How many floppy disks would it take to store all of Google Maps?

So, in a moment of boredom today I decided to do a back-of-the-envelope calculation. I wanted to know what size of floppy disk mountain it would take to store all of Google Maps. And by 'back of the envelope', I mean that I fired up my trusty BBC microcomputer and booted into the ViewSheet spread sheet.

There is surprisingly little information on the size of Google Maps online, however I found a source that quoted 20 Petabytes from 2012. I estimate that this is about one million times the amount of 'data' sent by the US postal service each day, or about one thousands times the volume of data that Facebook deals with each day. Armed with this information, and the capacity of a floppy disk I went to work.

Now there is some confusion in the computing industry as to whether MB and KB are base 10 or base 2 prefixes. Sometimes they seem to be used interchangeably when they are clearly different number bases, however for arguments sake I have taken a 1.44MB disk capacity to be 1457664 bytes. For simplicity I have ignored any capacity used by the disk filing system allocation table.

There is little argument as to the height of a floppy disk: 3mm.

So if you stored all of Google Maps onto floppy disk, how high would your floppy disk mountain be?

Well, by my calculations you will create a stack that extents four-thousand, eight-hundred times higher than Mount Everest, or 11% of the distance to the moon.

My own floppy disk mountain. This doesn't even come close.

Do please take time to check my calculations and then come back to me if I have gone wrong somewhere.

Either way come back soon for some new nerdy stuff, or if you are still here, you might like to read about the Adventures of Sir Eric the Unready, or just hack some BASIC code together.

#Google
#floppy disks
#maps
#Mount Everest

This blog is also available on floppy disk. Please send a self-addressed envelope...

Get lost with maps too

Introducing our second instalment of awesome map apps to get lost in right now. If you missed the first post, you can grab it here.

The planet's history of violence

Carnage

There is no denying it. We are one bloodthirsty species. With this app from Nodegoat you can discover all of mankind's battles in one interactive map. The data has been scraped off Wikipedia for all articles relating to a battle that has both a location and a date. Using the app you can focus on a particular country or historical period, or change the slider and watch the carnage unfold.  If you like this app then you might also like the video at the end of this post.

Visions of the Ring

Frodo and Strider, on their way for a pint at Bree.

Ever read Lord of the Rings and felt the need to track both Frodo's journey and the location of the Ringwraiths simultaneously? Well, probably not, but now you can anyway, with Visions of the Ring thanks to Hayoo. With this app you can plot the timeline of the classic book and the location of the main protagonists and antagonists, thanks to some careful research using the Appendix and other sources. Definitely plus one geek experience point awarded to Hayoo.

Solar Beat

Solar beat, like a big cosmic record player, far out, maaaan!

What is the sound of the solar system? Whitevinyl design present Solar beat, a musical orrery. Watch the orbits of the planets around the sun, each one making a different tone as it passes a line from the sun in to interstellar space (which presumably represents the first of January). The result is a haunting and beautiful melody.  Do check it out now. You can alter the speed at which time passes in this solar system, and the number of years that have elapsed is displayed on the dashboard at the bottom.

European Countries Quiz

Some are easy to spot, but I did struggle to find Andorra.

This web app from Sheppard Software tests your knowledge of European geography.  The name of a country is displayed or spoken and it is up to you to find it on the map, scoring points for correct matches.  Sheppard Software have countless other fun educational quizzes on their site.

Ventusky

A typical rainy day in Lancashire.

Ventusky is a brilliant animated weather map app with plenty to play around with from rain, snow cover wind speed etc.

Hurricane Hermine battering the coast of America right now

Video time

The world population has grown by 0.8 billion people over the past decade.  This number is equivalent to more than the population of the United Kingdom each year, or four Americas each decade. Watch the World's population grow from 1CE to the present day and beyond in under 6 minutes.



Isao Hashimoto's map shows a time lapse of every atomic explosion from 1945-1998 with the size of the dot proportional to the atomic yield of the explosion.



Watch a timelapse of every significant battle from 1000AD to the present. The size of each explosion is related to the severity of the fighting.

Get lost with maps

Some cool map apps you can play with right now...

Countries of the World Quiz
How many countries can you name in 15 minutes - the quiz!

European History the Interactive Map
Explore European history from 900BC to the present day, with a wealth of information and articles available by clicking.  Here we see the last days of Nazi Germany...

Six stunning maps uncover hidden details of the Earth and the Moon
Explore the Earth and the moon in some fabulous maps on the New Scientist web page.  Here we see the Dymaxion Airocean projection which showing the world's temperature zones on a more accurate representation of continental proportions than the standard Mercator map. Visit the site for maps of the moon; vesuvius; Hurricane Katrina Flooding Estimated Depths and Extent; and Human Mobility and the Spread of Ebola in West Africa.

Foursquare check-ins show the pulse of New York City and Tokyo


Foursquare check-ins show the pulse of New York City and Tokyo from Foursquare on Vimeo.
Every day, millions of people check in on Foursquare. We took a year's worth of check-ins in New York City and Tokyo and plotted them on a map. Each dot represents a single check-in, while the straight lines link sequential check-ins.

What you can see here represents the power of check-in data -- on Foursquare, every city around the world pulses with activity around places every hour of every day.

Related: Also see our data visualization of four days worth of Foursquare check-ins in New York CIty during Hurricane Sandy (and the subsequent power outage) during October 2012: http://vimeo.com/52883962.


Build with Chrome
A partnership between LEGO and Google allowing you to create Lego constructions within Google Maps.  Go to your street on Google Maps and try and build your house in virtual Lego.  Then share your creations with your followers. As the title suggests, you are going to need a chrome browser logged-in with your Google account - I'm still waiting for Lego to release a browser.