External length12.2 m
1.14School bus lengths
2.3 quadrillionCarbon nuclei
6.1 billionDNA helices
Exactly 40 feet; the ISO standard TEU x2
Photo by Paul Lichtblau on Unsplash
40-Foot Shipping Container
The steel box that globalized the world economy/Everyday Objects
The 40-foot intermodal shipping container is the backbone of global trade. Invented by Malcolm McLean in 1956, this standardized steel box revolutionized logistics by making it possible to move goods seamlessly between ships, trains, and trucks. There are roughly 17 million shipping containers in circulation worldwide, and at any given moment, about 6 million are on the ocean. They are also increasingly popular as tiny homes, which says a lot about housing prices.
Measurements
External width2.44 m
3.69Clarinet lengths
18.5 sextillionthsMagellanic Cloud widths
451 trillionCarbon nuclei
8 feet; standardized for truck and rail transport
External height2.59 m
86.4Olive lengths
8.64Celery stalks
136Penny diameters
8 ft 6 in; high-cube versions are 2.896 m
Empty (tare) weight3,750 kg
57.7Couches
1.5Pickup trucks
2.68Honda Civics
~8,270 lbs empty; max gross is 30,480 kg
Internal volume67.7 m³
1.61Living rooms
6.8 trillionSand grain volumes
~2,390 cubic feet of cargo space
Maximum payload26,730 kg
236,549Sticks of butter
6,854Gallons of milk
Max gross weight minus tare; ~58,900 lbs
Floor area28.3 m²
177Pizza boxes
2.3 hundredthsOlympic pool surfaces
39.3Bath towels
Internal floor space; bigger than many studio apartments