Comment on Banana for scale

SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

• olafurp@lemmy.world ⁨26⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

  We have also units in metric, except it’s always the same ones. Horse is around 2m and a small banana is 15cm, a human foot in around 30cm.

  You can measure the parts of your body to get to the same point reference pretty fast and it’s very relatable when you live in a non-imperial country.

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  • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨36⁩ ⁨seconds⁩ ago

    How much is a kilohorse

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• BambiDiego@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Metric is very relatable if you just, use it, just like imperial.

  The only difference is metric is also easy to scale up or down, imperial is pure “fee-fees”

  Your implication that metric is not humanistically intuitive is just bonkers when you consider 99.125% of the developed world just uses metric for their every day, always, with no issue.

  Germans, Koreans, and Indians aren’t suddenly going “oh no! I can’t measure these shoes and these plates! I only have SCIENCE numbers, not BaldEagleBananaBurgerFreedom™ numbers!”

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• rbos@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Only if you’re used to it.

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  • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I expanded my comment, but, basically, you can get used to any system. Humans are incredibly adaptable.

    But for the same reason we’re bad at conceptualizing how rich a trillionaire really is, metric may not be better than imperial. Or, maybe imperial is the reason we’re bad at conceptualizing! I haven’t thought about that before! But it’s an interesting idea!

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  • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Like, I’m at a shop right now, and outside the window are some scooters.

    How many scooters?

    I think in units of scooters, not pieces of metal in scooter shape that add up to a volume of mass and energy. Because that’s not what I’m thinking about right now, I just see six scooters, and you instantly know that there are six scooters.

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    • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      But you don’t measure the number of scooters by gram, either.

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      • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        This is true, but that’s because everybody has accepted the unit of scooter as the accepted unit count for scooters…

        Okay that’s a bad example, because just counting things is the way to count things. But also, maybe that’s the point - maybe, counting things is just super simple, and why direct or single-level abstract measurements is the difference: metric = relating everything to a single point, and imperial = just counting. Yeah? Maybe?

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