Finding things that are 33 feet long can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Just for fun, 33 feet is the length of your digestive system from the mouth to the anus. 33 feet is also equal to 11 yards, 10 meters and 396 inches. It is a small distance you can measure with a standard tape measure, and you can easily see it from end to end. But what if you don’t have a tape measure on hand?
Here are nine common items that are 33 feet long.
1. A full roll of wallpaper
Manufacturers package wallpaper in a long double roll for unknown reasons. This means you get two rolls of wallpaper as a single roll, and that is the minimum quantity you can buy.
The length of this double roll is measured in feet, and it can range between 27 and 33 feet long, or 13.5-16.5 for a single roll. The width of wallpaper however is measured in inches, and it will be 20.5 or 27 inches wide.
2. Half an acres of land in length
Before the metric system, an acre of land was defined as the amount of land an ox and one man can plow in a day. That’s not very specific because the ox or the man can be tired one day and energetic the next.
Thankfully, today an acre is more clearly defined, with the most common shape being 600 feet by 66 feet. Half an acre would therefore be 600 feet by 33 feet.
3. 3 Giraffes
Everyone already knows that the giraffe is the tallest land animal globally. But exactly how tall is an adult giraffe? 16.4 to 19.7 feet, or 5-6 meters tall. This range occurs because the male giraffe is taller than the female one. If you join two giraffes head to toe, you would have yourself a 33 feet giraffe monster.
4. A 3 Storey Building
There is no law as to how tall a story should be, but buildings have to comply with the height restrictions in that area. For example, you can build in a location that has a designated 3-story, 45 feet maximum limit. In this case, you have to comply with both. Since most stories are 10-11 feet high, you can build a 3-story building that’s is 33 feet tall.
5. Half a bowling lane
The length of a 10-pin bowling lane is 60 feet from the foul line to the headpin and 42 inches wide, excluding the gutters. If you roll the ball and it veers off halfway, it has only gone 30-33 feet.
You also have an extra 15 feet of waiting surface just before the foul line to prepare for the turn. These dimensions however have nothing to do with whether you score or not. Only your prowess and body position when rolling the ball matters.
6. Half of a tractor-trailer with cab
The average trailer you see being pulled by a semi-truck on the road is 48-53 feet long. If you include the length of the cub, the whole thing adds up to 65 feet or 20 meters in length. That is almost the size of a small cargo train.
If you are looking to visualize 33 feet, picture half of that trailer with a cab, and you can see how long that is.
7. 5 Queen Size beds
A queen-size bed is the most common size for most couples. It is big enough to handle two people but not too big to create a wedge between the two of you. The standard queen size bed is 5 feet wide by 6.6 feet long. If you can imagine lining up 6 of those-headboard to footboards, you have yourself 33 feet.
8. 4 Pieces of Lumber
Have you been to a lumber shop lately? Well, the most common piece of wood sold in these places is a 2×4, which is 8 feet long. People buy this piece of lumber to make furniture, ceilings, and wall shelves. Four pieces of 2×4 joined together will give you 32 feet which is just a foot short of 33 feet.
9. Dinosaur
Estimating the size of dinosaurs is a long shot because they were too many. The biggest dinosaur was as long as a school bus, while the smallest was the size of a chicken. That said, most dinosaurs, including the mega raptors and tyrannosaurus rex, were 10 meters long.
The dimension of stuff has been an interest of mine ever since I was a child. What I believe is most fascinating about the dimension of stuff is how extremely long, tall and wide some objects are both on earth and in the universe.