The ACTUAL Size Of Things That Might Surprise You!

hi it's Katrina from flying creatures the size of giraffes two doors as heavy as an elephant here is the actual size of 12 different things put into perspective [Music] now her 12 quetzalcoatlus northropi you may have never heard of Quetzalcoatl isnora P the largest flying animal that ever existed this flying reptile known as a pterosaur was named after the Mesoamerican God Quetzalcoatl fathered serpents that created the cosmos and was a manifestation of the wind one of the most powerful forces in nature seeing a connection here this giant flying beast came from a family called the as dark heads q Northrop E lived in what is now North America during the Cretaceous period and toward the end of the dinosaur age between 144 and 66 million years ago Wired magazine describes this creature as a reptilian stork that delivered death instead of babies that sounds pretty terrifying it was an excellent flyer which is pretty shocking considering the ancient reptile stood as tall as a modern-day giraffe at around 16.4 feet and weighed roughly 550 pounds equipped with a huge beak long neck a small but dense and muscular torso and wings proportionate to its body Quetzalcoatlus took to the skies with a strong four-footed leap in a pole vault type motion once airborne it could remain in flight for up to nine thousand nine hundred and forty-two miles imagine a ginormous flying giraffe if that doesn't remind you of a dragon I don't know what will it had a 35 foot wingspan which is about the length of a standard telephone pole there have been tons of new discoveries regarding pterosaurs showing what the world would have been like with these flying beasts going around picking up baby dinosaurs number 11 the star-spangled banner if you've ever hung a flag on a flagpole you probably already know that they're bigger than they seem from ground level but the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem of the United States is equally deceptive from afar and is even larger than most flags that are flown today a flag maker named married Jerell created the original star-spangled banner measuring 30 by 42 feet in Baltimore Maryland in July to August 1813 just as a reference 30 feet is about four times as tall as Shaq the flag had an area of 1260 square feet which is about the size of a six-car garage the flag has gone through some changes though it currently measures 30 by 34 feet because pieces of it were cut off and given away as souvenirs during the late 1800s cutting snippets of historical relics was a popular practice at the time and over 200 square feet of the flag were given away to veterans government officials and other important citizens what's left of the star-spangled banner is on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and Washington DC the flag has 15 stripes all together and there were 15 stars but one was cut out and given away number 10 the solar system the world sometimes feels like a huge place after all most people only see a small portion of it in their whole lifetime but our solar system is even bigger and it's hard to fully understand or appreciate its size as a two dimensional model to put things into perspective NASA described the solar system as if it were the size of a football field with its contents scaled down accordingly a football field in the US is 100 yards long between the goal lines with an extra 10 yards past the goal lines to the end lines for a total length of 120 yards for all of you soccer fans out there a FIFA approved soccer field is also 110 to 120 yards so basically the same anywho according to this model the Sun would be just 0.67 inches in diameter or about the width of a u.s. dime Mercury Venus Earth and Mars would each be the size of a grain of sand with a barely noticeable difference in size a grain of sand is about 1.25 millimeters or Oh point zero five inches Pluto would be about 79 yards out from the Sun and the Voyager 1 probe would be way out in the stadium parking lot think about that for a second in 2015 filmmakers Wiley Overstreet and Alex Girish created a seven-minute video called to scale the solar system which presents a size accurate model of the solar system in Nevada's Black Rock Desert if you put the orbits to scale on a piece of paper the planets become microscopic and you will be able to see them Overstreet says in the video the only way to see a scale model of our solar system is to build one mercury sits 224 feet away from the 5-foot Sun in the center while Venus it's 447 feet from the Sun and Earth and Mars are located at 579 feet and 881 feet respectively at 3 and 1/2 miles from the Sun Neptune represents the solar system's outer limit pretty cool aha did you ever have to make a model of the solar system in school let me know in the comments below I know I did number 9 angler fish the angler fish is a deep-sea fish with an enormous mouthful of razor-sharp translucent teeth there are over 200 species of angler fish with their most distinctive feature being the piece of flesh that protrudes above their mouths like a fishing pole it lights up in the deep dark water attracting little unsuspecting fishies to come and investigate only females have this feature while most angler fish are less than a foot long some can reach up to 3 point 3 feet long way bigger than I'm sure most of us thought I was picturing more like the size of a basketball their mouths are so big the rest of the