Great white shark vs African bush elephant
Great white shark (4.6 m) is 1.44× the size of African bush elephant (3.2 m).
African bush elephant is 70% of the height of great white shark. The gap between them is 1.4 m (4.59 ft).
The comparison in numbers
| Thing | Size | In feet | Measured as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great white shark | 4.6 m | 15.1 ft | length |
| African bush elephant | 3.2 m | 10.5 ft | shoulder height |
What the scale shows
Great white shark (4.6 m) is 1.44× the size of African bush elephant (3.2 m). The gap between them is 1.4 m (4.59 ft). Both are animals, so the figures describe the same kind of thing.
Draw both on one baseline and the smaller one fills 70% of the frame while the larger one runs to the top. The two are close enough that the difference is easy to see side by side.
Read the rest — 8 more sections
What each figure means
The figure for great white shark is its length (an average adult female). The figure for African bush elephant is its shoulder height (an adult bull).
Crossing them
Walking pace is 1.4 m/s, so crossing great white shark's 4.6 m takes 3.3 seconds and African bush elephant's 3.2 m takes 2.3 seconds.
In people: great white shark is 2.7 adults of 1.7 m tall, African bush elephant is 1.88. By size great white shark is 11th of the 23 animals on this site and African bush elephant is 12th, so 1 place separates them in the ranking.
How to read these two figures
Before trusting any comparison, check what each number measures. The great white shark is given as a length, an average adult female. The African bush elephant is given as a shoulder height, an adult bull. One is a length and the other is a shoulder height, so the drawing stands them side by side by convention: everything is stood upright on a single baseline so one scale can hold. That is a fair way to compare overall extent, not a claim that the two are oriented the same way in real life.
Animal sizes vary from one individual to the next, so each figure says which individual or average it describes. Heights are taken at the shoulder or standing; lengths run nose to tail tip unless stated.
Where the pair sits among all the sizes here
Across all 86 things on this site, the great white shark is number 74 from the top and the African bush elephant is number 75. No other item falls between them, so in this collection they are direct neighbours.
Because the collection spans 13 mm up to 1,392,700 km, a ratio of 107,130,769,231× from smallest to largest, the position of a pair says a lot: both sit in the lower third of the list.
What the length ratio hides
A length ratio of 1.44× is easy to picture, but area and volume grow faster than length. If two objects had exactly the same shape, the great white shark would have about 2.07× the surface or footprint of the African bush elephant, and about 2.97× the volume. For animals volume tracks weight, which is why a long animal is far heavier than its length suggests, and why a small animal cannot simply be a scaled-down copy of a large one.
The drawing above shows length only. The African bush elephant is drawn 70% as tall as the great white shark, but the equivalent share of footprint would be only 48.4%, which is why the smaller one looks even slighter than the numbers alone suggest.
Time to cross each one
A sprinter holding about 10 m/s covers the great white shark in 460 milliseconds and the African bush elephant in 320 milliseconds. Sound, at about 343 m/s in air, takes 13 milliseconds for the larger and 9 milliseconds for the smaller. A jet cruising at 900 km/h needs 18 milliseconds and 13 milliseconds.
These times assume a straight line and constant speed, which no real crossing has, but they turn a number in metres into something the body understands. At any fixed speed the travel times keep the same 1.44× ratio as the sizes.
The same figures in other units
The great white shark measures 4.6 m, which is 15.1 ft or 5 yards. The African bush elephant measures 3.2 m, which is 10.5 ft.
The difference between them is 1.4 m (4.59 ft). In metres the smaller one is 3.2 against 4.6, so the 1.44× ratio holds in every unit; only the numbers on the ruler change.
Questions people ask about this pair
Which is bigger, the great white shark or the African bush elephant?
The great white shark is bigger. At 4.6 m it is 1.44× the size of the African bush elephant, which is 3.2 m.
How many times does the African bush elephant fit along the great white shark?
Less than twice: the African bush elephant is 70% of the size of the great white shark, so one fits with 1.4 m to spare.
Are the two figures measured the same way?
No. The great white shark is a length (an average adult female) and the African bush elephant is a shoulder height (an adult bull), so read the comparison as overall extent.
How does the gap look in people?
Taking an adult of 1.7 m, the great white shark is about 2.7 people tall and the African bush elephant is about 1.88. The gap of 1.4 m is 0.8 people.
Where do the numbers come from?
Each item has its own page that names the measurement and links to the Wikipedia article it was taken from. Some figures are rounded, and animals vary from one individual to the next, so treat them as representative values rather than records for every case.
How the sizes are taken. Each figure says what it measures — height, length, diameter or elevation — and for which individual or convention. Everything is drawn standing upright on one baseline so a single scale holds, including things that are long rather than tall. Values come from the linked Wikipedia article for each item.