Empirical Miscalculation

My parents and little bro were here a couple of weeks ago. It's hard to pinpoint a highlight of their trip, but this may just be it:


You gotta love the honesty of New Yorkers....

We had a great time having them visit, so I thought I would share one of our experiences. We went up the Empire State Building, and were able to take in the amazing view of Manhattan. It was definitely cool, but the thing that was most captivating to me was the brochure that they handed out to everyone.


The following are interesting facts I pulled straight from the pamphlet they hand out (word-for-word):

- Construction completed in 1 year and 45 days, working seven days per week including holidays, at a completion rate of 4.5 stories per week.
- The 1,250-foot (381 meters) Empire State Building has dominated the New York City skyline since its much-heralded completion in 1931.
- 7 million man-hours, employing as many as 4,000 men per day.

Being that I'm such a nerd, I began making some calculations in my head with the figures presented. I was curious as to how many stories were in the building, and I couldn't find it anywhere on the pamphlet. Here's how my calculations went:

It took 1 year and 45 days to complete. That equals 410 days (feel free to correct me). Keep in mind they worked every day, including holidays. 410 days divided by 7 equals 58.6 weeks (to build it). They completed 4.5 stories per week, times the 58.6 weeks they worked on it, means it is 263.7 stories tall. The building is 1,250 feet tall, divided by 263.7 stories, means that each floor is 4.7 feet high.

This news was a little startling to Scott and I, as we are much taller than my parents. We were afraid of bumping our heads on the low ceilings, so for the rest of the time we were there we walked around like this:

However, in the end there was no need. We found out that there are actually only like 102 stories, meaning each floor was closer to 12.3 feet tall. Man did we feel silly when we found that out! Seriously, talk about miscalculations. To this day I am still trying to figure out where my math skills led me astray. Anyone???

Another thing about it... Tickets are something like $18 a person. We asked how many people visit each year, and it is some absurd number like 3.5 million people. At a rate of $18 a person, they are taking in $63 million just in people checking out the view, not to mention the office spaces. Seems pretty lucrative! Scott and I decided to start a business like this, so if you want into this operation while the gettin' is good, let me know ASAP.