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Please don't write in Imperial numbers in an international comunication platform. Most of us don't know what a mile is compared to a kilometer. (Yes you can goo

by erikb 9y ago

Please don't write in Imperial numbers in an international comunication platform. Most of us don't know what a mile is compared to a kilometer. (Yes you can google it, but you have no 'feeling' for it still, and why put the workload on many that could be done by a single person?)

QuercusMax 9y ago
Sounds like a prime opportunity to write a Hacker News unit-conversion bot. Unless bots are banned.... In that case, I bet there's a browser plugin which will convert units for you automatically.
- grzm 9y ago
  Sounds like something that could be accomplished with a browser extension. No need to rewrite/repost anything on the site itself.
marcell 9y ago
A mile is about 1.7 km, you can double it to get a rough sense
- jfk13 9y ago
  Actually, it's just a shade over 1.6 km.
- poooogles 9y ago
  FYI it's much closer to 1.6 km, it's 1609 meters. So for most maths, just times by 1.6 is close enough.
  - erikb 9y ago
    I'd say this discussion is a clear "q.e.d."
grzm 9y ago
The submission title is the article title, and submission guidelines specify to use the original title (with some caveats). Hacker News also has a large US contingent. While that doesn't mean everything should be converted to imperial units, it also shouldn't be surprising when they show up. I wouldn't expect people to modify their units in this way in either direction, frankly. As you mention, it's not that hard to find a place that does the conversion, and it's also not that much harder to become accustomed to having a ballpark feeling of another unit system.
dehugger 9y ago
The title is taken from the headline of the article, which was written by an American news company, about an American corporation, about a product destined to debut on American roads. It makes sense to use American measurements considering the context. I'll concede that it is a bit silly for America to still be on the Imperial system.
- lorenzhs 9y ago
  Reuters is British and was bought by Thomson, legally a Canadian company, in 2008. Its headquarters remain in London.
- erikb 9y ago
  Or it makes sense to change the American measurements. Btw I'm not native English and I use English to write this comment despite being born in this non-English country, being grown with my native language, and still being in this country while writing this comment. Why do I do this? Because we are an international platform.

by erikb 9y ago

QuercusMax 9y ago

Sounds like a prime opportunity to write a Hacker News unit-conversion bot. Unless bots are banned.... In that case, I bet there's a browser plugin which will convert units for you automatically.

grzm 9y ago
Sounds like something that could be accomplished with a browser extension. No need to rewrite/repost anything on the site itself.

marcell 9y ago

A mile is about 1.7 km, you can double it to get a rough sense

jfk13 9y ago
Actually, it's just a shade over 1.6 km.
poooogles 9y ago
FYI it's much closer to 1.6 km, it's 1609 meters. So for most maths, just times by 1.6 is close enough.
- erikb 9y ago
  I'd say this discussion is a clear "q.e.d."

grzm 9y ago

The submission title is the article title, and submission guidelines specify to use the original title (with some caveats). Hacker News also has a large US contingent. While that doesn't mean everything should be converted to imperial units, it also shouldn't be surprising when they show up. I wouldn't expect people to modify their units in this way in either direction, frankly. As you mention, it's not that hard to find a place that does the conversion, and it's also not that much harder to become accustomed to having a ballpark feeling of another unit system.

dehugger 9y ago

The title is taken from the headline of the article, which was written by an American news company, about an American corporation, about a product destined to debut on American roads. It makes sense to use American measurements considering the context. I'll concede that it is a bit silly for America to still be on the Imperial system.

lorenzhs 9y ago
Reuters is British and was bought by Thomson, legally a Canadian company, in 2008. Its headquarters remain in London.
erikb 9y ago
Or it makes sense to change the American measurements. Btw I'm not native English and I use English to write this comment despite being born in this non-English country, being grown with my native language, and still being in this country while writing this comment. Why do I do this? Because we are an international platform.