# Things that are much smaller than you always thought **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 28, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430 "2018-08-28T20:57:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/101 "2018-09-03T05:28:16Z")
The Concorde. The [transportation museum in Sinsheim, Germany](https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/), has one mounted on its roof in takeoff attitude. The museum is right next to the autobahn. I saw it a few times from the road before visiting and thought it was a model built as a sign. Nope. It’s the real thing. Looking up at it from the ground, it didn’t look as big as I thought from all the movies and TV shows. Walking inside, it’s tiny. It’s narrower in width and shorter in ceiling height inside than a 737-300. This museum also has a Tupolev Tu-144 mounted on the roof near the Concorde. It’s wingspan and length aren’t much larger than the Concorde. The shape of its wings make it seem huge in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/102 "2018-09-03T08:23:36Z")
> [@D18](#): > > Probably the context, as you note. It’s in the typical range of portraits: the Mona Lisa is 77 cm by 53 cm. By way of comparison, [this here self portrait of Rembrandt](https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ep/original/DP152808.jpg) is a little taller, although it is wider - 80 cm by 67 cm. The Girl with the Pearl Earring (and most of Vermeer’s paintings) are much smaller. I’m curious - if someone would like to work it out: let’s say the barrier to view the Mona Lisa is 4 meters from the painting. How far would you have to be from the Girl with the Pearl Earring to have have it be the same apparent size? Quick comment to mention that in the case of “Girl with the Pearl Earring” at the Mauritshuis in Den Haag you can stand about three feet away or less and there is no protective glass or the like. Very impressive in person, but ever moreso is Vermeer’s “A View Of Delft”. Maybe when you can stand closer paintings don’t seem so small. I never even thought about the size of “A View Of Delft” (it’s small to moderate size) I was too blown away by the color and depth in it when compared to even the best photographs. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/103 "2018-09-03T09:56:03Z")
> [@j666](#): > > That’s because the battle was fought on Breeds’ Hill. > > Don’t bother asking. Of course. And throwing that bit of trivia in the post would have made what difference? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/104 "2018-09-03T19:45:27Z")
I was looking at a map today and I’d never realized how small the State of Massachusetts is. I t’s the [44th largest state, between Hawaii and Vermont.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area) ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/105 "2018-09-03T21:46:30Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Haven’t been to Stonehenge but have been to the replica at [Maryhill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryhill_Stonehenge), WA. I’d say it’s a pretty impressive size. (Quite impressive if you know that it was originally built as a WWI memorial for a sparsely populated county.) > > You can see it easily from the opposite bank of the Columbia on I-84 in Oregon. > > Anyway. There’s this Hindu temple (mandir) that’s the largest in the SE US. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAPS_Shri_Swaminarayan_Mandir_Atlanta) says it’s the largest of its kind outside of India. It looks pretty impressive from the outside. > > We took a tour in March. The main area in the center is quite small. It’s sort of divvied up by pillars and side galleries, but the core part is about the size of a hospital chapel type thing. Norman churches had bigger naves. The rules on building one of these basically forces this kind of limit. (Plus all the huge stone carvings came from India. There’s a limit as to the size of the center cap stone of a ceiling you can make and ship to the other side of the world.) > > A ton of impressive carvings and art work but size-wise not so much. I work at the nearest Home Depot to that temple, and was here when it was being built. They sourced a lot of non-exotic building supplies (drywall, screws, plywood, that sort of thing) from us. We got used to seeing small men walking around the store in orange robes, sandals and tape measures. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/106 "2018-09-03T22:07:52Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I was looking at a map today and I’d never realized how small the State of Massachusetts is. I > t’s the [44th largest state, between Hawaii and Vermont.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area) As a Western states/California native I smile inside when native East Coasters describe what they regard as long drives across and betwixt teeny little states. Last year a colleague was concerned that I was driving from NJ to Baltimore to a conference and advised I should probably find a motel halfway (I didn’t even need a pee break over the arduous 135 mile journey). Granted, the schlep longways across PA is longish. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/107 "2018-09-08T20:26:45Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I was looking at a map today and I’d never realized how small the State of Massachusetts is. It’s the [44th largest state, between Hawaii and Vermont.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area) Not only that, but four neighboring states (Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) are even smaller! I lived all around the U.S. growing up, which is why I find the concept of [New England](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England) so useful. The whole of New England is just about the size of an average U.S. state, and where I now live in central Connecticut, any part of New England is within a day’s drive for me. > [@Jennshark](#): > > As a Western states/California native I smile inside when native East Coasters describe what they regard as long drives across and betwixt teeny little states. Last year a colleague was concerned that I was driving from NJ to Baltimore to a conference and advised I should probably find a motel halfway (I didn’t even need a pee break over the arduous 135 mile journey). True enough, the distances are not far between states in the Northeast, and as I indicated above, driving within New England is no big deal. If I want to drive down south, though (to Baltimore for example), the main issue is that New York City lies in my way. Traffic in and around the NYC metro area is an absolute nightmare. :mad: For instance, last May I drove to the airport in Newark on a Friday evening after rush hour, and it took me about 4 hours to drive the last 75 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/108 "2018-09-08T20:58:40Z")
