Editing Talk:2286: 6-Foot Zone

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Ok... 34 feet, in total, but how many hands? (All of which you should wash!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.210|162.158.34.210]] 23:34, 27 March 2020 (UTC)  

Well, a typical horse stands 15.2 hands tall.   You do the math.   [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 01:09, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

: Love it.  Given the extra 1.7 feet for the person, a radius of 20.53 hands.  If it were just 6 feet, 18 hands -- brad --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.122|108.162.216.122]] 00:55, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
:: For a horse of 16 hands (from the USFS document), 130 hands (8x16 'hands' + 2 hands). Or 123 and three loose fingers using Cellocgw's value, with that sounding like it's from actual practical experience. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.49|162.158.89.49]] 19:09, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

So Randall is figuring about 1.7 feet diameter for the person. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.70|172.68.174.70]] 00:40, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

The 190,000 people / mile^2 assumes (I'm guessing) flat ground.  Skyscrapers make a difference [citation needed] -- brad --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.122|108.162.216.122]] 00:55, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Interesting that the population density he gives ignores circle packing. Population should be 174,000. -- coyne -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.156|162.158.122.156]] 04:06, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
: Circle packing is unimportant since he's just giving the population of this one circle.  He's taking a radius of 6 foot ''around'' that person without specifying what he considers to be the radius of the person, but it can be inferred from the numbers: <br>from area: <math>\sqrt{145/\pi} \approx 6.8</math>, <br>from circumference: <math>43/(2\pi) \approx 6.8</math>, <br>from population density: <math>\sqrt{1/190000/\pi} \cdot 5280 \approx 6.8</math>,<br>so apparently he considers a person to have a radius of 0.8 ft, or about 0.5 m diameter, which seems reasonable. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 05:11, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
:: For what it's worth, Randall's "6' zone" appears to be an ''ellipse'', not a circle.  It appears that Megan is 2.65 feet wide:
::* circumference = 2 &times; &pi; &times; 6' + 2 &times; 2.65' &#8773; 42.999'
::* area = &pi; &times; 6<sup>2</sup> + 2.65 &times; 2 &times; 6 &#8773; 144.894 ft<sup>2</sup>
:: [[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 18:14, 20 June 2020 (UTC)
: Note that even if you want to know the population of optimally packed people, your number is still wrong since the circles overlap: your circle is supposed to exclude other people, it doesn't exclude other people's circles.  Optimally you'd have a triangular lattice of people with a lattice distance of 7.6 ft (assuming we want 6 ft between people and we consider people to be circles of radius 0.8 ft).  This yields a population density of 1 person per <math>\tfrac{1}{4}\sqrt{3} \cdot 7.6^2 \text{ ft}^2</math>, which is about 1.1 million people per square mile. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 05:24, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
:But some people still live in cities. So they are not packed 2-dimensional but sometimes in very high skyscrapers. We need to bringt globes into this calculation instead of circles. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:40, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

Much as I love thinking about circle packing density in the plane, I think the above explanation is slightly overthinking the issue.  The population density figure appears to be using the idea that one person's zone contains one person; 1 person / (145 ft^2) does indeed equal 192,000 people/square mile.  So, he's not saying that 'given these constraints, we can pack people at this maximum density'.  He's saying 'given this area, and counting it as a tiny sovereignty, we can calculate its population density to be this'. For this reason, I don't think you should say that the 'population density' figure has an error, only that it is calculated in a different sense than you were thinking about. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 18:58, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
:I agree. My first instinct on what the population density figure means was the same as one used in the comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.163|162.158.103.163]] 22:29, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Possibly a play on the fact that horses are measured in hands? --orbitalbuzzsaw--

Page 207 of [https://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf07232816/pdf07232816dpi72pt10.pdf US Forest Service Equestrian Design Guidebook for Trails, Trailheads, and Campgrounds] says minimum corral size is 12x12 feet. I didn't find a more likely sounding Forest Service publication. So I assume the ''handbook'' in the comic is a fictional publication. [[User:Hamjudo|Hamjudo]] ([[User talk:Hamjudo|talk]]) 13:15, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Always knew cities were bad for humanity.  As are airplanes.  Need them both to create a pandemic. [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 18:32, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for that explanation!  When I saw the title text, I was worried that WHO had increased the recommendation and I'd missed it.  [[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 00:47, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

Cool. I didn't know the US Forestry Service designed horses. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 06:00, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

Should it be noted that Randall used horses as units of measurement and/or as reference objects before? i.e. [[1461]] [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:52, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

I'm relatively surprised that nobody is discussing the 'real estate' value in these comments.  I guess I'm the odd one out.  The value of $195k was, to my surprise, very accurate.  Zillow.com [https://www.zillow.com/manhattan-ny/home-values/ currently lists] that the average real estate price per square foot in Manhattan is $1,371, which, when multiplied by Randall's approximate 145 square feet, gives $198,795.  I can't believe the rest of you are putting this much research into horse dimensions. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.4|162.158.75.4]] 23:55, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

:I'm with you, there should be a comment on that reference to NYC Real Estate.  I wasn't too sure about how, exactly, to do the math.  The Real Estate market actually has those 145 square feet stacked up, so I was thinking about 145 square feet of _land_, but the zillow numbers are for 145 square feet of _floor_.  Since your numbers work out, that probably means Randall was going for that reading.  [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 03:38, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

:But of course, NYC is not only Manhattan; i'm pretty sure that the rest of the city is cheaper. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.94|172.68.51.94]]