Entire Reg readership would fill 205 Olympic-sized swimming pools

Laid head-to-toe, they'd also stretch 13,013km

By Lester Haines, 22nd January 2013

SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had

Last week, we announced that according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, a record 7,326,907 unique users visited El Reg in November 2012.

Impressive stuff, which prompted one reader to ask: "Is it just me, or does anyone else want to know how many Olympic-size swimming pools that number of visitors would fill?"

An excellent question, and using the power of our mighty online standards converter, and an average reader volume of 0.07m³ (equivalent to a weight of 70kg, so we're being kind to pizza-engorged sysadmins here), we were able to calculate that packed very tightly together, the Vulture Central readership would occupy 512,883m³.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is no less than 204.92 Olympic-sized swimming pools. To get an idea of how many pools that is, click on the pic above and prepare to be amazed.

But there's more. Laid head-to-toe, 7,326,907 people with an average height of 1.776m* would stretch 92,947,43 linguine, 1,411,496 double-decker buses or 94,100 brontosauruses.

To put that in perspective, the 13,013km chain would encompass one third of the Earth's equator, or connect Chelyabinsk, Russia with Melbourne, Australia, or Jokkmokk in northern Sweden with Buenos Aires.

Two Earth hemispheres showing lines between Chelyabinsk, Russia and Melbourne, Australia, and Jokkmokk in northern Sweden to Buenos Aires

Alternatively, imagine a vertical column of readers extending 39 times the International Space Station's average orbital height, or, if you prefer, to an altitude equivalent to a stack of 6,447,678,160 US one-dollar coins.

For fans of hardcore alternative standards, we also ran a few numbers to determine the total liquid waste output of 7,326,907 people. Based on an individual urine production of 1.5l per reader per day, we get a daily yield of 10,990m³, which means that every single minute, your combined bladders are outputting 7.63m³ - an impressive 1.66 African elephants.

Finally, we're sure you'd like to know if you're worth your weight in gold. Well, 512,883,490kg of Goldfinger's favourite metal tipped the scales at $54,289.75 per kg yesterday, so the current value of our readership is $27,844,316,451,227, give or take the odd 50 cents.

Here's what roughly 2.2 of you looked like when the market closed on Monday, when we could have sold you for $3,800,282 a pop:

Roughly 150kg of gold