What-If Numbers

Numbers I've estimated, calculated, or found while researching questions for my What If blog

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

17: Annual cost in billions of dollars to give every cat in America, feral or domestic, a Netflix account

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

0.04: Average number of people directly beneath the International Space Station at any given time

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

0.000000000000000019: Fraction of the Earth’s mass made up of Roombas

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

71.4: Neil Armstrong’s lifetime average height above the Earth’s surface in kilometers

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

5: Average number of dark matter molecules in a can of Campbell’s soup, if dark matter were made of the same size molecules as soup

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

87,500,000,000: Current world population in gallons

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

1,961: Number of non-librarians in the US per librarian

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

950: Approximate total amount of pet snake in the US, in miles

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

2: Minimum diameter, in centimeters, of a rope made of DNA strands that would be strong enough to lift a human

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

22.1: Average weight, in kilograms, of a human leg

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

1: Number of What If books I'm announcing today http://t.co/ZMW4wLIldd

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

0.000000000000000056: Growth rate of a baby in units of the speed of light

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

100,000,000,000,000,000,000: Approximate number of transistors in the world

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

10,000,000,000,000,000: Approximate number of ants in the world

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

20.1: Heat production, in kilowatts, of a nuclear submarine's crew.

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

326: Weight of a Tesla Roadster sports car measured in gallon jugs of water

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

1.85: Height, in meters, of Bill Nye

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

1.85: Average length, in meters, of the human genome

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

101: Global number of civilians per soldier

[What-If Numbers @whatifnumbers]

119: Amount of time, in years, for which the Curiosity rover's generator could power a Nintendo Gamecube and LCD monitor