One of my Grade 12 Students, Bre Bonner, brought me her copy of Eclipse today. As she handed it to me, I observed the relative ease with which I was able to hold it. This led me to pick up some other texts in the room and head down to the physics room. They have all sorts of cool toys. What’s below illustrates what I found.
Here are the standings:
|
Text |
Pg. # |
Weight |
Dimensions |
|
The Norton Anthology of Poetry 4th Ed. edited by Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy |
1998 |
3.1 lbs. |
9.125”x5.625”x2.125” |
|
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer |
629 |
1.3 lbs. |
8.5”x5.75”x2” |
|
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling |
652 |
2.1 lbs. |
9.25”x6.25”x1.75” |
And, before you ask, I checked, the average length of a full line of text in Eclipse is a little over 3.75″. In Harry Potter, it’s approximately 4.25″.
There’s an easy joke to be made about the literal and figurative weights of these texts measuring up, but I won’t make it.
Why, though, is Eclipse comparable in size to these other texts, but weighing in nearly one and two pounds lighter than Harry Potter and Norton respectively?
Forget anything with an electric charge, let’s work this media literacy first.
I did a little figuring for you. Since you have the weight and dimensions of each book, I thought I’d determine the “literary density” of each. Not surprisingly, the Norton anthology is the most dense at .45oz/cubic inch. Harry Potter comes in next at .33oz/cubic inch. Eclipse is the least dense at .21oz/cubic inch. Therefore, we might conclude that the Norton Anthology contains about twice as much literature as Eclipse.