Someone sent me a link to a lesson manual containing a fascinating and useful comparative chart that illustrates the size of Noah’s Ark in relation to other vessels. While I had always wondered how much bigger the Ark was than an Icebreaker or a Portuguese Man-of-War, it still left me wanting to know more. I did a little bit more scholarly research and I came up with my own chart that offers additional useful comparisons.
EDIT: I’ve added a second comparison chart for people interested in Noah going toe-to-toe with Darth Vader.
December 30, 2009 at 8:26 am
I can’t wait to see this incorporated into a lesson. Fantastic!
December 30, 2009 at 8:26 am
:)
December 30, 2009 at 8:30 am
Without a comparison to Bella’s truck this chart will always be incomplete to true morminess
December 30, 2009 at 8:49 am
So there was actually room for two Balrogs on the ark.
December 30, 2009 at 8:54 am
True — and there was actually room for two humpback whales on a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, but only if you reconfigure the entire cargo bay using transparent aluminum.
December 30, 2009 at 9:03 am
Your stuff here is always so cool, John.
December 30, 2009 at 9:03 am
A thing of beauty is a joy forever *eyes mist*
December 30, 2009 at 9:04 am
I would totally use this in a lesson. Pure awesomeness, as always.
December 30, 2009 at 9:08 am
Me gusta.
December 30, 2009 at 9:24 am
Obviously, no room for two Godzilla’s, so no wonder he’s always ticked off. The inclusion of a gunstar ship from The Last Starfighter is especially poignant for me. Truly sublime, John.
December 30, 2009 at 9:36 am
I AM using this in my lesson. Awesome.
December 30, 2009 at 9:40 am
9 — Gojira can swim.
This is quite cool.
December 30, 2009 at 9:46 am
Are there two Godzillas? Being semi-aquatic, Godzilla presumably wouldn’t need to be on the ark and may well be representative of the antediluvian detritus of creation that God was eliminating with the flood. I include Godzilla here because he is potentially a hazard to shipping, and he appears almost exactly the right size relative to the ark to appear in a Genesis movie.
Glad you love the gunstar, Kevinf. That’s an interesting sized starship, not quite a fighter, not really a light destroyer. The Last Starfighter was beautifully designed — the ships and really the whole movie still hold up after all these years and improvements in CGI.
December 30, 2009 at 9:49 am
What’s the rationale for including the LDS temple, though? Presumably, it’s not a hazard to shipping.
December 30, 2009 at 9:59 am
Actually, given the need for special accommodations, there wasn’t room for balrogs on the ark, which explains a lot.
December 30, 2009 at 10:30 am
I’m sorry, but I’ve seen Empire, and I just don’t believe the AT-AT walker is to scale. And if you’re capable of this sort of error, John, what other errors are there lurking in your chart? Once I’ve jettisoned Hamerish infallibility, why should I take anything Hamer says seriously?
December 30, 2009 at 11:01 am
Gunstar 1! They’re fighting evil… in another dimension!
December 30, 2009 at 11:01 am
There are three items in John’s chart that have actually existed in an operational form. Can you guess which three?
December 30, 2009 at 11:03 am
13: We don’t necessarily know the details of the coming destruction of the world by fire. If, like the destruction by water, it will be necessary to preserve animal species, and if the Ark is precisely the correct size to preserve all that need saving, the chart illustrates how many micro-temples are necessary to accomplish the same goal.
15: ATATs are surprisingly small. StarWars.com asserts they are 15.5 meters in height, which is probably too small. I’ve made this one a bit bigger to jive with what we’re seeing in Empire Strikes Back. But recall there that you are seeing ATATs shown against individual humans and very tiny airships (snow speeders). Consider the ATAT against the Imperial Shuttle in Return of the Jedi — you’ll be surprised at how tiny it is.
December 30, 2009 at 11:14 am
Oh, man, I wish I were still teaching Gospel Doctrine. Great job, John. ..bruce..
December 30, 2009 at 11:29 am
Just remember that Genesis was translated from the Greek by 70 Hellenized Judaic scholars who were influenced by the Greek myths that included a lot of fables about animals.
December 30, 2009 at 11:40 am
Brilliant!
@Clay — I’m going to say 747, Temple, and Black Pearl.
December 30, 2009 at 11:46 am
This is not only awesome, but actually very helpful.
December 30, 2009 at 11:57 am
Silence, Liz (21)!!!
You are threatening my testimony of God-as-genocidal-miracle-worker-and-stuffer-of-large-animals-in-tiny-spaces.
December 30, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I dunno, John. I’ve always preferred to be ambitious with my Ark fantasies. I would have gone for an Imperial Star Destroyer at the least, or maybe one of those big-#$% ships from V. You’re thinking a bit small, bro…..
December 30, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I thought size didn’t matter.
December 30, 2009 at 1:05 pm
that’s a myth, Kathy. Like organic evolution.
December 30, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Then my ancestors are being humiliated.
December 30, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I’ve added a second chart for the size queens among us.
December 30, 2009 at 3:02 pm
geez this is awesome
December 30, 2009 at 3:26 pm
John, I heart you and your charts.
