this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
299 points (98.1% liked)

Anything But Metric

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Americans will use anything but metric

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Giraffe (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
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[–] ech 57 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Assume a spherical giraffe.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago

With no air resistance.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's usually not the scientists that write shitty headlines like this 🫤

[–] [email protected] 11 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

What do you mean. The Daily Mail Online is known to be one of the most rigorous publications!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

americans will use anything but metric

[–] [email protected] 11 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago

Who do you think came up with the ridiculous units to begin with

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

In my mind half a giraffe is just a horse. Just say it is the size of a horse.

[–] BeigeAgenda 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How many bananas are we talking about here?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Why do some have the need to describe things in the oddest "measurements"? I understand that it makes it easier to imagine sometimes, but "half a" ... never mind, found someone who explains this much better than me: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/for-want-of-a-half-giraffe/

Thanks, Charles C. W. Cooke.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

A giraffe is a unit of mass....

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

That’s an easy one, down the middle.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

The third half

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Halving always produces equal proportions

[–] Darkassassin07 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Only when halved along a line of symmetry.

A body cut in half at the waist, leaves you with two very different halves despite being the same length/height.

Cut in half along the spine though and you could have two equal, yet mirrored, halves.

With a long neck like a giraffe, half way down the length between the head+tail, one of those 'halves' is going to be much heavier/bulkier.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 17 hours ago

Then it isn't a half, because half is a term that has a specific meaning.