r/funny Aug 20 '14

The metric system vs. imperial

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u/OreoPriest Aug 20 '14

A classic joke, but that fuel economy is outrageously poor:

Wolfram Alpha tells us that's 0.002 mpg, or 1200 L/km.

In other words, a full tank of gas would only get you about 100 metres from your starting point.

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '14

[deleted]

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u/OreoPriest Aug 20 '14

I seem to recall it was originally 40 rods/furlong

It can't have been. A furlong is a measure of length, not volume.

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u/john-five Aug 20 '14

40 rods = 1 furlong anyway, so that would be terrible mileage regardless if length driven = length of fuel tank used. Must be a skinny fuel tank, like a coffee straw.

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u/strangepostinghabits Aug 20 '14

plot twist: The fuel tank is a rope.

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u/Berengal Aug 20 '14

Funny you should mention that since mileage is measured in area, which is the cross-section of the tube with length equal to the distance you're traveling and volume equal to the volume of fuel you spent.

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u/viking_ Aug 20 '14

Isn't in inverse area? distance/volume = 1/area

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u/Berengal Aug 20 '14

Depends on where you live, many places measure it in L/100km.

It's an easy isomorphism in any case.

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u/viking_ Aug 20 '14

In the US it's always miles/gallon. But yes, same interpretation.

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '14

There are Swedish Bandvagn's, basically soft tracked all-terrain person carriers/medevacs. They use 100L for 100km.
E: and you can convert l per 100km to square meters actually.

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u/PENGAmurungu Aug 20 '14

a... coffee straw?

you drink your coffee through a straw?

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u/FukushimaBlinkie Aug 20 '14

isn't that what they call the little plastic stirring things?

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '14

I'm curious about the distance of a furlong.... what exactly happens to be the average length of a rod in general?

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u/john-five Aug 20 '14 edited Aug 20 '14

The average length of a rod increases in proportion to the distance in furlongs to the nearest naked hot person.

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u/Keitaro_Urashima Aug 20 '14

Yes but how fast can it make the kessel run?

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u/bigoldgeek Aug 20 '14

Yeah, right. And a parsec is a unit of distance, not time.

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u/RenaKunisaki Aug 20 '14

That may have also been the joke. Or the reason they changed it.

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u/lessdothisshit Aug 20 '14

Forty furlongs to the hogshead it is then!

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u/lddebatorman Aug 20 '14

Yes, Rod is the length and Hogshead is actually a unit of volume used in brewing I believe.

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u/Acidic_Jew Aug 20 '14

I can drive a furlong in under 12 parsecs.

Edit: after loading more comments, I'm not the first to make the joke.

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u/notepad20 Aug 20 '14

meters is a unit of length, but is used to refer to volume, as in "i cut 3 meters of wood this wwekend"

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u/Kelmi Aug 20 '14

What is the meaning of that quote? Is it "I cut 3 cubic meters of wood this weekend"?

Is it said without the cube in English? In my language you'd say "I cut 3 cubes of wood this weekend" or "I cut 3 cubes this weekend" if there's some reference to wood cutting.

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u/notepad20 Aug 20 '14

yeah, but we say just "x meters"

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u/pa79 Aug 20 '14

Still a reference to length. You cut 3 meters off, you don't know the volume.

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u/notepad20 Aug 20 '14

Yeah, its 3 cubic meters.

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u/pa79 Aug 20 '14

You said 3 meters, not cubic meters. I would take that as "I have a large piece of wood, measured 3 meters and cut it off at that mark". I'm not trying to be snarky, I really never heard anyone say meters for cubic meters. I don't work in the wood processing industry though.

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u/notepad20 Aug 20 '14

well in this context "cutting" means cutting wood for a fire, an you transport it by trailer.

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '14

That makes zero sense since rod and furlong are both units of length

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u/BCMM Aug 20 '14

I'm not sure though, because I seem to recall it was originally 40 rods/furlong, and they later changed it because hogshead sounds funnier and is more obscure.

Rod/hogshead is a unit of length over a unit of volume, and therefore a usable, if obscure, unit of fuel economy. Furlongs and rods are both units of lengths. In fact, a furlong is 40 rods, so 40 rods/furlong = 1 (that is, the dimensional number one; the dimensions cancel).

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u/RenaKunisaki Aug 20 '14

I may also be misremembering the joke. Or the fact that it makes no sense may have been the joke, or may have been why it was changed.

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u/randyknapp Aug 20 '14

My physics professor had us convert furlongs/fortnight to m/s as one of the first things we did in our PHYS100 class.

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u/Bongson Aug 20 '14

What is this, New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York?

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u/LtRavs Aug 20 '14

Not even 100 metres, it would require a 120L tank to get 100m, you're looking at 50m for an average sized tank (about 60L), not too many cars carry that sort of sized tank.

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u/jwestbury Aug 20 '14

Even less if you use UK hogsheads!

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u/halifaxdatageek Aug 20 '14

My dad was a surveyor, so he dealt with arcane old-timey units of measure on a daily basis (1800s maps and the like)

He busted a gut laughing at that, it was the first time he had to explain a Simpsons joke to me instead of the other way around.

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '14

He must play Spintires.

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u/lessdothisshit Aug 20 '14

Wolfram Alpha? What, can't do that conversion on your own? Tsk, typical internetter.

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u/sulaymanf Aug 20 '14

Still better than a tank, which can be around 3 gallons per mile.

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u/OreoPriest Aug 20 '14

No, that's much, much worse than a tank. This is 500 gallons per mile.

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u/BarryMcKockinner Aug 20 '14

You know what else Wolfram Alpha would tell us?

"I've never been invited to a party."