Interestingly, it looks like Noah could go toe to toe with princess leia and the rebel blockade runner…she’s kind of a badass, though, so I don’t think he could take her.
December 30, 2009 at 3:49 pm
If I remember correctly, from what I heard about John Hammer’s Star Trek maps, one should never question his sense of scale.
If the Balrogs are willing to temporarily quench their flames and restrict overall violent movements, then I’m not sure other special accommodations would be a problem. Then again, if they were willing to do these things, they would not be Balrogs. It’s a shame that they will have to die in the Flood.
December 30, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Dan, it’s not the flames that are the problem — as one of the Maiar a Balrog would be able to control itself in such a way. Rather, I suspect that Yahweh would have an issue in preserving one of the lesser Ainur, perhaps as a way of showing Eru Ilúvatar who’s boss.
December 30, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Interesting TV show on Noah’s Arc – they interviewed actual wooden ship builders who pointed out that a wooden ship of this size would break up in any kind of seas. But if you can believe in Noah’s Arc in the first place, I guess a little realism can be safely ignored.
December 30, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Eru Ilúvatar
If no one minds, I’m going to pronounce that last word as ‘elevator’ …
December 30, 2009 at 4:32 pm
John,
Can I borrow the cubits-to-metric chart you used to create this? I’m trying to reconstruct the Arc of the Covenant in my back yard–you know, so as to melt peoples’ faces who trespass–and I can’t seem to get the dimensions quite right.
December 30, 2009 at 4:38 pm
By Arc, of course, I mean Ark. Huked on phoonics werked fer me!
December 30, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Jimbob (36-37): I just went directly from the LDS manual which gives an Ark length of 450 feet. Working backwards that yields the standard foot to cubit conversion of 1 cubit = 1.5 feet.
Therefore, I suggest you make your Ark of the Covenant 2.25 ft x 3.75 ft x 2.25 ft. If it doesn’t work, address your complaints to the LDS Correlation Committee.
(Just remember when you bury it and are making a 6 kadan tall staff to mark its location, don’t forget to take back 1 kadan to honor the Hebrew God whose ark this is.)
December 30, 2009 at 4:51 pm
You are all missing the most important question: Do Balrogs have wings?
December 30, 2009 at 5:06 pm
So how does the Tower of Babel compare to all this?
December 30, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Thanks for these comparison charts, John. They are a wonder to behold!
December 30, 2009 at 8:02 pm
John, I hope these are picked up for the next edition of the OT Sunday School Manual. These are the most helpful charts I’ve seen making Noah’s Ark a reality. Bless you.
December 30, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Kaimi, that is such a Khazad-dûm question.
December 31, 2009 at 6:54 am
Wow. I revel in the geekery.
December 31, 2009 at 8:16 am
Crap, I actually forgot that Balrogs have wings.
That could mean that they count as “birds of the air” and Noah was instructed to have “seven each of birds of the air, male and female” – there’s just no way to accomodate all the Balrogs and maintain the finish on the gopherwood.
December 31, 2009 at 8:31 am
Gopherwood, Everett?
December 31, 2009 at 8:37 am
This post–and quite a few of the comments–are full of win.
December 31, 2009 at 10:09 am
Can’t stop laughing!
December 31, 2009 at 11:57 am
This is awesome. I would have paid attention to this lesson.
December 31, 2009 at 12:35 pm
John:
And you didn’t crosspost this at Saint’s Herald?
December 31, 2009 at 4:16 pm
John, you should expand this a tad and submit it to Sunstone for an article.
January 1, 2010 at 4:52 am
John, these are great! : )
January 1, 2010 at 9:03 am
How big was the death star?
January 1, 2010 at 10:03 am
Actually I’m kind of curious about that death star question. The death star would be much more massive than all of these things, right? Otherwise where do you park the Imperial Star Destroyers …
January 1, 2010 at 11:27 am
Depending on the sources you consult, the diameter of the original Death Star would have been 75x the length of the Star Destroyer pictured. The Return of Jedi Death Star is supposedly bigger and would be 100x the length of the Star Destroyer or more.
January 11, 2010 at 8:58 am
As an old TNG trekkie, I’d personally like to see the 1701-D Starship Enterprise on there, but great charts nonetheless.
February 7, 2010 at 1:09 am
How AWESOME is this?!!
February 7, 2010 at 3:54 am
Love it.
And is your chart, dear John, that has landed me with yet another subscription in my Reader. I came, I laughed…
…I read…and read…I added.
P.S. This post was made all the richer for having been handed the first chart you reproduced (stock standard) in today’s GP lesson.
February 12, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Nyuck! nyuck! nyuck! Very creative Brother John. I have to say though, I am thoroughly confused now as to the actual size of the Ark. Not sure who else has seen this but my mom sent it to me in an email. Ever heard of Johan’s Ark? That thing blew my mind. It’s only approximately half the length of the original ark.
Any ways, thanks for the laugh.
February 14, 2010 at 9:51 am
I’m teaching this lesson to the 15 year olds today. They’ll get a kick out of this!
Thanks!
February 21, 2010 at 8:54 am
I would love to see a CG of the ark along side a large aircraft carrier.