• deranger@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    3.658 meters isn’t inherently any more comprehensible than 12 feet. I think “about 2 fairly tall dudes high” is better than 60 something books either way.

    • beerclue@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      No one will say 3.658m. We would say about 3.5m or 3 and a half meters. I’m pretty sure those 12’ are not exact either. You wouldn’t say 11 feet, 5 and 1/32 inches, right?

      • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Okay, 3.5 meters is not any more inherently comprehensible than 12 feet.

        I’m not denying the superiority of metric, I wish the US would just switch over already. However, unless you already know how long a meter or foot is in reality, you won’t have a good idea how high she can jump. Relating it to something makes it a lot easier to understand. Jumping 35 books is a terrible analogy, but jumping over 2 tall men would work pretty well.

        • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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          3 months ago

          Having the units in imperial and metric is much more comprehensible for most people compared to imperial and a large number of books of which I don’t even know how thick they are

        • sheogorath@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Well, if you’re already familiar with the metric system, you can probably guess how long a meter is. It’s like when you’re used to the imperial system and you can guess how long a foot is or something like that.