• Treczoks@lemmy.world
    5 months

    How would a “corgi-sized” meteor have a mass comparable to “four baby elephants”?

    OK. Assuming the corgi is 60cm long, and assuming with “size” they think of “a sphere with a diameter of”, we get a volume of 113000cm³. Depending on the weight of a baby elephant (90-120kg) we get 360 to 480 kilograms. Divided by the volume, we get a medium density between 3.1 and 4.2 g/cm³. According to Engineering Toolbox, this is about as dense as garnet or aluminium oxide, common types of stone.

    If they took the height of the corgi (30cm) as a base of their spheres’ diameter, the volume is down to ~14000cm³, leading to densities between 25.7 and 34.2 g/cm³. Now that would be interesting, because that would even surpass uranium (which has 19.something g/cm³).

    So depending on how to interpret those measures, it’ll be a ball of dirt, or a serious nuclear threat. That’s why scientists use metric…

    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
      5 months

      The article is even very specific about this. It’s a Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

      For the real numbers:

      According to experts from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the meteor in question was just over 60 centimeters in diameter and weighed half a ton (or around 454 kilograms).

    • Damage@feddit.it
      5 months

      Uhm I mean God knows what they meant, but in this context I visualize this headline as a meteor with the VOLUME of a Corgi, definitely not a sphere with the diameter of the longest dimension of a Corgi, that doesn’t make much sense to me.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
        5 months

        A corgi has a mass of 10-14kg, so assuming a density of an average mammal of ~1g/cm³ would actually give it a volume of 14000cm³. See paragraph three for results. Not good.

              • Treczoks@lemmy.world
                5 months

                Apart from being too light, it will probably be dense enough so that parts of it will land on the ground. The mass and the (probable) speed will make a decent crater, but for that one would need more data, and a simulation tool.

      • luciferofastora@feddit.org
        5 months

        According to experts from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the meteor in question was just over 60 centimeters in diameter and weighed half a ton (or around 454 kilograms).

        https://www.jpost.com/science/article-732223

        So, yeah, they meant the diameter. Doesn’t make much sense to me either, but then again, I’m not the one making a living writing science-y articles for a definitely non-science audience.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
      5 months

      According to experts from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the meteor in question was just over 60 centimeters in diameter and weighed half a ton (or around 454 kilograms).

    • imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5 months

      I’d say that photo and a funny text works much better for warning drivers opposed to information about it’s precise dimensions and weight.

    • luciferofastora@feddit.org
      5 months

      For the most charitable reading, that could be a tongue-in-cheek response to someone calling in a large boulder blocking said highway. They arrive and find that the “large” boulder is actually not quite so large.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5 months

    as heavy as four baby elephants

    If they were on the back of a small tortoise, I believe that’s 1 micro-Pratchett

  • Aeri@lemmy.world
    5 months

    I mean if you say corgi-sized asteroid I can instantly visualize it so that’s good

    • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
      5 months

      Yeah but how heavy are 4 baby elephants? Is it more like one adult sized one or more like two?

        • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
          5 months

          According to my research, a Ford F-150 is approx. one small adult elephant, or 20 baby elephants. A Fiat 500 is about the same weight as four baby elephants.

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
      5 months

      Not me, not used to corgis. Used to Bernhardiners.

      How much corgi is a berhardiner?

  • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
    5 months

    i just did the math and that’s something around 100,000kg/m3 to 200,000kg/m3 400,000kg/m3 to 860,000kg/m3. The densest terrestrial material i could find was Osmium @ 22,610kg/m3. The surface of a neutron star is estimated at 1 billion kg/m3. Our star’s core density is estimated to be 150,000kg/m3. The core of a brown dwarf can be between 10,000kg/m3 and 1,000,000kg/m3 So, uh.

    edit: forgot there were four elephants

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5 months

      I didn’t do the math and realized that was ridiculous density.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
      5 months

      It’s just an extra-large corgi, and some extra-light elephants.

        • marcos@lemmy.world
          5 months

          From the research other people put on the comments here, I’d say it’s a corgi at about the size of a rottweiler and elephants at around the weight of a human (slightly on the fat side).

          • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
            5 months

            ah so a larger than corgi dog and one average statesian. i feel like we need to make an official submission to the bureau of weights and measures

            • marcos@lemmy.world
              5 months

              Lol, the US actually publishes average weights in a easy to search format.

              Looks like the average USian man weights 90kg, and those elephants were supposed to have 110kg. So, sorry for cheating, but those people need to be more on the fat side than an average USian.

              • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
                5 months

                yeah but the average statesian watched too much dragon ball and runs around with 20kg in weighted clothing in case they have to fight a flute.

  • Krudler@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5 months

    I like how the text underneath explains exactly what the viewer is intended to notice and laugh at. Thank god

  • QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.worksdeleted by creator
    5 months

    To be fair giving measurements in metric to people who don’t normally use it would be more worthless than “corgi sized”.

  • maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zoneEnglish
    5 months

    Just a heads up, i think this was originally an Onion article headline, or from a similar publication.

  • Codpiece@feddit.uk
    5 months

    If they’ve think corgis are that big, how enormous did they think Queen Elizabeth II was???

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5 months

      Size ≠ weight.

      Meteors tend to be much heavier per cubic centimeter (or half-garlic if we’re still avoiding metric) than short-legged dogs or geriatric monarchs.

    • remon@ani.social
      5 months

      The meteor had a diameter of 60cm, a corgis height is listed as around 30cm (and they are about twice as long as they are high), so it roughly checks out.

    • DasFaultier@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5 months

      Assuming that the Queen weighed 60kg (the internet is vague on that one) and an average Corgi is about 12kg, that would be somewhere around 20 baby elephants in weight.

      Baby elephants per Corgi is also a (now) new unit of density.

      Happy to help.

      • dellish@lemmy.world
        5 months

        With a can for scale. We just need another photo of a can next to a reference banana for full measurement traceability.

      • VicksVaporBBQrub@sh.itjust.works
        5 months

        You might be right. I saw another bronze corgi, it was a planter with a semi-hallow center and it said 220lbs. So I’m in unfamiliar territory.

        • luciferofastora@feddit.org
          5 months

          Or maybe this one got the order of magnitude wrong? Imagine showing up to pick up what you expected to comfortably carry on one hand and find something you’d need a cart to safely move without fucking up your back

    • edgemaster72@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5 months

      Pretty sure you need at least 2 adults to produce baby elephants, unless artifical insemination is involved