April 24, 2007

100 kids and 4,838 years

What is as tall as 70 kids standing on each others shoulder and so wide that 30 children need to hold hands at full armspan to get around it?



That's right General Sherman according to our best math estimates after using the numbers on this website. The numbers are a few years old but you get the picture. Then it was simply a matter of finding the height and armspan of a child - we used Ciaran's at age 6 because this little exercise came after Ciaran asked how many people it would take to hug the biggest tree in the world. And off we went on a research quest. It really did not take that long to discover. Got to love Google! Still when I look at the picture it seems bigger to me then even these numbers suggest - what do you think?

In case you are wondering what the next question was. "Can we see a picture of the oldest tree in the world?" which is currently Methuselah - though there are rumors that an even older tree has been discovered but the identity not released so people will not destroy it the way Prometheus was for research purposes.

The actual location of Methuselah is protected but this is a tree from the grove where it is believed Methuselah lives.



So now you know. We were reading in our Botany textbook today about bristle pinecone trees and great sequoias. Kind of made me bummed that we did not take the time when in California to go see these amazing trees. Well just means another family vacation is in order somewhere down the line!

1 comment:

  1. My family has taken trips to see both of those tree groves. They were by far some of my all-time favorite vacations. It was so amazing to me to see these trees that are so huge you get dizzy looking up at the top and you could drive a car through, and trees so old they were probably born when a seed fell during the flood. You can't help but be in awe.

    ReplyDelete