Hippopotamus vs Emperor penguin
Hippopotamus (1.5 m) is 1.3× the size of emperor penguin (1.15 m).
Emperor penguin is 77% of the height of hippopotamus. The gap between them is 35 cm (1.15 ft).
The comparison in numbers
| Thing | Size | In feet | Measured as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hippopotamus | 1.5 m | 4.92 ft | shoulder height |
| Emperor penguin | 1.15 m | 3.77 ft | standing height |
What the scale shows
Hippopotamus (1.5 m) is 1.3× the size of emperor penguin (1.15 m). The gap between them is 35 cm (1.15 ft). Both are animals, so the figures describe the same kind of thing.
Draw both on one baseline and the smaller one fills 77% 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 hippopotamus is its shoulder height (a typical adult). The figure for emperor penguin is its standing height (an adult (1.1–1.3 m)).
Crossing them
Walking pace is 1.4 m/s, so crossing hippopotamus's 1.5 m takes 1.1 seconds and emperor penguin's 1.15 m takes 821 milliseconds.
In people: hippopotamus is 0.9 adults of 1.7 m tall, emperor penguin is 0.68. By size hippopotamus is 19th of the 23 animals on this site and emperor penguin is 20th, so 1 place separates them in the ranking.
How to read these two figures
Before trusting any comparison, check what each number measures. The hippopotamus is given as a shoulder height, a typical adult. The emperor penguin is given as a standing height, an adult (1.1–1.3 m). One is a shoulder height and the other is a standing 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 hippopotamus is number 82 from the top and the emperor penguin is number 83. 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 1.3× is easy to picture, but area and volume grow faster than length. If two objects had exactly the same shape, the hippopotamus would have about 1.7× the surface or footprint of the emperor penguin, and about 2.22× 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 emperor penguin is drawn 77% as tall as the hippopotamus, but the equivalent share of footprint would be only 58.8%, 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 hippopotamus in 150 milliseconds and the emperor penguin in 115 milliseconds. Sound, at about 343 m/s in air, takes 4 milliseconds for the larger and 3 milliseconds for the smaller. A jet cruising at 900 km/h needs 6 milliseconds and 5 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 1.3× ratio as the sizes.
The same figures in other units
The hippopotamus measures 1.5 m, which is 4.92 ft or 1.6 yards. The emperor penguin measures 1.15 m, which is 3.77 ft.
The difference between them is 35 cm (1.15 ft). In metres the smaller one is 1.15 against 1.5, so the 1.3× ratio holds in every unit; only the numbers on the ruler change.
Questions people ask about this pair
Which is bigger, the hippopotamus or the emperor penguin?
The hippopotamus is bigger. At 1.5 m it is 1.3× the size of the emperor penguin, which is 1.15 m.
How many times does the emperor penguin fit along the hippopotamus?
Less than twice: the emperor penguin is 77% of the size of the hippopotamus, so one fits with 35 cm to spare.
Are the two figures measured the same way?
No. The hippopotamus is a shoulder height (a typical adult) and the emperor penguin is a standing height (an adult (1.1–1.3 m)), so read the comparison as overall extent.
How does the gap look in people?
Taking an adult of 1.7 m, the hippopotamus is about 0.9 people tall and the emperor penguin is about 0.68. The gap of 35 cm is 0.2 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.