- Zagorath ( @Zagorath@aussie.zone ) English44•11 months ago
In most cases, the American spelling of English words compared to the rest-of-the-world spelling is pretty much a wash. A matter of personal preference.
But “metre” is a hill I will die on. “Metre” and “meter” mean different things, and by spelling them both “meter”, as the Americans do, you’re just making communication worse.
- Jannis ( @jannis@feddit.de ) 12•11 months ago
Also gas which can either be petrol or natural gas.
- skulblaka ( @skulblaka@kbin.social ) 9•11 months ago
In America “gas” is short for gasoline, which is petrol.
It’s still shit because our lazy asses do still call both types “gas”, but there is a distinction.
- charje ( @charje@lemmy.ml ) 4•11 months ago
I see metre and my brain says Meet-ray at best met-reh
- Shurimal ( @Shurimal@kbin.social ) 14•11 months ago
My feet are certainly not a feet long. More like 25 cm or so. But as another commenter already said, I can measure ~175 cm using my arm’s reach easily, matchboxes are standardised as 5 cm long, the width of my palm is about 8 cm, distance from my fingertips to my elbow is around 50 cm and the distance from ground to approx. my navel is 1 meter.
Plenty of ways to get an approximate metric measurements without a ruler or measuring tape.
And it’s much easier to convert from cm or mm to m (or vice versa) than to convert between ft and inch or ft and 1/8 of an inch or whatever weird measuring standards the US-ians use.
- bratorange ( @bratorange@feddit.de ) 9•11 months ago
Is it because its a parkmeter?🫣
- Flughoernchen ( @Flughoernchen@feddit.de ) 1•11 months ago
Oh my gosh thank you I’ve been so confused. Never seen such a thing irl
- mayonaise_met ( @mayonaise_met@feddit.nl ) 7•11 months ago
In what county do meters still look like that though? I see them here in the US, but back in my metric home country they certainly don’t look like iron age torture devices anymore.
- 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬 ( @Dirk@lemmy.ml ) 7•11 months ago
If you spread your arms, the distance between your hands is roughly equivalent to your body height.
- JickleMithers ( @JickleMithers@kbin.social ) 9•11 months ago
Not always, it’s called the ape index and varies between each person. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ape_index
- Cheskaz ( @Cheskaz@beehaw.org ) 1•11 months ago
I hadn’t realised that was a real thing, and not just a thing climbers joke about…
- SpectralChicken ( @SpectralChicken@hoboninjachicken.com ) 3•11 months ago
And you can make a good albatross impression!
- pingveno ( @pingveno@lemmy.ml ) English2•11 months ago
- My height/armspan: 190 cm, almost 2 meters and a little more than 2 yards
- My handspan and palm-to-fingertip: 20 cm ~= 8 inches
- nooneescapesthelaw ( @nooneescapesthelaw@lemmy.ml ) 2•11 months ago
This made me lol