Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Why doesn't a 16.9 oz bottle look like it can hold its equivalent 30 cubic inches?

When I use a unit converter, this is what it tells me is equivalent, but my eyes can't make sense of it. A 16.9 oz bottle of water doesn't look like it could hold that many cubic inches of liquid... am I just a really bad estimator? :)Why doesn't a 16.9 oz bottle look like it can hold its equivalent 30 cubic inches?
The reason is psychological.

"Tall and thin" to the mind is less than "short and fat".



This has been shown in experiments with children when a specific amount

of water is poured alternately into a "tall/thin" glass and then into a "short/fat"

glass and vice versa - even after being shown this many times, the children will still insist that the "short/fat" glass has more water in it.Why doesn't a 16.9 oz bottle look like it can hold its equivalent 30 cubic inches?
well this is true because 1 oz is 1.8 cubic inches so a 16.9 oz bottle holds 30.42 inches cubedWhy doesn't a 16.9 oz bottle look like it can hold its equivalent 30 cubic inches?
30.5 cubic inches is only 3.125^3. So a cube 3 %26amp; 1/8 inches on a size would hold 16.9 fluid ounces.
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