ll just walk the few kilometers to the next town”. The prof pointed out that in parts of the western US, “the next town” might be 30 miles away in dangerous conditions. IIRC, the student bought a bus ticket. I had a German roommate who had bought a cheap used van and he said he might drive it from Waterloo, Ontario to Thunder Bay (and back) on the weekend. We suggested to him that 30 hours of driving is a little much for a weekend trip. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/42 "2022-01-15T16:26:57Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > Queen Elizabeth and Marilyn Monroe would be the same age. Anne Frank and Martin Luther King, Jr, were born in the same year, 1929, which would be 7 years after Betty White (and makes them the same age as Barbara Walters and Bob Newhart). Had he lived to a ripe, old age, Dr. King’s soaring oratory might have been put to use campaigning for Barrack Obama, or giving speeches condemning Donald Trump. > [@aruvqan](#): > > It does point out, however exactly how young the country of the United States is. When Harriet Tubman was born (1822), Thomas Jefferson was alive. When she died (1913), Ronald Reagan was alive. ---
**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 15, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/43 "2022-01-15T18:02:09Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Yeah, most people don’t know that the modern state of Germany is 95 years younger than the USA. One set of my grandparents were born there before Germany became a nation. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/44 "2022-01-15T18:12:11Z")
You were more likely to die in the US military in the peacetime 80s than during the war peak years of the 00s. Mainly due to the fact their was almost double the number of active duty soldiers compared to the 00s and a lot of them were stationed in countries with loose alcohol laws, so a lot of people were dying from training or alcohol accidents. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/45 "2022-01-15T18:21:49Z")
I remember those “training” casualties. We’d land Marines in the same boonies where the Filipino New Peoples Army were active, and see some of them later in the chow line wrapped in bandages. “What the fuck happened to you, dude?” “I can’t talk about it.” ---
**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 15, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/46 "2022-01-15T22:54:13Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I had shaken hands with a man who in his youth had shaken hands with President Washington when he was in his youth … I didn’t really doubt the guy, he was at the time 92 or 93 [this was in 1969, and we were at some sort of political thing in Albany] which would have put his handshaking back around 1880, How would Washington have been alive in 1880? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/47 "2022-01-15T23:11:45Z")
I was wondering the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/48 "2022-01-15T23:27:08Z")
Geo Washington died almost exactly a century earlier than that. I amuse people by shaking hands and telling then they have shaken hands with a man who shook JFK’s hand. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/49 "2022-01-16T00:36:48Z")
In the “hand the shook the hand” category: [When this Illinois county courthouse](https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/freeport-il-1870-original-plan-1860084042) was demolished, my dad bought the beautiful marble restroom stall partitions and laid them flat for our backyard patio. Since the courthouse was used by 19th C. pols in the same town where a Lincoln-Douglas debate had been held, between those slabs butts had been wiped with the same hands that had shaken the hand of the Great Emancipator. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/50 "2022-01-16T01:15:29Z")
To show how small atoms & molecules are, I’ve heard this many times: “If we assume all the oxygen on Earth gets thoroughly mixed over time, then every breath you take contains at least one oxygen molecule that was also breathed by George Washington.” (Or something like that.) I’ve heard the same about water molecules, and drinking water from a cup. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/51 "2022-01-16T01:55:47Z")
JW was the guy who when he was a kid in the early 1900s shook the hand of a man who when he was a sprout in 1800 shook Washington’s hand =) I missed one guy in his youth =) I still find it amazing that I know gaming buddies in europe who live in structures older than my country … ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/52 "2022-01-16T03:16:13Z")
In terms of “Fat” funny actors of the past, Fatty Arbuckle was 266 pounds and Lou Costello (of Abbot and Costello) was 240 pounds. Compare that to Kevin James (300 pounds in King of Queens) John Goodman (400 pounds in 2017), and Chris Farley (296 pounds at the time of his death) so our “fat” celebrities have gotten bigger. Similarly, Homer Simpson weighed 240 pounds when the series first aired in 1989, but Peter Griffin who debuted in 1999 is 270 pounds, presumably to address the changing standards of the times in terms of fat funny guys. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/53 "2022-01-16T03:48:13Z")
The song “Old Time Rock and Roll” is nearly twice as old as the music Bob Seger was reminiscing about when he recorded that song. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/54 "2022-01-16T04:18:50Z")
Oxford University was founded in 1096, making it older than the entirety of both the Aztec and Inca Empires. We’re farther from Nirvana’s _Nevermind_ hitting #1 in January of 1992 (30 years) than _Nevermind_ hitting #1 was from The Beatles’ first appearance on Ed Sullivan in February 1964 (28 years). Paul Rudd is now older than Wilford Brimley was when he appeared in _Cocoon_. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/55 "2022-01-16T06:49:34Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > JW was the guy who when he was a kid in the early 1900s shook the hand of a man who when he was a sprout in 1800 shook Washington’s hand =) I missed one guy in his youth =) Did Washington’s hand shake back, or did it just lie there, cold and dead? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/56 "2022-01-16T13:30:47Z")
dont know, i wasnt there =] ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/57 "2022-01-16T13:54:58Z")
If Happy Days was remade it would be set around 2002 or so. Queen Elizabeth II has been queen for over one-fourth of the history of the US. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/58 "2022-01-16T15:39:40Z")
The northeastern corner of Tennessee is closer to Canada than it is to Memphis. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/59 "2022-01-16T18:07:04Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > 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) [Alas, no.](https://ourplnt.com/earth-smooth-billiard-ball/) The confusion comes because the official regulations for pool and snooker balls usually specify the tolerance for _roundness_, not smoothness, even though the numbers are minute. Earth is indeed round enough to be a pool ball (despite being an oblate spheroid…it would be at the edge of maximum tolerance for roundness), but wouldn’t be as smooth. Another interesting factoid though does fall out from this: the cue ball earth couldn’t have oceans. A layer of water that thin would form beads and dry areas (even assuming g somehow has the same force and points to the center of the ball). I guess a way around it would be if the land was slightly absorbent, you could dampen the undersea bits. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752/60 "2022-01-16T18:28:25Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Similar example: In the US, 300 year old is ancient. In Europe, 300 miles is a huge distance. We’ve been watching a UK show that’s on a new-to-us cable channel – _Escape to the Country_. Besides really helping me with my English geography, we’ve been boggled by the distances, i.e. how _small_ they are. They show a small town (village?) on a map near a larger town or city, and we were guessing they were 20 or 30 miles apart. They were like 2 or 3 miles apart. Also, the people act like they can’t be more than a hour or so away from family. I’ve had daily commutes longer than that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-examples-of-to-put-it-in-perspective-things/957752.md?page=4)