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Anything but metric (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world
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[+] -19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

Just trying to wrap my feeble American brain around these extremely intuitive measurements.

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  • [–] 19 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    As opposed to the foot, a body part notorious for its consistency in size across all people /s

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  • [+] -15 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    It's good enough for an estimate of the size of a room, which is what it's commonly used for.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Oh, really? You use your foot or your girlfriend's? Because I wager those are somewhat different.

    What body part is a quart based on? Because I don't think it's any of them, and you could probably still eyeball a quart of water. That's to say, just shy of a litre.

    How about one yard? Think you can do that? Great, just add a bit and you have a metre.

    It's crazy how Americans actually be complaining about how they're unable to estimate or perceive things if they're not actually measuring it against the bottom of their feet. Don't you believe you have the ability to learn? I can see why you wouldn't, but...

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Americans actually be complaining

    how are you attempting to disparage americans and talking like one at the same time. it's just the name of a unit, who cares, a yard's not the size of the boundary of their average house and barrels of oil don't come in individual barrels

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Because if I don't assume their language, they won't understand me, as my native language is Finnish. When talking to or about Americans, I might add a bit of American flare. It's not grammatically correct, I know. Just double negatives.

    Also criticism and disparagement are two different things.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    It’s hard to realise the difference between what it’s origin is and definition. I think it’s wise to look into the definition of the foot instead of assuming you know.

    Once finished, tell me why you still use the British unit?

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago

    It just needed to be able to be reconstructed without having an object standard. What is the actual length of a meter based on? A size that's not only useful in scale, but that is both 1000x a useful measurement size and 1/1000th of a useful measurement size. It becomes intuitive when you start thinking in metric. It only took me like a month or two of mild effort to intuit a meter.

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