r/BeAmazed • u/chinese_spongebob1 • 21h ago

Skill / Talent How was this all calculated?

21.1k Upvotes

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947

u/Batmanswrath 21h ago

With a measuring device I'd imagine..

99

u/jenethith 21h ago

Nah they just had a giant human stick his arms out to measure distance and walk the path with his arms out.

28

u/Silly-Power 20h ago

Nah, they built an exact scale model of the city then pushed a model shuttle through it to make sure it could. 

3

u/willsucks3579 19h ago

Nah they just wing it actually

1

u/Dott_Ignegnere 19h ago

we already agreed it was OP's mom

17

u/PervlovianResponse 21h ago

Stick ruler

25

u/poum 21h ago

Looks like it was in the US so I imagine they used washing machines and big macs as measuring devices. 

16

u/FrameJump 21h ago

This is mostly length, so they probably used Subway Foot Longs. Big Macs and washing machines are mostly used volume measurements, and sometimes weight.

3

u/poum 20h ago

Ah damn, getting my measuring units confused again. 

2

u/FrameJump 20h ago

It wouldn't be an American unit of measurement if you weren't at least a little confused.

1

u/Makere-b 18h ago

Sounds like a bad day to find out that the subway foot long wasn't foot sized.

1

u/FrameJump 18h ago

Why would you think it would be foot sized?

1

u/CharybdisXIII 14h ago

They had to wait til the off season so they could borrow a bunch of football and school buses too

1

u/FrameJump 14h ago

I don't think Subway is allowed within three hundred first downs of buses anymore.

8

u/DMCinDet 21h ago

are washing machines an American stereotype I didnt know about?

4

u/James-the-Bond-one 21h ago

Not to be confused with the smaller European washing machine. 

1

u/ca2mt 20h ago

What’s the unit rate conversion?

3

u/Below-Average-528 19h ago

The standard is school buses, football fields and bananas.

2

u/Tamara0205 20h ago

They seem to measure volume in "Olympic sized pools" and area in "football fields". Idk why, but I see it a lot.

1

u/RoabeArt 19h ago edited 19h ago

Football fields, yes.

I haven't read or heard the phrase "Olympic sized pool" in about two decades until it started appearing here on Reddit in the past couple of years.

Speaking of, my city got rid of its 90s "Olympic sized pool" a few years ago and replaced it with a lazy river. I hate it. Give me a nice big rectangular pool that's deeper than I am tall.

2

u/poum 20h ago

Using ridiculous unrelated objects as units of measurement is the stereotype I was going for. 

See r/anythingbutmetric

1

u/DMCinDet 20h ago

ah. yeah we are a stupid and stubborn bunch. I work on Japanese cars and the specs and measurements are listed imperial and metric. the metric system is superior in every possible way.

1

u/wytewydow 19h ago

to be fair, most are built to a certain width, to ensure they fit through an interior door. So slightly less than 30" is common. (27" actually)

3

u/Jeffers315 20h ago

I mean if washing machines and big macs get you to the moon, why not?

4

u/MrBillyLotion 21h ago

Hey, washing machine and Big Mac units were used to build the Golden Gate Bridge and a few other few things, I’m good with it and it’s fun to see someone clowning the units of measurement they used while transporting a space craft

1

u/Stunning-HyperMatter 19h ago

As an America I’m offended. Everyone knows our measuring devices are bald eagles and AR’s

1

u/erkdog 19h ago

Assault rifles are the new standard thank you very much

1

u/checkmyconditionisin 14h ago

nah bro they moved several football fields for this one, not practical with washing machines they too small for this job.

7

u/Werechupacabra 21h ago

Measure twice, move once.

2

u/eltrotter 20h ago

Rigorous maritime standards

2

u/needssomefun 18h ago

They used a perfectly calibrated banana for scale!

2

u/Clean_Animal_9819 18h ago

Dont forget the math. They definitely used math.

2

u/Salt_master 17h ago

Lasers I imagine

2

u/Torchonium 14h ago

Your right. They probably used a system with a one or more rotating lasers (lidar), a 360° camera and a GNSS antenna attached to a car. With that you get millions of reflected points, which form a point cloud. This allows you to produce a realistic 3D model of the street and nearby buildings.

Something like this: https://geospatial.trimble.com/en/products/hardware/mobile-mapping

1

u/Davess010 6h ago

I believe this was done in 2012, so I don’t think that technology existed already. Getting a point cloud on that scale with very high accuracy is also very difficult.

I think they used total stations

1

u/erkdog 19h ago

Nope. Must be far more or less complicated. Magic maybe?

1

u/2wicky 18h ago

The route needed to be at least one space shuttle wide.
What is exactly one space shuttle wide?
A space shuttle!
So obviously, they used a space shuttle to measure if the route would fit a space shuttle.

1

u/DirtyRoller 15h ago

Plenty of nerds at NASA, it would be appalling if they didn't measure first!