this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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Antique Memes Roadshow

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That was a cool day. (europe.pub)
submitted 3 days ago by marighost@piefed.social to c/antiquememesroadshow@lemmy.world
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I dunno if this qualifies for Antique Meme Roadshow but it is Antique Roadshow. Sorta.

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[–] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (6 children)

if the average signature takes up an area of 20cm² (including necessary padding), and if every person of the 8 billion alive has indeed signed that bat, then the total space taken for the signatures would be 160 billion cm²--or 16km², which is about as big as most airports.

the ratio of length of a baseball bat to its average diameter is 42": 2". since height (h)=42x the radius (r), the equation for the surface area of a baseball bat simplifies to 42πr³.

so if our baseball bat holds all 8bn signatures on its 160bn cm² surface, the radius of such a bat would be ~1066cms, or 11 meters. and its length would be 447 meters or about six 747s stacked nose-to-tail human-centipede style.

(yes, this has been a productive saturday morning, indeed.)

(edit: minor corrections.)

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Okay. Because I also remember signing this bat, I remember it was almost clear when I signed it and I asked what was going on and the bat signature collector said once the bat is full of signatures, they coat it with a layer of white paint and keep adding signatures to it.

So now that you know the total surface of your bat's signatures, in order to calculate how many layers of signatures you got, you have to divide this total surface by the surface of the bat, keeping in mind that there is a slight offset because each layer is just slightly larger in surface area than the previous one (very much like a tree's rings).

Apparently at its very core the bat is just a thin rod, the shape you see is all made of layers and layers of signatures. It was absolutely not that thick when I signed it. Glad to see they completed it, shame to see most people forgot they ever signed it.

[–] SippyCup@feddit.nl 4 points 2 days ago

I also remember signing this bat, they told me to just sign over other names with a paint marker. So each layer of paint is made up of signatures.

[–] BodilessGaze@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

nah dude, there was plenty of room. I was 5,584,917,772 in line and I remember it was only about half full.

[–] reev@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 days ago

You'll never believe this but I was literally the last person in that line and it still had room. You can tell exactly which one I was because I made mine way bigger since no one else needed the space haha

[–] dumbass@quokk.au 9 points 2 days ago

That's a pretty good bargain for $6000.

[–] muix@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

20cm²? Maybe if they sign freely, but I think most people can fit them in 6cm² (3×2cm), with some padding, if they try.

[–] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

not with the type of thick-nibbed pen that's most likely to be used when signing bats (and that, indeed, has been used on the bat in the OP).

separately, "most" and "average" are not synonymous.

[–] marighost@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

my eyes glazed over but I'm impressed!

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

Signatures can overlap
They just have to make sure the signature is recognizable, which may be harder to organize than making 447 meter bat

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Brought to you by the Young Earth creationist crowd.