[VRWC_minion]

THe hot tub is too exagerated but it emphasises the point.

This vase is more the shape I picture that would look like a lilly.

[Physicist]

I never once had any trouble envisioning the kind of thing you are talking about. I'm objecting to the idea that they'd measure across the rim but not around it. It's an awfully awkward way to explain the verse.

A more sensible (and piquant) explanation would be that the guy who measured the circumference had shorter arms than the guy who measured the diameter. I'm just waiting for a Biblical literalist to try to float that one. ;^)