dragonlady7 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dragonlady7) wrote2016-05-14 01:04 am
dragonlady7) wrote2016-05-14 01:04 am
fwiw, I've been living in the rest of the world for almost four years now, and I still do everything
via http://ift.tt/1s8KXGv:
See that’s the thing it’s real hard to make people who’ve grown up using metric etc. understand. Standard is terrible in terms of using it for science, but conversationally it’s really useful.
I cannot for the life of me remember how tall I am in cm. 170? 180? But it’s so easy to keep track with feet, because four is short, five is normalish, six is tall. It’s a big enough increment that you know right off the bat about what to expect, and then the smaller increments are still big enough that it’s not a huge deal. Five seven? Five six? I’m five six and three-quarters and nobody’s gonna think it’s weird that I literally always just say five seven. And I know a double handful of people my “exact” height who are probably a couple centimeters off, but it’s close enough to be descriptive. Five seven. Tallish for a woman, but not notably so.
Pounds too– well, in Britain, I noticed, they measured in stone, which is even LESS scientific. Everyone wrote it down in kg like you’re supposed to, but discussed it in stone. Och she must’ve been sixteen stone! Everyone knew viscerally what that looked like. If you’re too specific, it just sounds like you know more than you do. Poor love she can’t be more than eight stone, she’s been so ill. It’s a measurement of fourteen pounds. That’s a significant amount of weight. (I was twelve stone seven at the time and thought I was like, unlivably enormous, so.)
I don’t have an issue with the distances or temperatures or whatever, it’s just that the standard measurements are human-sized and make it easier to conceptualize other humans in meaningful ways. An inch is a useful size; a cm is too small. A foot is a useful size; a meter is too big. You take your two hands and you hold them out in front of yourself and you say “about like that”, you’re probably measuring a foot or a foot and a half. I don’t know what that is in centimeters. Thirty to fifty? “Eh, it was about fifty centimeters long?” “It was like a foot, foot and a half?” Which sounds like a more normal thing to say?
That’s all. A lot of it is what you’re used to, but dang. Bring back cubits, that seems useful.
(Hands. That’s a measurement of four inches, used only in measuring horses’ heights. I’m a fan of the esoteric measurements.)
See that’s the thing it’s real hard to make people who’ve grown up using metric etc. understand. Standard is terrible in terms of using it for science, but conversationally it’s really useful.
I cannot for the life of me remember how tall I am in cm. 170? 180? But it’s so easy to keep track with feet, because four is short, five is normalish, six is tall. It’s a big enough increment that you know right off the bat about what to expect, and then the smaller increments are still big enough that it’s not a huge deal. Five seven? Five six? I’m five six and three-quarters and nobody’s gonna think it’s weird that I literally always just say five seven. And I know a double handful of people my “exact” height who are probably a couple centimeters off, but it’s close enough to be descriptive. Five seven. Tallish for a woman, but not notably so.
Pounds too– well, in Britain, I noticed, they measured in stone, which is even LESS scientific. Everyone wrote it down in kg like you’re supposed to, but discussed it in stone. Och she must’ve been sixteen stone! Everyone knew viscerally what that looked like. If you’re too specific, it just sounds like you know more than you do. Poor love she can’t be more than eight stone, she’s been so ill. It’s a measurement of fourteen pounds. That’s a significant amount of weight. (I was twelve stone seven at the time and thought I was like, unlivably enormous, so.)
I don’t have an issue with the distances or temperatures or whatever, it’s just that the standard measurements are human-sized and make it easier to conceptualize other humans in meaningful ways. An inch is a useful size; a cm is too small. A foot is a useful size; a meter is too big. You take your two hands and you hold them out in front of yourself and you say “about like that”, you’re probably measuring a foot or a foot and a half. I don’t know what that is in centimeters. Thirty to fifty? “Eh, it was about fifty centimeters long?” “It was like a foot, foot and a half?” Which sounds like a more normal thing to say?
That’s all. A lot of it is what you’re used to, but dang. Bring back cubits, that seems useful.
(Hands. That’s a measurement of four inches, used only in measuring horses’ heights. I’m a fan of the esoteric measurements.)