Hacker News Reader

Comment by ttyyzz | Hacker News Reader

330ml is a small Red Bull can. 13cm diameter is completely wrong, it's about half of that.

The diameter is about twice that. The radius of the motor is about 1 can, so the diameter would be about 26-30cm, depending on the height of the can.

Generally the “small” Red Bull can is 250ml not 330ml.

"small Red Bull can". I didn't know they come in different sizes. Apparently the small one is 250 ml, mid one 355 ml and then there's a big one of 473 ml.

The 250 ml comes in a 14 cm height box, so I guess the 13 cm were a correct guess?

A 330 ml "Sleek Can", which I guess is the same one as a Red Bull can, has a height of 146 mm.

You know there's some scientists who study shapes and they say that diameter and height are different properties of a cylinder. I wouldn't know anything about that though I'm certainly no scientist.

It's the article which is comparing the height of a can to the radius or diameter of the motor (apparently the radius, but it would be more logical to compare it to the diameter).

It's just as valid as using bananas for scale, but the issue with the article is that that it doesn't even bother to mention the actual dimensions in cm or inches, yet it uses "tiny" in the title to describe the engine.

But for a circular cylinder, the height is not the same as the diameter, which of course is taken as the widest length across the circular cross-section. For a standard energy drink style can, that is around 70 mm (less than 3 inches).

But we’re comparing the height of the can to the diameter of the motor.

Aahh, totally did not parse the original comment as meaning that, how dumb of me. Thanks.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com