Live 40 silly units 49 things SVG & PNG

Banana for scale

Convert anything into bananas, smoots, double-decker buses, Olympic pools and other units nobody asked for. Ask for a number, a sentence you can paste, or a picture drawn to scale. Every unit and every thing is measured from a source you can check.

Try it Endpoints

Drawn live!

The height of the Eiffel Tower is about 1,833 bananas. SVG · PNG

The reference banana

How long is a banana?

The USDA's food tables call a medium banana 7 to 7 7/8 inches long (17.8 to 20 cm) and 118 grams. Our banana is the short end of that: 18 cm, a round number you can check against the fruit bowl. Its weight is the USDA's 118 grams, and its radiation is the banana equivalent dose, 0.1 microsieverts.

The rest follow the same rule: a real definition, a source for it, and a note when we had to pick one number out of a range. The bus is a London Routemaster, the pitch is the 105 by 68 metre one FIFA asks for, the pool is the Olympic minimum. Spotted a wrong figure? Write to hello@tasta.space.

Base URL: https://api.tasta.space/v1/scale

Endpoints

Method	Path	What you get
GET	`/v1/scale/convert`	A value from one unit to another, with a sentence and a picture. Leave out `to` to get it in every silly unit of its dimension. Takes `format=text`.
GET	`/v1/scale/{thing}`	A famous thing (`eiffel-tower`, `mount-everest`...) in every silly unit of each dimension we have for it. Takes `unit` and `format=text`.
GET	`/v1/scale/image`	The comparison drawn to scale, 1200 by 630, as `svg` or `png`. Cached for a day.
GET	`/v1/scale/units`	Every unit, with its size in SI, a source and a note. Takes `dimension` and `kind`.
GET	`/v1/scale/things`	Every thing we have measured. Takes `dimension`.
GET	`/v1/scale`	The dimensions, their SI units and default silly units, and links.

Parameters

Name	Example	Does
`value`	`330`	The number to convert: zero or more, up to 10³⁰. A dot for decimals, `2e6` works, commas do not.
`from`, `to`	`m`, `banana`	Units by id, symbol or name, in any case: `km2`, `km²` and `square kilometres` are the same. Both must measure the same dimension.
`thing`	`eiffel-tower`	Image only: draw a thing from `/v1/scale/things` instead of a value.
`unit`	`giraffe`	On `{thing}` and `image`: the one unit to measure in. Picks the matching dimension of a thing. Without it, the image uses the default silly unit.
`measure`	`average-depth`	Image only: which of a thing's measures to draw, by the `id` its measures carry. Needed only when a thing has two of one dimension, like the Grand Canyon's length and depth; the image links in the JSON already include it.
`dimension`	`area`	Lists only: one of `length`, `area`, `volume`, `time`, `mass`, `data`, `radiation`.
`kind`	`silly`	`/units` only: `silly` or `real`.
`format`	`text`	One plain line instead of JSON, on `convert` and `{thing}`. On `image`: `svg` (default) or `png`.

Calls

$ curl "https://api.tasta.space/v1/scale/convert?value=330&from=m&to=banana"

$ curl "https://api.tasta.space/v1/scale/eiffel-tower?format=text"

$ curl "https://api.tasta.space/v1/scale/convert?value=90&from=min"

$ curl -o tower.png "https://api.tasta.space/v1/scale/image?thing=eiffel-tower&unit=giraffe&format=png"

