brainwagon

Estimates are varied, but it seems clear that over a million people saw the pope’s body before he was finally buried over the weekend. Keeping with the spirit of brainwagon, let’s not dwell on the greater impact this man’s life had on the world, but rather just concentrate on the trivial aspects.

Assume that each person in line is standing 18″ from the person in front of them (that’s a pretty tight line, but let’s work with that. One million people standing in such a line works out to 284 miles. If we assume a reasonable walking pace of three miles per hour, then we have people walking past the pope 24 hours a day for nearly four days. Yes, I know, they weren’t single file, but sheesh. It’s still an amazing turnout.