Writing / reading about numbers

So far [this year, as of August 10] 743 fires have burned up 5.2 million acres of Alaska, stretching fire crews from all over the country to their limits and changing the Alaskan landscape.

-NBC News story

One of you wrote, as a way of summarizing this kind of figure:

...a big number of acres of forest that caught on fire...

How could you put these numbers into some sort of context? Do some quick internet searching to find something that you can compare "5 million acres of forest" to.

How did these articles do it?

• Obama's Alaska trip stresses wildfires..." NBC news
• "Six ways climate change in Alaska will affect you" Union of Concerned Scientists
• "Alaska's terrifying wildfire season" Washington Post
• "A stunning 5 million acres..." Washington Post

Techniques to put numbers into context

• Use fractions rather than absolute numbers
• Make a comparison,
• Relate to something familiar
• ...

In all of these keeping track of units is important. In his book "Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air", David MacKay calculates the amount of energy per day per average person in Britain for many activities.

The point of reading about and writing about numbers is to help people make judgements and decisions.

[Google Earth view of water loss]