A conversion looks like this

{
  "data": {
    "value": 330,
    "from": {
      "id": "m",
      "name": "metre",
      "plural": "metres",
      "symbol": "m",
      "dimension": "length",
      "kind": "real",
      "value": 1,
      "si_unit": "m",
      "basis": null,
      "note": null,
      "source": "https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure"
    },
    "to": {
      "id": "banana",
      "name": "banana",
      "plural": "bananas",
      "symbol": "ban",
      "dimension": "length",
      "kind": "silly",
      "value": 0.18,
      "si_unit": "m",
      "basis": "A medium banana, which the USDA puts at 7 to 7 7/8 inches (17.8 to 20 cm) long. We use 18 cm.",
      "note": "The internet's favourite ruler, and the reason this API exists.",
      "source": "https://web.archive.org/web/20201019000928/https://www.ars.usda.gov/arsuserfiles/80400525/data/hg72/hg72_2002.pdf"
    },
    "result": 1833.33333333,
    "display": "1,833.3 bananas",
    "sentence": "330 metres is about 1,833 bananas.",
    "image": "https://api.tasta.space/v1/scale/image?value=330&from=m&unit=banana"
  },
  "meta": {
    "dimension": "length",
    "si_value": 330,
    "si_unit": "m"
  }
}

How numbers are written

result is the number, to ten significant figures. display and sentence are for people: commas between thousands, words from a million to a trillion (2.14 billion bananas), a power of ten beyond either end (5 × 10⁻⁹), and one banana but two bananas. A sentence says "about" only when its number was rounded.

Errors of its own

On top of the hub's errors.

Status	Code	When
404	`not_found`	No thing by that id. The message suggests a few that exist.
422	`unknown_unit`	No unit goes by that name. Says which one you might have meant.
422	`dimension_mismatch`	The two units measure different things. You cannot measure a whale in minutes.
422	`invalid_parameter`	A missing or malformed value, a dimension that does not exist, a format we do not draw.

76 units

The units

Every silly unit, with its size in the SI unit of its dimension and the source it comes from. The real units (metres, litres, pounds, bytes...) are there so you can convert from whatever you have. The one marked default is what a thing is measured in when you do not say.

length in m

Unit	Id	Size	Note
Banana default	`banana`	0.18 m	The internet's favourite ruler, and the reason this API exists. source
Smoot	`smoot`	1.7018 m	MIT students laid Oliver Smoot end to end across the Harvard Bridge in 1958. It came to 364.4 smoots and one ear. source
Double-decker bus	`routemaster`	8.4 m	Londoners still measure things in buses, mostly while waiting for one. source
Giraffe	`giraffe`	5.5 m	Measured upwards, so giraffes stack. source
Blue whale	`blue-whale`	33.528 m	The largest animal known to have ever lived. source
Football pitch length	`pitch-length`	105 m	The Laws of the Game allow anything from 100 to 110 m for international matches. source
Beard-second	`beard-second`	5 × 10⁻⁹ m	Some physics handbooks say 10 nm. Beards vary. source
Sheppey	`sheppey`	1,408.176 m	The closest distance at which sheep remain picturesque, according to Douglas Adams and John Lloyd's The Meaning of Liff. source
Light-nanosecond	`light-nanosecond`	0.299792458 m	Grace Hopper handed out pieces of wire about 30 cm long to show what a nanosecond is. source
Marathon	`marathon`	42,195 m	Nobody runs one for fun. Everybody says they do. source

Real units: m, cm, mm, km, in, ft, yd, mi

area in m²

Unit	Id	Size	Note
Football pitch default	`football-pitch`	7,140 m²	The unit of every news story about forests. source
Tennis court	`tennis-court`	260.7569 m²	Just the lines, not the run-off around them. source
A4 sheet	`a4-sheet`	0.06237 m²	Sixteen of them make an A0, which is one square metre before the rounding. source
Palace of the Parliament	`palace-of-the-parliament`	365,000 m²	Guinness lists it as 340,000 m². The building's own figure is used here. source
Vatican City	`vatican-city`	440,000 m²	The smallest country in the world, about 62 football pitches. source
Wales	`wales`	20.8 billion m²	The British press measures every big area in Waleses. source
Romania	`romania`	238 billion m²	About eleven and a half Waleses. source

