Do the numbers add up?

Post by **Horus** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:38 am

We have all seen the huge crowds in Tahrir square over recent weeks, but now some reporters are openly questioning the numbers as being representative of Egypt in general.

Claims of over a million are disputed as not being possible in the confines of the square, reporters were pointing out that there is still plenty of room to move around and that the figures were nearer to 100,000 at the height of the protests, so therefore they were less representative of the people.

They calculate that crowds of over 2 million had attended the funeral of Khomeni in Iran and that would be proportional to the whole country having attended had they all had the opportunity to do so.
It has been calculated by some that Tahrir square could not physically hold 1 million people and the estimated 100,000 peak, with that reducing to a daily average of maybe 50,000 are not proportionate to the population of Egypt, an interesting take on the situation.

Post by **Christine** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:39 pm

Well i guess this could be true, lets face it the protestors didnt wanta quiet little gathering did they, they needed all the support they could get, and so it is quite possible that some sensationalisation ( is there such a word or have i just invented one !! ?? ) took place , dont you think.

Post by **Horus** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:24 pm

I think the words may be Sensationalism Christine

but nice try

Post by **LovelyLadyLux** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:23 pm

Hard to say what the 'real' numbers are. Tahrir IS a big square and I kinda think it would hold more than 100,000 but I'm not a mathematician or whomever it is who figures this out.

Post by **Horus** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:32 pm

They were not saying it could only hold 100,000 LLL, that was the estimate of the crowd size, but they said it was not possible to accomodate 1 million people in the square in any event, it was just not big enough. They were basing it on the amount of room between people when the cameras were not zooming in on particular groups, most of these reporters are pretty experienced when it comes to estimating crowd numbers, so I suppose they are fairly reliable in what they estimate the crowds to be.

Post by **LovelyLadyLux** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:40 pm

Ewwwwwwwww OK, gotcha now. I was just thinking there is the middle of the square, all the little side streets off the square = lots of space.

They typically show on TV here one particular spot where all the crowd is down and praying and all very close together. This seems to be the standard shot to put on the TV.

I'd hazzard it maybe is NOT 1million but I'm thinking is well more than 100,000.

Post by **Christine** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:08 pm

So i did invent a word then