this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 38 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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@feddit.de 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Also gas which can either be petrol or natural gas.

[–] skulblaka@kbin.social 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

I see metre and my brain says Meet-ray at best met-reh

[–] Shurimal@kbin.social 13 points 2 years 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@feddit.de 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Is it because its a parkmeter?🫣

[–] Flughoernchen@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago

Oh my gosh thank you I've been so confused. Never seen such a thing irl

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

If you spread your arms, the distance between your hands is roughly equivalent to your body height.

[–] JickleMithers@kbin.social 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Not always, it's called the ape index and varies between each person. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ape_index

[–] Cheskaz@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

I hadn't realised that was a real thing, and not just a thing climbers joke about...

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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

And you can make a good albatross impression!

[–] mayonaise_met@feddit.nl 6 points 2 years 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.

[–] nooneescapesthelaw@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

This made me lol