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theneverfox@pawb.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

They probably made the meter about a yard because that’s roughly 1 stride (left step right step)

Which is what’s really cool about imperial. It’s very human, for length and temperature at least. A mile is about a 20 minute walk, 0-100 degrees is about the range most people can endure with reasonable comfort, and I have no idea what the volume measurements are based on. 1 cup is what a small child drinks in a sitting, a quart is more than a normal adult drinks, and teaspoons/tablespoons are really only useful in baking, and even then it’s only sometimes

They must’ve had really weird table wear when they standardized imperial

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arctanthrope@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
the meter was originally defined to be one 10,000-th of the distance from the equator to the north pole, along the meridian that passes through Paris

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leftascenter@jlai.lu ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The mile is based on roman steps originally : 1000 steps.

The yard was an arm’s length.

Fahrenheit 0 is pure invention. 100 was body temp.

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- Pistachio@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  100 was meant to be body temp, life is filled with little imperfections
  
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Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
A kilometer is about a 15 minute walk (meaning you can walk ca 4 km in one hour - actually a bit less, avg walking speed is around 3.6km/h, but that is so very much individual that it has the same usability as your mile in 20 minutes).

0 and 100 °C is where water changes between frozen/liquid/vapor (and that does NOT change, while “reasonable comfort” is very much dependent on humiditiy - if it’s close to 0° outside, expect slippery roads. 0 and 100 Fahrenheit do tell you fuck all about what to expect outside regarding road conditions without extra knowledge.) Default room temperature is around 22°C, smack in the middle of the personal preference normally being around 20-25°. Having the same scale in mind, everything above 30°C is pretty warm, with 42° the current heat record in Austria, set this year. 60° is the temperature where proteins start to denature a.k.a getting burnt, pretty much 2/3 of the way to water vapor.

One liter is the volume that fits in a 10x10x10 cm cube, just as a milliliter is the volume of a 1x1x1 cm cube (because 10x10x10=1000, and a milliliter is a thousand of a liter). we still use tea/tablespoons in many cooking recipes tho (or if you want, you can use 5 and 25 ml or 5 and 25g if it’s water.)

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