fish's body is all crammed together it's like swimming jaws while females feed on whatever food is available males function solely to deliver sperm at any given time up to six males are attached to a female like a parasite using its intimidating set of teeth a young male will latch on to his chosen female and then over time will begin to become physically fused to her the rest of his body starts to disappear until it becomes connected to the female skin and bloodstream becoming nothing more than a pair of testes that's depressing number eight countries thanks to the world's most widely recognized map known as the Mercator projection most people have misconceptions about the actual sizes of countries and land masses cartographer Girard estate or created the map in 1569 as a tool for nautical navigation in this map Europe North America and Greenland appear larger than they actually are and while Canada and Russia occupy a mere 5% of the Earth's surface in real life they take up approximately a quarter of it according to Mirko tours map because of this Africa looks much smaller in comparison to other continents than it actually is and Japan is also bigger than it seems Algeria is bigger than Alaska and Madagascar would cover most of the u.s. East Coast merket or isn't solely to blame for these misconceptions because no two-dimensional map can accurately depict a spherical object even if some other version of the world on paper became the standard most of us would still have a misunderstanding of different countries proportions a few years ago Google Maps began depicting the planet as a globe with hundreds of millions of users this could pave the way for reshaping people's understanding of the sizes of continents and countries number 7 the Titanic when the Titanic set sail in 1912 it was the largest luxury ship ever built actually it was the largest structure ever built to float on water the ship was eight hundred and eighty-two feet long 92 feet wide and 175 feet high and had ten decks before the Titanic was constructed the shipyard in Belfast had to be modified to accommodate the Titanic and its two sister ships also the pier in New York had to be modified to receive them the world marveled at the Titanic size and the hype has effectively continued into modern times perhaps giving people a misconstrued view of just how big it was take for example the current world record holder for the largest cruise ship at 1188 feet long almost the equivalent of four football fields 215 feet wide and 229 feet high the symphony of the sea is completely Dwarfs the Titanic it has 18 decks and has a total capacity of 8,000 880 compared to the Titanic's ability to carry two thousand four hundred and thirty-five passengers and 892 crew members regardless it is true that it remained one of the biggest ships for almost 100 years before the Oasis of the Seas another large ship was launched in 2010 as another comparison the largest of Christopher Columbus's ships called Maria measured only about 70 feet long with a crew of 40 men number 6 the wombat marsupials in general tend to grow much bigger than most people realize but the actual size of one in particular the wombat is especially surprising wombats may look cute cuddly and small but you may as well cross off that last trait because they can grow up to 90 pounds roughly the size of a 13-year old human or a medium-sized dog according to the San Diego Zoo the common wombat typically weighs between 55 and 88 pounds while the hairy nosed wombat 42 to 71 pounds on average these animals grow up to 3.3 feet seeing one of these full-grown creatures in a human's arms helps to put their size into perspective but you can probably agree that they're much larger than you probably thought there is also a squirrel that gets to this length - have you heard of the Malabar giant squirrel native to India not only is it about 1 metre long but it also has extremely unique colouring number 5 Great Pyramid of Giza the Pyramids of Giza northern Egypt are the last surviving wonder of the ancient world and it's no secret that they're massive the biggest among the 3 iconic structures known as the Great Pyramid stands at 456 feet tall with an original height of 481 feet each side of its base measures roughly 776 feet on their own these dimensions may not seem any more impressive than you expected maybe you've even visited the pyramids yourself and witnessed their grandeur firsthand but for those of us who have only ever seen it in photographs it's hard to envision how truly massive they are until perhaps you actually see a picture of a tourist standing directly in front of one of the colossal structures the 5.75 million ton Great Pyramid was constructed using approximately 2.3 million stone blocks each weighing between two and a half tons or about as much as 25 refrigerators and 30 tons you can calculate how many refrigerators that is on average the stones used at the base of the pyramid measured five feet long by five feet high and six feet deep the average woman at five feet four inches tall would barely stand taller than of those blocks number four traffic light from down below traffic lights look small enough for one person to carry comfortably think again when these things come down usually during a storm or a hurricane people are shocked to see how big they actually are most of them are over 4 feet tall traffic signals come in two sizes depending on the lens diameter and lenses