Going through the Dragon Ball feats step by step, the moon feat with the Power Pole caught my eye. Mostly it's easy to consider it a gag feat, as there's really no feasible way for Goku to survive in a vacuum at that age, much less trap the Rabbit Mob up there without consequence. But I noticed the curvature of the moon and that made me think there is reason to believe Earth's Moon in Dragon Ball is smaller than ours. I did the calculations and it does appear to be the case. I'll show the process below:

Calculation Process

The process begins by determining Kid Goku's height, specifically the height of his head, which is roughly 36.45 cm. The reason why will become apparent later. This is based on the following facts: A) Puar is basically the only Dragon Ball character who never grows in height going on to DBZ B) Adult Yamcha is confirmed at 6 ft tall (183 cm) C) Dragon Ball Yamcha is slightly shorter then Dragon Ball Z Yamcha.

So by using comparison photos with Dragon Ball Z, group photos in Dragon Ball, and then using pixel measurements, we get the following measurements.

With this information in hand, we turn to the following images:

Based on the pixel measurements and the perceived curvature of the moon, we can see that the moon is a mere 33 m across, making it 105,272 times smaller than our Moon. Furthermore, by measuring the perceived curvature of the Earth, then compensating for how far away it is by using our SizeCalc calculator (and then assuming it's the same size as our Earth, as there is no reason to believe otherwise) we get a distance of 72,151,443 m from Earth, which is 5 to 6 times closer than our Moon.

Conclusion

Frankly, I think this measurement makes sense. There's always been a disconnect as to how Master Roshi was able to destroy the moon in a few seconds, even if the moon was supposedly 360,000 km away at minimum. What is accepted as common knowledge is that in order for this to be possible in a few seconds, the Kamehameha Wave would have to be moving at near light speed levels. Even though the Z fighters speed is quite impressive at this stage, it doesn't appear to quite be at this level, so it wouldn't make sense for the blast to be so much faster. However, if the distance is a mere fifth of what we assume, this could help to explain it.

As for the strength to destroy the moon, it's not really an issue, as the gap between Roshi and the "planet busters" was already small enough to make sense. You need 1,815 times the energy to destroy the Moon to destroy the Earth and if we go off of power levels alone (which is closely related to ki level) then the minimum for "planet busting" power level is 252,285 based off his listed power level, so Vegeta and the subsequently stronger fighters are way ahead of the game. Making the moon smaller just makes the relation between ki and power level even MORE exaggerated and incorrect then it already is.

Of course, this may all be invalid because it WAS a gag feat. However, considering we don't get a good look at the moon otherwise, I believe this is our best view of the DBZ moon and therefore our most accurate description of it, at least until it's destroyed and replaced, possibly with a bigger moon.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this, plus any modifications to the methodology or possible additions with better examples and whatnot, plus the implications if these measurements are correct.

Yeah... saying that you're reading too much into this, is probably an understatement.

Now people will treat you of lowballer.

Lol no. Akira Toriyama already mentioned it's distance in a book interview. It's same. This is a stupid thread tbh.

Toriyama already said in an interview what the distance between Earth and Moon was and it matched the RL distance which verifies the standard assumption that Earthlike moons in fiction are modeled after its real life basis which means we have no reason to think the moon is a different size.

Pretty sure the picture you used is a shitty curvature perspective too. Moon curvature scaling only works if the perspective is from outside the Moon's atmosphere. The perspective in the scan you used is right from the ground. This is unreliable because I'm willing to bet all planets and moons would be scaled to be much smaller than they really are due to size constraints of the manga panel and lack of scaling intent from the author.

@thedeathstar: Thank you for the correction, unkind as it was.

@phantomrant: Thanks, I was not aware of Toriyama's statement. That certainly puts my measurements to rest. Though I still think you can measure things based on curvature from a ground perspective, as I believe astronomers (or perhaps just scientists) were capable of this for the Earth, measuring the size of the Earth extremely accurately for their time.

@crash_: It's all in good fun, there's no harm in some measurements. I enjoy finding out small tidbits like this.

@camilopezo: I hope not, I do try to be as objective as possible.

-Throwaway gag

- Analyzed beyond any reasonable amount

@trask10100: Yeah I am unkind sometimes sorry.