Just How Big Was Noah's Ark?

In thinking about Noah and the Ark, we know that God told Noah to build the ark 50 cubits wide, 300 cubits long, and 30 cubits high. But how long was a cubit? The popular measurement is 18 inches, probably because a foot and a half makes a convenient stardard for conversion to feet. But in various ancient cultures, a cubit was the distance between a person's elbow and the tip of the middle finger.

20 inches is closer to the average man's measurement between these two points. This measurement on me is right at 19," but I am a smaller man than the average. By the 20 inches standard, Noah's ark would have been right at 83.33 feet wide, 500 feet long, and 50 feet high.

Many scholars believe that the temple cubit was 1.84 feet. By this standard, the ark would have been even bigger. But by the most conservative measurements the ark would have been bigger than the popular 18 inches to a cubit would make it at only 75' x 450' x 45'.