British synchronized swimmers Olivia Federici and Jenna Randall made it to the events' final. Mark J. Terrill/AP
How much it costs to throw an Olympics vs. go to Mars
Curiosity Rover's price tag looks like pocket change next to the tab for the London games.
The $2.5 billion that it cost to launch Curiosity Rover may sound like a lot, but as the Facebook group "I f**king love science" noted, that's pocket change compared to the cost of the London Olympics. "I've seen quite a few comments complaining about the cost of the Curiosity mission, saying that the money could have been better spent combating poverty etc.," the group runner wrote. "I've got nothing against the Olympics, I'm just trying to put things into perspective."
The group compared Curiosity's $2.5 billion number from The New York Times and the Olympic's $15 billion estimate from Forbes in a pie chart, which has also been floating around Tumblr. We liked the way they thought but decided to put the numbers in a bar graph instead. (A pie chart suggests Curiosity and the Olympics were dipping from the same pool of money.)
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