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Noota is a personal blog written by @housseynbencheikh, where deep and out-of-the-box thoughts are shared and explored. It's a space for reflection, curiosity, and unconventional ideas.You can browse all previous posts through the archive, or stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed.

Apr 30, 2025

The size of New York City : when it's used as a unit of measurement.

I find it funny when the media use the size of New York City as a unit of measurement. You have probably heard things like, "Island X is twice the size of New York City," to help people visualize scale. But here's the problem: I don’t even know the actual size of New York City! So when I hear comparisons like that, they don’t make sense to me.
It gets even worse when people use parts of the city—like Manhattan—as units of measurement. This assumes most people know Manhattan well enough to estimate sizes. But that’s not true. Even if people have heard of Manhattan, few—aside from those who’ve lived there—know its exact size. So these comparisons end up being meaningless for most of us.
Maybe it’s time to stop using New York City—or parts of it—as a unit of measurement.

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