this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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Anything But Metric

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Americans will use anything but metric

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Giraffe (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/anythingbutmetric@discuss.tchncs.de
 
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[–] ech@lemmy.ca 73 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Assume a spherical giraffe.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] hoch@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

With no air resistance.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 36 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's usually not the scientists that write shitty headlines like this 🫤

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What do you mean. The Daily Mail Online is known to be one of the most rigorous publications!

[–] jonesey71@lemmus.org 17 points 3 months ago

In my mind half a giraffe is just a horse. Just say it is the size of a horse.

[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

americans will use anything but metric

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago

Who do you think came up with the ridiculous units to begin with

[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

How many bananas are we talking about here?

[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Enough to fit on a quarter of a small football pitch.

[–] andyburke@fedia.io 6 points 3 months ago

A giraffe is a unit of mass....

[–] original_reader@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Why do some have the need to describe things in the oddest "measurements"? I understand that it makes it easier to imagine sometimes, but "half a" ... never mind, found someone who explains this much better than me: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/for-want-of-a-half-giraffe/

Thanks, Charles C. W. Cooke.

[–] astrsk@fedia.io 4 points 3 months ago

That’s an easy one, down the middle.

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago

I'm guessing someone started with the banana metric and thought, "Now, bigger."

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

The third half

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago
[–] pimento64@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Halving always produces equal proportions

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Only when halved along a line of symmetry.

A body cut in half at the waist, leaves you with two very different halves despite being the same length/height.

Cut in half along the spine though and you could have two equal, yet mirrored, halves.

With a long neck like a giraffe, half way down the length between the head+tail, one of those 'halves' is going to be much heavier/bulkier.

[–] pimento64@sopuli.xyz 0 points 3 months ago

Then it isn't a half, because half is a term that has a specific meaning.