Real units: m², km², ha, acre, ft²

volume in m³

Unit	Id	Size	Note
Olympic swimming pool default	`olympic-pool`	2,500 m³	Since 2024 an Olympic pool must be at least 2.5 m deep, which makes 3,125 m³. The unit keeps the classic 2,500. source
Bath	`bath`	0.08 m³	Rubber duck not included. source
Wine bottle	`wine-bottle`	0.00075 m³	Magnums are two of these. source
Barrel of oil	`oil-barrel`	0.158987294928 m³	Not to be confused with a barrel of laughs. source

Real units: L, mL, m³, km³, gal

time in s

Unit	Id	Size	Note
Warhol default	`warhol`	900 s	In the future, everyone will be famous for one Warhol. source
Microcentury	`microcentury`	3,155.76 s	The length of a lecture, as John von Neumann used to say. source
Moment	`moment`	90 s	So "just a moment" was a promise of a minute and a half. source
Shake	`shake`	1 × 10⁻⁸ s	Nuclear physicists' unit, as in two shakes of a lamb's tail. source
Football match	`football-match`	5,400 s	Stoppage time not included, whatever the referee thinks. source
Lunar month	`lunar-month`	2,551,442.976 s	Where the word month comes from. source

Real units: s, min, h, d, wk, yr

mass in kg

Unit	Id	Size	Note
Banana default	`banana-mass`	0.118 kg	Peeled. The USDA weighs the part you eat. source
Blue whale	`blue-whale-mass`	149,685.4821 kg	Only the biggest ones. Most blue whales weigh less, which is still a lot. source
African elephant	`african-elephant`	6,800 kg	The largest animal on land. Females are about half that. source
Concert grand piano	`grand-piano`	483 kg	The unit movers measure their regret in. source
Euro coin	`euro-coin`	0.0075 kg	Silver-coloured in the middle, gold-coloured around it. One side is the same in every euro country, the other is national. source

Real units: g, kg, t, lb

data in B

Unit	Id	Size	Note
Floppy disk default	`floppy-disk`	1,474,560 B	Its 1.44 MB are 1,440 times 1,024 bytes, which is neither kind of megabyte. source
CD-ROM	`cd-rom`	737,280,000 B	The same disc holds 80 minutes of music. source
DVD	`dvd`	4.71 billion B	About 6.4 CD-ROMs. source
Commodore 64	`commodore-64`	65,536 B	Hence the name. A floppy disk held more than twenty of them. source
Apollo Guidance Computer	`apollo-guidance-computer`	73,728 B	Enough to get to the Moon and back, and less than one floppy disk. source

Real units: B, kB, MB, GB, TB

radiation in Sv

Unit	Id	Size	Note
Banana default	`banana-dose`	1 × 10⁻⁷ Sv	An informal unit: careful calculations come out a little lower. Still the best way to say a dose is tiny. source
Transatlantic flight	`transatlantic-flight`	2.73 × 10⁻⁵ Sv	The sky is more radioactive than the bananas on board. source
Chest X-ray	`chest-x-ray`	0.0001 Sv	About ten days of natural background radiation. source

Real units: µSv, mSv, Sv

49 things

The things

Famous things with real, published measurements. Each one links to its own endpoint; the sources are in the JSON.

