

0.01% of Wikipedia as a printed book - danenania
http://www.labnol.org/internet/wikipedia-printed-book/9136/

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phirephly
Only 5,000 pages? I have books that are over 2,600 pages that don't even break
2.5" (eg Machinery's Handbook). Even using standard 20lb printer paper, my
calculations don't have it breaking a foot. They must have used something like
card stock, just to add shock value to it.

Seriously though, turning Wikipedia into dead tree media is something that
should be taken more seriously. Without much effort, relatively interesting
primers on subjects could be put together with relatively little effort. Think
"Cryptographic algorithms" or "Battles of WW2" or "Countries of Africa"
Collect and curate a selection carefully, and throw it up on some place like
lulu.

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Jabbles
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_density#Conversions>

5000 pages of 20lb paper would be 0.485m tall.

2.5"/2600 = 0.024m, which looks like 4lb paper - seriously thin.

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michael_dorfman
Even easier to visualize: a ream of paper (for example, what you put in your
printer) is 500 sheets. So, stack five of those on top of each other, and you
have 5000 pages (plus a little extra for the wrappers.

Needless to say, it's nowhere near the tower pictured in the photo.

EDIT: corrected "sheets" for my previous, incorrect "pages", which changed the
number of reams to five.

~~~
jlgosse
No, but ten of those stacks might be a lot closer. Check your math!

~~~
michael_dorfman
I had ten originally, but then I was reminded that 1 sheet equals two pages
(recto and verso). So, 5000 pages = 2500 sheets = 5 reams.

Even ten reams is significantly smaller than the tower pictured, though.

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vog
I like the idea of demonstrating the impressive size of Wikipedia by printing
a book. However, the article withholds important base information:

* Which paper format and size has been used? (Letter? A4?)

* How big are the page margins?

* Is it printed one-sided or two-sided?

* Which font and font-size have been used?

* What line-distance has been used? (100%, 150%, ... ?)

* What does the "0.01%" refer to? (to the number of words, or just to the number of articles?)

Without this information, the given facts like "5000 pages" are almost
meaningless.

~~~
Jabbles
The latest results aren't available yet, but the most recent word count of _6
billion_ dates from Nov 09. 0.01% of that over 5000 pages would give 120 words
per page. Something is missing.

Nor does the "0.01%" refer to the number of articles. The author's website
says this is a printout of the (English) "Featured articles" (currently 3235).
Neither dividing that by the number of English articles (3.6M) or total
articles (18.1M) gives 0.01%.

So I can't see where they got 0.01% from.

<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaZZ.htm>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles>

<http://www.rob-matthews.com/index.php?/project/wikipedia/>

~~~
vog
Although I appreciate your effort, I don't think it makes any sense that we
try figure this out on our own.

It's the task of the author, not the readers, to deliver those facts.

~~~
camiller
Some of the comments at the article site seem to be from the author. One of
them says they selected 400 articles from the featured articles and at the
time that was 0.013% of all the articles.

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limmeau
What I like most about Wikipedia is the random reading binges, where you get
from History of Lithuania to Glass Onion (Beatles song), stop by at surface-
to-air missiles and finish with the Carlsberg brewery.

Perhaps print-on-demand unique pre-made binges "100% guaranteed random
subjects" are a business idea? As an alternative to newspapers in train
station kiosks?

~~~
thret
This. The choose-your-own adventure element to Wikipedia is what makes it so
immersive.

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Gibbon
Here is a twelve volume set consisting of the entire edit history of the "Iraq
War" entry on Wikipedia.

<http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/>

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patrickaljord
There's an easy way to print from the wikipedia or any wikimedia wiki:

<http://pediapress.com/>

It's also open source, video here:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1K03AZfpDM>

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tomstuart
For a different axis, see also: <http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-
historiography/>

~~~
nakkiel
I heard about this back when it was released. IMO a much more interesting
reading. I heard the guys behind it have other projects.

That kind of book provides a view on the events never before available. It's a
condensed testimonial about a globalized/globalazing society and its many
cultures.

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start123
He could have separated the book into different volumes and alloted different
books for different topics. Would have made his and the reader's life easier

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hammock
Wow, how short is that guy standing next to it, if the book is only 19 inches
high? It comes up to his knees!

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dustinupdyke
"Think of the trees!" -Unless

