# What's the largest manmade thing in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 1, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595 "2006-02-01T23:56:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/41 "2006-02-02T18:06:59Z")
For those that watch “Modern Marvels” they are always stating that a certain object is the largest structure ever transported by sea or the largest self-supporting structure, etc. Somewhere in this discussion, I’d imagine offshore oil platforms would have to figure rather prominently. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/42 "2006-02-02T18:44:39Z")
Answer to all the questions of “does this count as a manmade item”:- Yes. Cities, road networks, the internet, the ozone hole, all of those things count. The “peeing the ocean” example, though, no - becase it’s not manmade, just man-altered (yes, I know technically cities can be said to be made from formed metal and plastic, which have been altered from ores and oil and whatnot, but it has to be something that was not that item before. The ocean with your urine in is still the ocean. A city is not the same thing as metal ores.). ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/43 "2006-02-02T19:49:56Z")
The word “item” suggests _one piece_. What is the largest man-made object that is not assembled from smaller pieces? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/44 "2006-02-02T19:58:56Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Don’t know how it compares to the Boeing facility, and I can’t find any figures, but when it was opened, Hong Kong’s new [Chek Lap Kok airport](http://www.airport-technology.com/projects/cheklapkok_new/) was touted as the largest enclosed space in the world. It’s a single “room”, 1.27 km long, very wide, but not that tall. The whole project to build the airport was pretty impressive. IIRC, it was called the largest public works project ever. Hell, they broke down a mountain and moved all that material to build the island that the airport is on. The building may not be the largest or whatever, but the entire project was enormous. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/45 "2006-02-02T20:06:06Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > ‘Largest’ - if this means ‘heaviest’, then it has to be floating. I hesitate to bring this up but one time my friend and I had been eating churros all day and then rode the teacups at Disneyland. By the time the ride ended we had to dash to the men’s room and what ensued, I can assue you, was one of the largest, floating, man-made things ever seen. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/46 "2006-02-02T20:08:01Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > How else do you propose to quantify the “quantity of stored human knowledge”, so it can be compared to the size of other man-made objects? The actual volume of it’s current storage media. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/47 "2006-02-02T20:09:46Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > I think the ‘visible from space’ claim means ‘visible with the naked eye’. But from what distance? ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/48 "2006-02-02T20:28:52Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > The word “item” suggests _one piece_. > > What is the largest man-made object that is not assembled from smaller pieces? The problem with this is that it rules out a hell of a lot. For instance, just about every building is composed of smaller items. In fact, I’d argue that every manmade thing of substantial size is assembled from smaller pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/49 "2006-02-02T20:50:26Z")
> [@Mbossa](#): > > The problem with this is that it rules out a hell of a lot. For instance, just about every building is composed of smaller items. In fact, I’d argue that every manmade thing of substantial size is assembled from smaller pieces. A dam might count depending on how you want to define “one piece”. Forgetting miscellaneous stuff like generators and such dams are generally one massive hunk of concrete. Of course, the dam is not assembled as one single hunk of concrete but the end result I think can be thought of as one hunk (IIRC if the Hoover Dam was built as a single concrete pour it would have taken over 80 years for it to cool off…so it’d still be hot today [and of course this would never be done for structural reasons as well]). Nevertheless you cannot disassemble a dam into its component parts and so it may be thought of as one piece. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595/50 "2006-02-02T23:48:46Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > A dam might count depending on how you want to define “one piece”. Forgetting miscellaneous stuff like generators and such dams are generally one massive hunk of concrete. Of course, the dam is not assembled as one single hunk of concrete but the end result I think can be thought of as one hunk (IIRC if the Hoover Dam was built as a single concrete pour it would have taken over 80 years for it to cool off…so it’d still be hot today [and of course this would never be done for structural reasons as well]). Nevertheless you cannot disassemble a dam into its component parts and so it may be thought of as one piece. This seems good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-manmade-thing-in-the-world/342595.md?page=2)