Height (highest shell)65 m
1.6 tenthsSupertankers
2.6 billionRibosomes
3.1 millionthsGreat Walls of China
67 m including the base platform
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Sydney Opera House
The building that looks like sails, shells, or possibly orange peels/Everyday Places
The Sydney Opera House is an architectural icon designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and opened in 1973. Its distinctive roof shells — which Utzon derived from the geometry of a sphere — are covered with over 1 million tiles. The project was originally budgeted at $7 million and ended up costing $102 million, which is a ratio that modern software projects can only aspire to. It hosts about 1,500 performances per year.
Measurements
Site area18,000 m²
593 trillionthsAfricas
12,000Moose antlers
1.8 hectares on Bennelong Point
Total mass161 million kg
3.2 quintillionYeast cells
1.1 billionBaseball weights
41.3 millionGallons of milk
161,000 tonnes
Length183 m
4,067Matchsticks
514Snare drum diameters
1.2 thousandthsBig Island lengths
Width120 m
60 millionE. coli bacteria
200Dachshunds
5.05Tennis court lengths
Roof tile area16,000 m²
899 trillionthsPluto surfaces
574Studio apartments
246,154Toilet seats
Over 1 million Swedish-made ceramic tiles