- 11 Jul 2022 14:10
#15238018
Our ability to grasp the 'size' of large numbers is limited. We can easily visualize five or six objects, but somewhere north of a dozen objects the image gets decidedly fuzzy. Over 1,000 and we simply tend to register it as a large number.
So it is with the annual number of gunshot deaths reported in the United States of America in 2020.* The figure given is 45,222.
In an attempt to make this figure more real, I began with the standard size of a coffin. Then, I pictured 45,222 coffins arranged end to end along a stretch of highway. Next, I considered someone driving past the lined-up coffins at a speed of 60 miles/hour. I then calculated how long it would take at 60 miles per hour to drive past the entire line-up.
It would take one hour.
One hour, at 60 miles/hour, to drive past 45,222 coffins lined up end to end beside the highway.
One hour.
Regards, stay safe 'n well . . . 'n un-shot.
* Ref: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2 ... nt%20years.
So it is with the annual number of gunshot deaths reported in the United States of America in 2020.* The figure given is 45,222.
In an attempt to make this figure more real, I began with the standard size of a coffin. Then, I pictured 45,222 coffins arranged end to end along a stretch of highway. Next, I considered someone driving past the lined-up coffins at a speed of 60 miles/hour. I then calculated how long it would take at 60 miles per hour to drive past the entire line-up.
It would take one hour.
One hour, at 60 miles/hour, to drive past 45,222 coffins lined up end to end beside the highway.
One hour.
Regards, stay safe 'n well . . . 'n un-shot.
* Ref: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2 ... nt%20years.
- By Tainari88
- By wat0n
- By Bill_Nye