Sunday, July 19, 2009

The size of Rhode Island

"And this wasn't even Yellowstone's most violent moment. An eruption
2.1 million years ago was more than twice as strong, leaving a hole in the ground the size of Rhode Island."

These sentences are taken from an article entitled "When Yellowstone Explodes" (pg. 56-69, National Geographic, August 2009), by Joel Achenbach. Over the years, I've seen this reference, "the size of Rhode Island," hundreds of times in print and I have heard it probably just as many. I'd like to use this blog space as an ongoing record, starting now, of these references, and I invite you to participate. Please try to place the reference in as accurate a context as possible, citing the source if you can.

This information will be used for a future class project.


Area Ranked 50th in the US
- Total 1,545 sq mi (4,002 km²)
- Width 37 miles (60 km)
- Length 48 miles (77 km)
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5 comments:

  1. lbomsterAugust 8, 2009 at 11:47 PM

    “Last weekend, I toted around a duffel bag the size of Rhode Island (small for a state, large for a duffel bag) from Providence Daily Dose

    ReplyDelete
  2. porkyshinAugust 12, 2009 at 2:05 PM

    There are a lot of these fantastical comparisons of size between Rhode Island and something else. A list exists
    here, a good site for studying The Ocean State.

    These are great for a lesson on metaphor, simile, hyperbole and the like, but I was looking at more of a math and/or geographic type lesson, where two (or more) actual sizes can be compared. Some examples of this are at the linked site as well.

    Either way, there is potential for some good lessoning here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. porkyshinAugust 12, 2009 at 2:25 PM

    There's also this site, thesizeofrhodeisland, that I found using lbomster's link.

    ReplyDelete
  4. porkyshinJanuary 18, 2010 at 9:04 AM

    From the article 'The Monkey and the Fish' (pg. 98, The New Yorker, December 21 & 28, 2009): "Gorongosa National Park is a wilderness athte southern tip of the Great Rift Valley, in central Mozambique... The park is the size of Rhode Island."

    From Wikipedia: "The 3,770 square kilometer park includes the valley floor and parts of surrounding plateaus." You do the math.

    ReplyDelete
  5. porkyshinAugust 1, 2011 at 12:24 PM

    From the article 'Land of Shadows' (pg. 114, National Geographic, August 2011): "In design, Nay Pyi Taw is not really a city but a series of isolated zones dispersed over an area larger than Rhode Island." Nay Pyi Taw or Naypyidaw, meaning royal city or seat of the king, is 2723 square miles.
    It is the capitol of Myanmar and has a population of 925,000. Rhode Island's population is 1,052,567.

    ReplyDelete

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