I realize that at the last read-in I raised a question that may still be troubling a few people. For this I apologize. However, I feel that I can now resolve issue this for everyone.
My question was how many squirrels it would take to completely fill President's Park if they stood on their hind legs, shoulder to shoulder, while singing hits from the 80s.
I have looked into this, and if we include both Lafayette Park and the Ellipse, President's Park is 59 acres. This does not include the White House grounds, the Executive Office Building, Pennsylvania Avenue, or the Treasury building. While there are structures, trees, and parked cars, this would not be a problem for the squirrels and could (by increasing surface area)actually increase the squirrel-per-acre ratio, so I am assuming the whole area to be flat for my calculation. We should also take into account that Lafayette park is already the most squirrel-dense habitat known to man.
At 43,560 square feet per acre, we can calculate 2,570,040 square feet for the whole of the park. I estimate that we can fit three squirrels abreast in one foot across. If they were careful with their tails, there could probably be three rows per foot deep. Obviously, this estimate would change during mating season and nesting season. Still, under ideal conditions, my estimate is that 23,130,360 squirrels could, under ideal conditions, attend a sing-along in President's Park.
I hope everyone can sleep better now, and I apologize for any inconvenience.
EricH .
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38,488 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 19 09
Well, that IS a relief.
----------Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
-- Margaret Mead
20,050 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 22 02
Yes, now I can finally get to sleep :)
------------ Erin Skelly Cameron
Twitter: @escameron
Blog: http://almost-published.blogspot.com
32,194 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 22 53
Are we talking African or European squirrels here?
26,000 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 04 11
I heard about write-in but not read-in. When do these things occur?
17,347 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 05 31
Read-ins only occur when you are writing very, very slowly.
30,771 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 06 07
Not a troubling issue for me!
My WORD...EricH you are thinking too hard that’s why you are doing “read-ins” instead of “write-ins!” LOL
Just the thought of writing 50k words in twenty-five days is enough to keep me and the few folks who attend Bowie Town Center write-ins busy; not your group huh? Enjoy your quiz challenges.
----------jeteakp
Freelance Technical Writer
26,000 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 06 49
Oh, I was hoping a read-in is when we get together and read some of our highlights. I love to hear those.
50,188 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 14 15
...wtf.
This thread needed a better title, I thought there was actually a problem with writing I could help someone with.
----------WTF, Zamboni isn't in my spellchecker.
Keystrokes and Caffeine, my blog <3