Posted on 09/14/2009 9:37:24 AM PDT by AJKauf
“How big is it?” is certainly one of the world’s most dreaded questions.
In fact, after the Million Man March in 1995, Congress restricted the National Park Service from even making estimates — a restriction that was maintained for 14 years and then quietly rescinded this January for the Obama inauguration.
I’m talking about crowds, of course. I can’t take you people anywhere.
There have been a lot of estimates, from the “official” one of 60 to 70 thousand, up to the rumored 2 million. Let’s see if we can make a plausible estimate with some rigor and some idea of possible error.
Yesterday, I made a back of the envelope calculation that Stephen Green picked up at Vodkapundit, simply to see if the high estimates were at all plausible. A number I picked up by Google searching told me that a pretty good crowd is about 18 people in 10 square meters — that’s about half as crowded as a crowded elevator (approximately one person per six square feet).
Wikipedia told me that the National Mall covers about 125 hectares, or about 1.25 million square meters, and simple multiplication then tells us that if the whole mall was that crowded, that would be as many as 2.3 million people. Which is one hell of a crowd. Call that an upper bound — anyone who says it was more than 2.3 million is almost certainly wrong.
Just for comparison, we’ve got the Obama inauguration...
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
As I said yesterday, the MSM may not be willing to name a number, but the politicians know, yep, they know it was a heck of a lot more people than is being estimated by the MSM.
I’m going with a million and change.
There needs to be a website where people can post their attendance...better than nothing. I was there..signed..
Didja have to use the word, “change”??
600-700K is likely the min that was there, and they know it!
Another comparison would be to take a look at the Martin King “I have a dream” speech. The mall was croded that day too.
How many people did the media say were there that day?
Just my two cents worth.
It would be nice to roll in the estimates of all the nationwide local events that were occurring at the same time
Rush covering this now.
Fox News all weekend was just saying “tens of thousands” whereas Obama’s speech in Minneapolis was given as “15-18,000.” Made it sound equivalent.
Hearing Rush?
GREAT IDEA - next protest outside the media offices.
EXCELLENT IDEA….
CAN YOU HEAR US NOW ???
I say MAY 2010 - NYC or ATLANTA
IMO, that “tens of thousands” talking point was handed out to the MSM PRIOR to the event for just that reason. BHO knew in advance the number of people who would attend his event.
All that could fit.
Keep in mind that the crowd also extended to Union Station, down Penn. Ave and Constitution Ave.
My guess is 2.3 million ++
HEY OBAMA!....THIS IS MY KIND OF HOPE AND CHANGE!
You can bet yo booty that nobama had “expert crowd assesment” on the job and has real good numbers on how many were there. You can also bet yo booty he won’t be letting the real numbers out.
You can bet yo booty that nobama had “expert crowd assesment” on the job and has real good numbers on how many were there. You can also bet yo booty he won’t be letting the real numbers out.
I was there and have estimated the crowd was in the 400k-600k range, but this is the most complete and thorough article on estimating the crowd size so far.
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