Si quelqu'un n'a pas sa clée ça arrive.
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So a few of you are still waiting for your game keys -- don't worry, they'll arrive soon. In the mean time, let's consider how big Tesla Effect is. I've made some quick back-of-a-napkin calculations (the best kind!):
My Tesla Effect folder is about 16.4 GB (compression is for sissies). A 3.5” floppy can store up to 1.44 MB. Generously assuming we can fill each floppy completely with no waste, we would need only 16,794 floppy disks to store the whole thing.
How high does the stack go? Each disk is about 3.3 mm thick, for a total height of 55.42 meters, or about 180 feet.
CDs of 650 MB capacity and 1.2 mm thickness are less impressive: only 26 CDs stacking to 31.2 mm. Naturally I’ll focus on floppy disks as our standard unit of measurement.
How high is 55 meters? Since many of us don’t often work in tens of meters on a daily basis, here’s a helpful comparison to several every-day objects. This list was assembled by me at 3 am, courtesy of Google, Ask.com, Yahoo Answers, and other infallible sources of information, which is how I know it's accurate.
An adult T-Rex typically ranges from 4.6 to 6 meters. FYI, supposedly they might run as fast as 70 kph, though there's only one way to be sure. (Spare no expense!)
The Empire State Building is 381 meters. Buildings in general are about 10-12 feet per floor (3 - 3.6 meters).
A semi-truck full of ice cream is about 4 meters, at least before the T-Rex finds it.
A large Shetland Pony is about 107 cm high at the withers.
Google’s London headquarters will be about 11 stories high
The explosion radius of TNT is about 7 meters. In Minecraft.
So really, our game is only as tall as a 16-floor building, or a mere 10 ½ T-Rexes high.
But let's line the disks end-to-end: now they form a stripe one and a half kilometers long. This distance would take even an especially sporty T-Rex around 75 seconds to cover, so you would have time. Precious little time…
Go home T-Rex, you're drunk.
-Dan
