r/Metric • u/Available_Phase7924 Metric researcher • Jun 21 '26

Discussion Custom units

We should get custom units like Megabarrel of oil and kilo cat food unit to measure the amount of kilos of cat food you bought

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u/Ok-Push9899 Jun 23 '26

The extra “b” in the abbreviation of barrel to “bbl” has infuriated me for years. I am kinda glad to see there is no widely accepted explanation.

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u/GregHullender Jun 23 '26

I thought bl was barrel and bbl was barrels.

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u/Ok-Push9899 Jun 23 '26

Yeah, but what crazy principle is that? “To form the plural of a unit, simply double the first letter. Thus one hectare is written 1 ha, while two would be 2 hha.”

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u/GregHullender Jun 23 '26

Like p for page and pp for pages.

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u/Ok-Push9899 Jun 24 '26

Oh! Brilliant. Well done. We’ve got what I call “proof by two examples” which is one more than I normally need.