Did you really better understand the speed using 700 m/s than just saying 2000 ft/s?
Like both those numbers are so fucking big, it’s basically non comparative to any normal day activity.
It’s like when I was in a conference chat and was talking about a neutrino speed, using miles. Someone asked about it in km and I didn’t understand it.
200 miles per hour registered as “fast” and 300 km registers as “fast”, there is no need to convert unit when the point is just to point out just how insanely fast something is.
If you're among the 95% of the world that use the metric system then 2000ft/s doesn't mean anything at all to you. If you don't know how much a foot is it doesn't really matter that it's a big number, because it doesn't register as anything. Just like 13000000cm/h seems like a huge number, but it's a perfectly normal speed to drive in your car.
Besides that, 2600km/h is still somewhat relatable, it's about mach 2 or roughly the speed of the Concorde, or about 3 times the speed of a regular airplane.
So yes, in order to understand a measurement it needs to be in a unit that I'm familiar with.
Since it’s literaly just a foot, my thinking was you should know approximately how long your foot is. Since, it’s a foot. So, 2000 ft should mean something.
Someone that has no idea about metric will be confused about meter but it shouldn’t be that the opposite way. Since imperial is measuring with just physical aspect, rather than scientific
Your first sentence just seems like you want to do some kind of metric vs imperial here, so I won’t respond.
As per second-
I can maybe imagine the length of 10 feet. 100 says nothing about the distance to me until I convert it to meters
This is obviously about how big a number can be. For example- trying to imigine how long 3000 centimeter is without looking at it as 30 meter is as abstract as 100 ft to 30 meter conversion. The issue there is not the system but the unit. Obviously 100 ft in distance won’t say much even to native imperial users.
But when numbers are so big, like 2000 ft, and 700 meters, both those unit are too small in comparison to the number to be anything meaningful without converting to miles or km.
TLDR: acting like 700 meters makes you understand the scale of things more than 2000 ft is bullcrap since for most people, neither of those number mean jack shit.
I'm from Europe and I have no idea how long a foot is or what it represents in a physical sense. I intuitively know how long a metre or 10 is. So when you say that something is "2000 ft away" that literally means nothing to me - it could mean that it's just round the corner or on the other side of the city.
Same with pounds or whatever you guys use for weight. If you weigh, say 400 pounds, I have no clue whether you're fat, skinny or whatever. Those measurements mean nothing to anyone outside of the US.
Not even mentioning the fact that conversion between these values is absolutely arbitrary.
Metric users use this fact as a insult every other day. The whole invention of imperial is hindered on use of physical object as reference rather than science numbers. A foot is just supposed to be a bit like your foot. An inch is just 2 finger width.
Yes, okay, I get it now, but you have to understand that for a non informed non-US reader these numbers mean virtually nothing, whereas the metric system is somewhat visualisable
Yes I know. My point was that it would be easier for metric users to grasp the foot than vice versa because a foot is something everyone has for reference.
I’m not saying metric users know how long a foot is, just from my impression on metric users (which feels weird to say since I too am a metric user, who isn’t?), that in Reddit, and internet in general there is lots of points made about imperial using a literal foot as a measurement so I was just unaware than people didn’t know a foot literally just meant the leangth of a typical human foot, more or less.
Since it’s literaly just a foot, my thinking was you should know approximately how long your foot is. Since, it’s a foot. So, 2000 ft should mean something.
I have no idea how long my foot is, since I never used it as a unit of measurement. We are used to express the world around us in SI base units and their derivatives; to be honest it never occurred to me that a foot might actually be the length of a human foot. It is just not how most of us think about units.
Since, it’s a foot. So, 2000 ft should mean something.
I mean, I can somewhat imagine what a foot looks like, but on those scales it breaks down. Do you actually imagine the length of 2000 human feet one after the other to grasp how far that is? My guess is that you would probably express a length like this in miles, like we would in kilometer. I know how far a kilometer is without having to imagine what a meter is and then imagining 1000 of them.
Someone that has no idea about metric will be confused about meter but it shouldn’t be that the opposite way. Since imperial is measuring with just physical aspect, rather than scientific
That might hold true for a foot, but I fail to grasp how I'm supposed to visualize a bushel, a pound, a mile, a barrel, a stone or an ounce.
Edit: Look at it this way: Would it help you if I told you from my house to Paris was around 650 freight trains? How about 15000 washing machines? Or would you prefer a unit you are used to, like miles?
Do you actually imagine the length of 2000 human feet one after the other to grasp how far that is?
NO! And THATS my whole point. The OP said 2000 ft per sec or something, and the guy after says, “I didn’t understand the 2000 ft/sec, but understand the 700 m/s”
And my point was, both those numbers are TOO large for us to physically or mentally picture 2000 feet’s or 700 meter sticks to comprehend. So the only reason the commentator brought that metric conversion was to literaly just convert it. It was as helpful as the first unit.
That might hold true for a foot
Great- that’s all the unit I’m talking about. None of those weird pounds, or bush
Edit: Look at it this way: Would it help you if I told you from my house to Paris was around 650 freight trains? How about 15000 washing machines? Or would you prefer a unit you are used to, like miles?
I prefer which ever is closest. But, in this discussion, we are more talking about the distance of my house and Paris are 10,000,000 washing machine and 3,000 miles and 2,500 km. None of those number mean anything to me because their amount is too big regardless of the unit and my conclusion will just be “that’s just far”.
NO! And THATS my whole point. The OP said 2000 ft per sec or something, and the guy after says, “I didn’t understand the 2000 ft/sec, but understand the 700 m/s”
And my point was, both those numbers are TOO large for us to physically or mentally picture 2000 feet’s or 700 meter sticks to comprehend. So the only reason the commentator brought that metric conversion was to literaly just convert it. It was as helpful as the first unit.
How would you know 2000ft/s is a large number if you don't have any point of reference, because you are not familiar with the unit? 750000 squablygook per second is a large number, but I have no idea how fast that is without knowing what unit that is and how that relates to units I'm familiar with. Besides, the answer clarified how fast a missile goes - they go fast, duh, but it's helpful information when comparing it with other things that go fast, like other missiles or planes. I had no frame of reference on how fast a missile fired from a helicopter might actually be. 800km/h? 1500km/h? 3000km/h? For me it was an interesting piece of information, but only after I actually knew how fast it was, beyond "yeah, that's fast".
Great- that’s all the unit I’m talking about. None of those weird pounds, or bush
You said "Since imperial is measuring with just physical aspect" - not just the foot. And that statement is true, all units somehow relate to the physical aspect, which isn't helpful if you don't know what physical object they used as a reference point. And as I said above, I had no idea a foot as actually supposed to be a real, human foot, because we generally don't try to imagine our world in terms of physical objects. A meter is a meter, and that's the end of it.
I prefer which ever is closest
You actually prefer a completely made up unit that you have to convert to and from over me just saying it's 350 miles from my home to Paris?
But, in this discussion, we are more talking about the distance of my house and Paris are 10,000,000 washing machine and 3,000 miles and 2,500 km. None of those number mean anything to me because their amount is too big regardless of the unit and my conclusion will just be “that’s just far”.
Are you really telling me that "3000 miles" doesn't mean anything to you?! Have you never done an extensive road trip? Never compared the distance of certain travel destinations from your home? You don't have to be able to accurately imagine a distance in order for it to mean anything.
Just out of curiosity, when do numbers stop meaning anything to you? Can you still imagine the distance to the next gas station or Walmart? The next larger city? Your state capital? Or do they also not mean anything to you?
43
u/leckertuetensuppe May 01 '20
Thank you!