typically measure either 8 or 12 inches the smaller signals are roughly thirty inches tall and nine and a half inches wide each traffic light can weigh between 15 to 50 pounds depending on the material people so commonly underestimate the size of traffic lights there was even a study done on this phenomenon the research published in the october 2003 edition of the journal of vision exposed test subjects to traffic lights from various distances then asked them to rate the light size based on what they've seen the majority gets wrong I'll save you the trouble of reading the study in conclusion the study says that observers rely on assumed size when estimating the size of a distant traffic light this kind of applies to everything expectations do not always equal reality number 3 doors to the u.s. National Archives the Constitution Avenue entrance to the National Archives in Washington DC is marked by two bronze doors of monumental proportions the doors are 37 feet 7 inches tall 10 feet wide 11 inches thick and each weighs six and a half tons that's like trying to move an African elephant architect John Russell Pope who designed the building wanted to remind visitors of its importance according to Jesse Kratz historian of the National Archives the doors were first opened on October 18th 1935 before passing through them visitors had to climbed 39 steps not too bad so how did the guards open such massive doors they were motorized requiring no more than the turn of a key the bronze doors were closed in 2001 during renovations after over 65 years of being used and they remained shut to this day except for special occasions visitors to the National Archives now enter the building from the sidewalk level below the rotunda number 2 giant African land snails anyone who is squeamish about slimy creatures will want to avoid the giant African land snails which grows nearly eight inches long and weighs about the same as a small puppy they're basically snails the size of your face well it may not be as large as it looks in certain photographs due to something called forced perspective it's much bigger than your average snail hence its name some people even think it's bizarrely cute I don't sorry but if you are one of those people don't get any ideas about keeping this conspicuous creature as a pet especially if you live in the u.s. we're keeping a giant African land snail is illegal in many states the US Department of Agriculture considers the giant African land snail to be one of the most invasive species and it's also considered one of the world's 100 most harmful invasive species it eats over 500 different plant species and has the capacity to cause extensive damage to crops and agriculture the snail has been a problem in Hawaii and Florida where it arrived in 1936 and 1966 respectively the state of Florida spent a decade and millions trying to get rid of them only for the species to reappear in 2011 this is because people had them as pets and then released their hungry snails into the wild efforts to keep it under control are ongoing but this is a difficult endeavor as the giant African land snail is a resilient species they are hermaphrodites and efficient breeders laying up to 1,200 viable eggs annually these creatures are also known to carry a parasite in its slime that can cause meningitis in humans yet another reason to avoid keeping one as a pet number one the General Sherman tree the world's largest living tree by volume is a giant sequoia called the General Sherman tree located in the giant forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County California at two hundred and seventy five feet tall it's almost the same height as the Statue of Liberty and growing at over 36 feet in diameter at the base it's something you need to see firsthand to appreciate the true enormity of General Sherman is an estimated 2200 years old but nobody knows the trees age for sure because sequoia trees maintain their width high up into the sky the General Sherman tree is seventeen and a half feet in diameter 60 feet from the bottom of the trunk to give you an even better idea of how big the tree is just one of its branches is nearly seven feet in diameter which is larger than most trees east of the Mississippi River but you're unlikely to truly take notice of how large these branches are because the first branch is 130 feet high the tree grows enough wood each year to make a 60-foot tall tree General Sherman lost a branch during a storm in 2006 giving people the rare opportunity to see one up close luckily nobody was harmed but the gargantuan branch took out a fence and smashed a crater into the pavement thanks for watching if you enjoyed today's video be sure to give it a thumbs up and remember to subscribe if you haven't already we'd love to have you see you next time bye

Channel: Origins Explained

Views: 864,049

Rating: 4.7264619 out of 5

Keywords: origins explained, actual size, size of things, larger, smaller, how big is, how big, actual size of things, how big things really are, surprising facts, surprising things, you didn't know, did you know, real size of things, things with their actual size, the real size of countries, size comparison, animal size comparison, universe size comparison, real size, things and their real size, bigger, tinier, top, top 10, top list, list, facts, origins explained top 10

Id: wztdbLQF9Rk

Length: 16min 3sec (963 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020