If you convert 15 meters to yards, feet, and inches, you get 16.4042, 49.2126, and 590.551, respectively. As you can see, knowing the equivalents in standard imperial doesn’t help much when trying to figure out how high 15 meters is.
For that, you should use everyday objects as visual references for gauging 15 meters. Below, I’ll share with you guys 9 things that stand close to 15 meters. That way, you won’t need to whip out your tape measure every time you want to see how high 15 meters looks.
Semi-Truck Trailer
Semi-trucks transport large goods on top or inside of trailers. There are all sorts of containers that you can learn about in my article on Step Deck Trailer Dimensions and Guidelines. The key takeaway in that piece is that step deck trailers, as well as many other types of trailers, have a length range of between 48 and 53 feet.
That means a trailer will measure roughly 1 to 4 feet beyond the 15 meters we are trying to measure. Feel free to use any 12-inch item to add or subtract the length of a trailer to get closer to or precisely 15 meters.
5 Kayaks
Kayaking is a fun recreational activity for anyone who enjoys traveling down quick streams or even chilling on still lake waters. If you visit a sporting goods store, you’ll find that kayaks have different length measurements, depending on what it is used for.
However, the typical kayak will measure around 10 feet in length. That means you would need to place 5 of them in a straight line lengthwise to get close to 50 feet or 15 meters. If all you have is a canoe, you would need about 3 of them if they each measure between 16 and 17 feet long.
10 Pool Cues
A pool cue is a stick that is used in the game of pool, snooker, and billiards. It consists of two main components—namely, the shaft and the handle. Some pool cues come in two parts that the user needs to screw together. A high-quality pool cue should be completely smooth and straight to produce the most accurate shots.
Pool cues vary in length, typically starting from 36 inches. However, the average pool cue will measure around 57 inches in length. Since two pool cues roughly equal 3 meters, you would need to imagine having ten of them to get to a total length of 15 meters.
1.5 School Buses
Although most American school buses look the same, they can vary in dimensions. For instance, Type A school buses can seat up to 16 passengers and measure about 15 feet in length, whereas the Type C school bus, which is what people are most familiar with, can seat up to 78 people in the 38.9-foot chassis.
If we were to take a Type C school bus as a reference for measuring 15 meters, we would need about 1.5 of them to get there. Alternatively, you could use a single Type C school bus and the length of two broom handles to get pretty close to the 15-meter mark.
2-3 SUVs
While there are vehicle classifications, not every make and model within the same class will have the same measurements. When looking at SUVs, we see a significant length disparity between Jeep Wranglers (166.8 inches) and Land Rovers Series I (132 inches).
With that said, we can find the average length of SUVs, which is between 14.4 and 16.7 feet, according to Mechanic Base. So, to get to 15 meters using large and small SUVs, you would need two or three of them, respectively. As an alternative, you could find four Mini Coopers to get a collective length of 16 meters.
8.5 People
People grow at different rates depending on a number of factors, including nutrition, genetics, and medical conditions. According to the CDC, the average height of American men from 2015 to 2016 was about 69.1 inches or 5 feet 9 inches.
So, if we wanted to measure 15 meters in height using the average man as our reference, we would need almost precisely 8.5 people standing on top of each other. When using the average woman, who stands 5 feet 4 inches, as our reference, we would need a little over 9 of them to reach the same 15-meter height.
Residential Street
If you look outside your window at the residential street in front of your home, you might find that it measures 50 feet in width. Of course, the actual width will vary from city to city. For instance, in New York, any road that is narrower than 75 feet will fall into the narrow street classification.
Anyway, if you take the width of the average residential road in America, you would be only about 9 inches past the 15-meter point. Take a look at my guide on How Long is 9 Inches? to find out how much you would need to subtract from the road to get closer to 15 meters.
Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign is arguably the most iconic landmark on the West Coast of the United States. People from all over the world flock to Los Angeles to catch a glimpse of the iconic sign located on the southern face of Mt. Lee. While the sign is an important cultural landmark, it had to be replaced or reconstructed several times throughout its lifespan.
If you get the chance to see the Hollywood Sign up close, you will find that each letter measures roughly 13.4 meters tall, which is just 1.6 meters shy ff of the 15-meter mark. Each letter measures roughly 30 feet wide, so about 1.5 letters would get you close to 15 meters.
Takraw Court
Takraw, which sometimes goes by the name kick volleyball, is a team sport where players on opposite sides of a net try to score a goal by kicking the rattan—the synthetic plastic ball—onto the opposing end of the court. It’s not very popular in the United States, but there are professional takraw leagues all over Asia.
A game-ready takraw court will measure 44 feet from one baseline to the other. Again, you can use a broom handle to make up for the missing 5 feet.
Leave a Reply