> [@robby](#): > > The whole of New England is just about the size of an average U.S. state… …and about the size of old England. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/109 "2018-09-08T21:11:30Z")
Red Square, Moscow Russia. I always thought it was huge when seeing the parades with the troups , tanks and missiles. When I was there wasn’t much bigger than a football field. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/110 "2018-09-10T18:27:09Z")
Seahorses. When I was a kid, I thought they were the size of regular horses. Though it’s been \>40 years, the pain still lingers. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/111 "2018-09-10T21:13:16Z")
The whole north east coast of the US. I’m from the middle of the US. 300 miles is a good guess for the distance between cities out here. As a kid, we did a driving vacation of the NE. I’d recently studied the American Revolution, and my Dad liked to occasionally quote Paul Revere’s Ride, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Boston to Lexington to Concord, the route in the poem, seemed like major journey. I mean, it was an all night, epic ride. > [@](#): > > So through the night rode Paul Revere; > And so through the night went his cry of alarm Yet, Boston to Concorde is about 18 miles. I was rather disappointed, as a 10 year old, to find them so close together. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/112 "2018-09-11T09:36:46Z")
Try riding it on horseback with zero night lighting !!! ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/113 "2018-09-11T11:08:50Z")
> [@Caractacus\_Pott](#): > > The Concorde. The [transportation museum in Sinsheim, Germany](https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/), has one mounted on its roof in takeoff attitude. Now that’s a strange thing because I grew up with people always saying that Concorde is smaller that you think so mentally I was prepared to be surprised. I ended up looking over the one at Duxford thinking “this is actually \*bigger \*than I expected”. Mind you, also at Duxford is an SR-71 and as I had no gut feel for how big that should be I did think “that is smaller than I imagined” Mentally I thought it was this brooding, menacing thing but found it quite elegant and dainty in person. However, The B52 in the same hanger is exactly what I imagined. A huge, slab-sided, black beast of a thing. It doesn’t disappoint. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/114 "2018-09-12T16:04:11Z")
Something else: I went to see Saturday Night Live performed in the 90s (It was the dress rehearsal. Teri Hatcher was the host and Dave Mathews Band was the musical guest). The stages are very small and tightly packed together. I have heard that most TV sets are much much smaller than they seem on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/115 "2018-09-13T01:01:54Z")
You’re right, **Quimby**. I saw a taping of The Big Bang Theory. In person the living room set looked about right for a decent sized apartment two bedroom apartment, not the huge expanse it appears on the little screen. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/116 "2018-09-13T16:50:45Z")
An NFL football field in person. Yes, I’d seen other 100 yard football fields before, but when you get that used to seeing NFL football on TV, constantly panning from left to right or vice versa, it seems to go on forever. Seeing it in person the first time you’re like “That’s it? Why, even I could gain ten yards on THIS field!” ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/117 "2018-09-13T16:58:47Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > An NFL football field in person. Yes, I’d seen other 100 yard football fields before, but when you get that used to seeing NFL football on TV, constantly panning from left to right or vice versa, it seems to go on forever. > > Seeing it in person the first time you’re like “That’s it? Why, even I could gain ten yards on THIS field!” With the ever increasing sizes of televisions, I fully expect to see one day that a tv will be able to show the entire field in actual size. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430/118 "2018-09-14T02:15:10Z")
> [@D18](#): > > Probably the context, as you note. It’s in the typical range of portraits: the Mona Lisa is 77 cm by 53 cm. By way of comparison, [this here self portrait of Rembrandt](https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ep/original/DP152808.jpg) is a little taller, although it is wider - 80 cm by 67 cm. The Girl with the Pearl Earring (and most of Vermeer’s paintings) are much smaller. I’m curious - if someone would like to work it out: let’s say the barrier to view the Mona Lisa is 4 meters from the painting. How far would you have to be from the Girl with the Pearl Earring to have have it be the same apparent size? I was going to say i don’t think the barrier is that far. I’m picking more like 3 or a little less. But I looked at photos and it seems they adjust the rope barrier depending on the crowds. When I went there, it was closer than many of the pictures I see on line. Interestingly, there was a Vermeer exhibition at the Louvre last year, including “The Girl With The Pearl Earring”, so your hypothetical could have been tested on site. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-much-smaller-than-you-always-thought/820430.md?page=5)