Talk About Scale! 22 Times the True Size of Things Was Totally Unexpected (23 Photos)
It can be tough to wrap our heads around how massive—or tiny—things really are when we don't encounter them every day. Even completely familiar objects can catch us completely off guard once we see them in person. A bird might look no bigger than a pigeon from afar, yet boast a wingspan wider than an adult human is tall. That's just how our brains work: we naturally project ordinary proportions onto the world around us. Here is a captivating roundup of moments when the actual size of animals and everyday objects was, to say the very least, an eye-opener. 
The sheer size of this hailstone 
These aren't dolls—they’re actual people standing in front of a colossal stage curtain 
Just look at the wingspan of this albatross! 
A modern one-cent coin next to an 1847 penny 
Massive tree roots taking over a wall as a student walks by below 
How tiny a baby marmoset really is 
Chances are, a standard traffic light is much taller than you 
Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal’s size 22 shoe next to an actual basketball 
Just how gigantic a cactus can grow 
A cast of a T-Rex tooth compared to a human hand 
“My big toe compared to my wife’s” 
What happens when you order online without checking the dimensions first! 
A massive malanga leaf 
“Felt like absolute royalty sitting inside this giant amethyst” 
The anchor of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan 
A massive haul truck compared to an ordinary pickup 
“My friend’s Goliath beetle larva. And it’s not even fully grown yet” 
This is the skull of a blue whale 
Anchor chains forged for giant cargo ships 
Colossal boulders in Joshua Tree National Park, California 
That little ball of fluff in his hands is actually a snowy owl chick! 
A desert acacia. It’s hard to imagine how giraffes manage to eat leaves with thorns like that.
