Height in imperial is kinda useful. If you say a person is 4 foot tall vs 6 foot tall it immediately paints a vivid picture
Comment on What has he done to deserve this?
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
One kilometer is 1000 meters, one meter is 1000 millimeters. One square meter is 1,000,000 millimeters, one cubic meter is 1000 liters.
1 liter of water is 1 kilograms, so 1 cubic meter is 1000 kilograms. Sand is about 2.3 times heavier than water, so 1 cubic meter of sand is 2300 kilograms, or 2.3 metric tonnes.
I’m 1.96 meters tall, or 1 meter and 960 millimeters, or 1 meter and 96 centimeters. I weigh about 85 kilos, or 85.000 grams. Being 65% water, I carry about 55.25 kilograms of water, which will fill a little over 55 one liter water bottles
I can do this all day
Now let’s do the same with imperial units! You first, cuz I’m not going to touch that shit with a 10 foot pole…
DeanFogg@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Malfeasant@lemm.ee 4 months ago
This isn’t some intrinsic value. What you’re used to makes the most sense. If you were used to measuring people’s height in meters, 1.3 meters vs 2 meters would paint just as vivid a picture.
feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 4 months ago
You get used to it. 150cm versus 180cm, since I don’t often meet anybody four foot tall.
exanime@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Classroom supplies for elementary school always included a 30 cm ruler, so you’d immediately know what 30 cm difference is
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
That paints nothing to me, nor anyone in the rest.od the world. That literally only works in the US and a few other thirds world countries…
1-80 versus 2 meter does the same and makes sense
macaroni1556@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
What a great snapshot of life in Canada
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Actually, I think the entire world minus two or three countries,.one of them being the US of A.
By pure coincidence I do live in Canada, but I’m dutch. Also lived in Mexico. Everything is metric and easy, unlike the USA.
macaroni1556@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Your late reply made me realize I replied to the entirely wrong comment and yeah I make no sense.
I meant to reply to the farming comment mentioning insane mixed units like Liters per Acre
Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
This guy/gal specific gravities.
CommissarVulpin@lemmy.world 4 months ago
One mile is 5280 feet, one foot is 12 inches. One square foot is 144 square inches, one cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches.
1 gallon of water is 8.34 pounds, and 1 cubic foot is 7.48 gallons, so a cubic foot of water weighs 62.38 pounds. If sand is 2.3 times heavier than water, a cubic foot of sand weighs 143.5 pounds.
I am 5 feet 10 inches tall, or 5.83 feet, or 70 inches. I weigh about 220 pounds, or 3520 ounces. If I’m 65% water, I carry about 143 pounds of water, or a little over 16 gallons.
Guh
MadBob@feddit.nl 4 months ago
Bit silly to mix decimal with non-base 10 measurements!
CommissarVulpin@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s worse than that. Inches are base 12, ounces and cups are base 16, machinists use thousandths of an inch, and surveyors use tenths of a foot!
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 4 months ago
And computers use base 2. Bastards.
Preflight_Tomato@lemm.ee 4 months ago
I had to check the math because 1 m^2^ being 2300 kg while 1 cu ft at 143 lbs seemed crazy, but with the volume difference it’s all correct.
Thank you for putting in the effort 🙃
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 months ago
To illustrate, 1m³ = (100cm)³ = 1,000,000cm³ = (1000mm)³ = 1,000,000,000mm³
You go from the single dimensional conversion between m and cm being a factor of 100 and 1000 for m and mm, to the 3 dimensional conversion being a factor of 1 million for m and cm or 1 billion for m and mm. It scales up fast.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Cool.
Also great way to miss the point.
Now, no calculator. How many feet is 0.683 miles?
I know that 0.683 kilometers is 683 meters.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
That was totally logical to me