Thing	Id	Measured
Eiffel Tower Paris, France	eiffel-tower	height 330 m · mass 10,100 t
Palace of the Parliament Bucharest, Romania	palace-of-the-parliament	floor area 365,000 m² · height 84 m
People's Salvation Cathedral Bucharest, Romania	peoples-salvation-cathedral	height 127 m
Rock sculpture of Decebalus Iron Gates, Romania	decebalus-rock-sculpture	height 42.9 m
Moldoveanu Peak Făgăraș Mountains, Romania	moldoveanu-peak	altitude 2,544 m
Transfăgărășan Romania	transfagarasan	length 151 km
Danube Ten countries, from the Black Forest to the Black Sea	danube	length 2,857 km · basin area 801,463 km²
Danube Delta Romania	danube-delta	area 576,421 ha
Romania	romania	area 238,397 km²
Bucharest Romania	bucharest	area 239 km²
Burj Khalifa Dubai, United Arab Emirates	burj-khalifa	height 828 m
Empire State Building New York, United States	empire-state-building	height 1,454 ft · construction time 410 d
Statue of Liberty New York, United States	statue-of-liberty	height 92.99 m · copper 176,000 lb
Big Ben London, United Kingdom	big-ben	height 96 m
Leaning Tower of Pisa Pisa, Italy	leaning-tower-of-pisa	height 58.36 m · mass 14,453 t
Colosseum Rome, Italy	colosseum	length 189 m · area 24,000 m²
Great Pyramid of Giza Giza, Egypt	great-pyramid-of-giza	original height 146.7 m
Christ the Redeemer Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	christ-the-redeemer	height 30 m · mass 635 t
Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco, United States	golden-gate-bridge	length 2,737 m
Channel Tunnel Between France and England	channel-tunnel	length 50.5 km
Great Wall of China China	great-wall-of-china	length 21,196.18 km
Central Park New York, United States	central-park	area 843 acre
Mona Lisa The Louvre, Paris	mona-lisa	height 79.4 cm · area 0.423996 m²
Titanic	titanic	length 882.75 ft · sinking 160 min
Hindenburg	hindenburg	length 245 m · gas capacity 200,000 m³
Mount Everest Nepal and China	mount-everest	height 8,848.86 m
Challenger Deep Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean	challenger-deep	depth 10,935 m
Grand Canyon Arizona, United States	grand-canyon	length 447 km · average depth 1.6 km
Nile Eleven countries in northeast Africa	nile	length 6,695 km
Sahara North Africa	sahara	area 9,100,000 km²
Great Barrier Reef Queensland, Australia	great-barrier-reef	area 348,000 km²
Lake Baikal Siberia, Russia	lake-baikal	volume 23,013 km³ · depth 1,642 m
Oceans Earth	oceans	volume 1.34 billion km³
Blue whale	blue-whale	length 110 ft · mass 330,000 lb
DNA in one human cell	human-dna	length 6 ft
Human genome	human-genome	size 763,703,868 B
Moon	moon	distance 384,400 km · mass 7.35 × 10²² kg
Earth	earth	circumference 40,070 km · mass 5.97 × 10²⁴ kg
Sunlight	sunlight	travel time 8.350022 min
International Space Station	iss	length 109 m · pressurised volume 1,005 m³ · mass 419,725 kg
Hubble Space Telescope	hubble	length 13.3 m · mass 12,247 kg
Saturn V	saturn-v	height 111 m · mass 2,800,000 kg
Apollo 11	apollo-11	mission time 703,115 s
Usain Bolt's 100 m world record	usain-bolt-100m	time 9.58 s
Bohemian Rhapsody	bohemian-rhapsody	length 355 s
Age of the universe	age-of-the-universe	age 13.8 billion yr
Age of the Earth	age-of-the-earth	age 4.54 billion yr
Chest CT scan	ct-scan	effective dose 6.1 mSv
A year of background radiation	background-radiation	effective dose 3 mSv

Live, counts against your limit

Try it

Endpoint

Value

From

Thing

Only in

Format

https://api.tasta.space/v1/scale/convert?value=330&from=m&to=banana

Press send. The response shows up here, headers included.

Sources

Where the numbers come from

Real units are exact by definition: the inch is 0.0254 metres, the pound 0.45359237 kilograms (NIST), the litre a cubic decimetre and the tonne a thousand kilograms (the SI Brochure), the year a Julian year of 365.25 days, and a kilobyte is a thousand bytes, as the SI prefixes say. The joke units take their usual definitions: the smoot from MIT, the beard-second and the sheppey from the people who made them up.

Measured things carry their source in every response: the monument's own figures where it publishes them, NASA, NOAA, USGS and the National Park Service for nature and space, Guinness World Records where nobody else measured. Where sources disagree (the Nile, the Sahara, how deep Baikal is), we took one and said so in the note. Facts are not anyone's property; the sources are credited anyway, and the data file is free to reuse.