[lostlogin]

I agree, I thought the Olympic swimming pool was the only unit of measure for journalism.

[Pitarou]

In the UK, they used to use the volume of Wembley Stadium (a well-known sports ground), but then it was demolished and rebuilt.

[bryanrasmussen]

so if you're reading an old article using Wembley Stadiums as the unit of measurement you should have some sort of B.D (Before Demolishment) and A.R (After Rebuild) dating scheme to keep it straight.

[agucho]

I hear they had to do it because it was way "too decimal" as a unit which was unacceptable :).

[kobeya]

So New Wembley units vs Old Wimbleys?

[maxxxxx]

the question now is: How many Olympic swimming pools fit into the Empire State Building?

But seriously, I am OK using this kind of unit to illustrate that something is really big but at a minimum they should also add some real units.

[dmurray]

The real problem is that 37 million is too big a number. Saying something would fill 10 or even 100 Empire State Buildings is relatable. Once you say 37 million ESBs or 10 billion swimming pools, you might as well say it's 10 quadrillion coffee cups full.

I prefer the examples higher up the thread of filling the Grand Canyon 9 times or submerging all of California to a depth of 100m.

[maxxxxx]

How about writing 1000 cubic kilometer and then adding that this is the equivalent of 10 times the Grand canyon? I just would like to see real units. I also don't know how long a football field is.

[EADGBE]

I don't understand this metric thing. If we're going to go imperial, I need cubic yards.