Arithmetic Trivia

[yella_dawg]

Someone posted that the march today was a mile and a half long. Assuming 5 square feet per marcher (two feet by two and a half feet) and streets fifty feet wide, you get:

5280 * 1.5 * 50 / 5 ~= 80,000 marchers.

Maybe Faux News multiplies like they report?

[porkrind]

1. Good simple analysis. Thanks.

I would guess the streets are wider than 50'. We could probably examine some of the photos and improve your model.

[BrotherBuzz]

2. How do you factor in....

the concept that earlybird marchers attended and were already home by the time others were just arriving?

[karlrschneider]

3. I don't know what Faux was reporting, but you left out that the 1.5 miles

was (is?) being replenished at the start as it empties at the end.
:D
If they walk 3 MPH, the line will be re-filled every half hour...muliply by the number of hours x 2 and you'll have an approximation...

[BrotherBuzz]

4. Spot on....

LOL, that was what I was trying to allude to.

Karl, did your odometer roll over, or are you another Karl? ;)

[karlrschneider]

6. Oh, I had a bit of a transmogrification....it's still me...

:D

[yella_dawg]

7. Sorry

That number was just a snapshot to poke fun at Faux News. The fact that the march went on for hours rather than a single group a mile and a half long makes a huge difference. Figure normal walking speed is around 4 mph, toss that number in, for the number of hours marched, and it gets huge fast. It's just that at any given moment, there were clearly three times the number Faux reported actually on the streets.

[BillZBubb]

5. Can't be correct. The march lasted 4.5 hours.

A slow march is about 2 miles/hour. So, that's about 9 miles of marchers. The 5 square feet number is reasonable. I counted about 25 people across the width of the street.

(5280/2.5) * 25 * 9 > 475,000 people