Well, I suppose anyone who knows that I am here is wondering about the 'dreaded' coronavirus that has already killed forty plus people and has resulted in he lockdown of several Chinese cities. Firstly I am absolutley fine. The government advice has been for eceryone to stay indoors unless you need to make essential trips such as to buy groceries etc. So this morning I went out to buy groceries. Jiangkou was like a ghost town. The only places that were open were the supermarkets and small food stores. It seems that everyone is carefully following the government advice. I reckon it is good advice. Further to that the latset advice is if you think you have the symptoms of the virus, then stay at home and call for someone to assess you there. If you are assessed as positive you will be dealt with as appropriate, if you are assessed as negative then you can remain at home. In this way the virus should be contained. Furthermore, all public sightseeing places etc. are closed until further notice. This includes my school. I was told yesterday that my school will not be opening as planned. It should have opened on or about February 16th. So it loks like I will be 'confined to barracks' for the next month! I think I will go crazy already I have had too much time to think!
This will be me in a day or two!
I look at the amount of people who have been infected and compare this to the population of China. That makes aproximately 2000 people infected and the population of China is 1.43 billion. I understand 2000 but 1.43 billion is a little beyond me. When I was a teacher, the ex-head teacher always treid to explain things in terms of what we already know. So I worked on it a while, with the help of Katie my daughter. I came up with the following. A one jiao coin and a skyscraper. If some mathematical genius wants to check this and offere corrections, then feel free. It works as follows:
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| a one jiao coin (reverse) |
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| a one jiao coin (front) |
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| a one jiao coin (side on) |
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| Tyipical Jiangkou skyscrapers |
Now, by my reckoning, a one jiao coin is about 2mm thick (it's about the size of a UK penny), and a skyscraper is( for sake of easy maths) about 100mtrs tall. So If I represent the people infected with corona virus with the width of a one jiao coin, then the population of china would be represented by 1.43 km. IN other words 14 skyscrapers one on top otf the other! So when everyone starts panicking on social media, I imagine laying a one jiao coin on teh pavement beside a skyscraper and lookin up to the top, not of just one skyscraper, but fourteen, one ot otp of the other. Makes me feel a lot better! The maths might be wrong but it works well for me!
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