<digh> Dreams dashed? Apparently, not everything on TV is true.

I spend a lot of time watching TV when I'm on the road and just saw a Brita ad that claims we (Americans) use enough plastic water bottles each year to go around the world 100 million times.

I'm raising the big red BS flag on it.

Lessee, assuming a bottle is about foot long (giving Brita the benefit of the doubt):

100 million times 25,000 miles times 12 inches per foot equals a big lie. My calculator goes into exponents and my brain vapor locks when it says, "3e+13". I think that's 30 trillion. If my math is correct, that comes out to nearly 97,000 bottles for every man, woman and child in this country. It's also a number bigger than the national debt, if you can believe it.

Am I the only one who doubts this number? Is my math wrong? Or did my ears deceive me?

Edit: I forgot something. I forgot to convert miles to feet. So the numbers go UP by a factor of 5280.

I wonder if anyone will call the company out on this one.

I think you need a hobby.

what...you mean crimes in Las Vegas really dont get solved in a hour...my whole believe system has been tarnished

I get 13,200,000,000,000,000 bottles. 100 million x 25,000 x 5280 12 inch bottles in a mile. Britas math is a little fuzzy.

You have entirely too much time on your hands.........................






You seem surprised to find out that not everything you see on the boob tube is not true.
A Revelation?

TV would never lie to me. Your math must be off!

A quick google for the issue reveals:


(bottles laid end-to-end)
1.41 bottles per foot = 7444.8 bottles per mile = 185,231,090.88 bottles per Earth = 18,708,340,178.88 bottles per 101 Earths.

18.7 billion bottles works out to ≈60.6 bottles per American per year, or about one bottle per person every six days.

About 1 bottle per person per week. Sounds about right to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tweety Bird

I spend a lot of time watching TV when I'm on the road and just saw a Brita ad that claims we (Americans) use enough plastic water bottles each year to go around the world 100 million times.

I'm raising the big red BS flag on it.

Lessee, assuming a bottle is about foot long (giving Brita the benefit of the doubt):

100 million times 25,000 miles times 12 inches per foot equals a big lie. My calculator goes into exponents and my brain vapor locks when it says, "3e+13". I think that's 30 trillion. If my math is correct, that comes out to nearly 97,000 bottles for every man, woman and child in this country. It's also a number bigger than the national debt, if you can believe it.

Am I the only one who doubts this number? Is my math wrong? Or did my ears deceive me?

Edit: I forgot something. I forgot to convert miles to feet. So the numbers go UP by a factor of 5280.

I wonder if anyone will call the company out on this one.

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don't forget there are countries where a bottle of water will feed a family of 5 for 2-3 days, seriously. so obviously it is us uncaring americans screwing it up for everyone else.
perhaps we should have our water bottled from somewhere like say the ganges river. i bet that would slow the usage down a tad.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BPTactical

You seem surprised to find out that not everything you see on the boob tube is not true.
A Revelation?

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It's not?! Revelation, no, catastrophe... YES! [Cry]

Tweety Bird, why do you hate the earth?

Facts and proper mathematics are meaningless when you have good intentions.

Nope, its true, I only drink from water bottles and I am only willing to take one sip each. Spit is nasty. Go through about 1,200 a day myself, my wife is worse! And Katrina was just a cover-up for the better part of Des Moines dropping their bottles at once, and then fumbling on 15 more each. It was horrible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mitch

A quick google for the issue reveals:


(bottles laid end-to-end)
1.41 bottles per foot = 7444.8 bottles per mile = 185,231,090.88 bottles per Earth = 18,708,340,178.88 bottles per 101 Earths.

18.7 billion bottles works out to ≈60.6 bottles per American per year, or about one bottle per person every six days.

About 1 bottle per person per week. Sounds about right to me.

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Yeah, guys, when I'm on the road, I sometimes have way too much time on my hands. I'm just trying to illustrate how so many people hear crap on the boobtube and just assume it to be true without questioning it.

Mitch, the ad said 100 MILLION times, not 101 times. Using your math, it comes up to about 1 million bottles per person every six days.

Doesn't seem about right to me.

It'll be good to get home on Friday so I can get back into my toybox. You know, the big box in the basement with a combination lock on the front.

Granted the Americans are abroad, Forces in Kuwait/Iraq/Afghanistan use about 20-30 Bottles a day per troop, Sometimes higher depending on month and activities.

so I Guess what I am saying I believe with all factors considered, It might be Possible.
Your experience may not be typical, Mileage may Vary, etc etc etc...