4 ms·

> Why even talk about thousands of kilometres when you can speak in tens of megametres? Probably because when you're speaking about them colloquially, you don'

> Why even talk about thousands of kilometres when you can speak in tens of megametres? Probably because when you're speaking about them colloquially, you don't say "kilometres" you say "kays". That probably varies by locale too, I'm in en_AU. How is it over your way? I do like the nerdiness in the idea of saying "two megs" instead of "two thousand kays", but it's never going to happen.

Coincoin 9y ago
>I do like the nerdiness in the idea of saying "two megs" instead of "two thousand kays" But they are not the same!!oneoneone. Unless you are in the dog food prefixes camp. Are you?
- photojosh 9y ago
  2 000 km = 2 Mm? You're not thinking of the mebi-, kibi-, etc debacle, are you?
  - Coincoin 9y ago
    Yes. I'm old school, 1K is 1024, 1M is 1024K, 64K is 65536 and I refuse to use kimblebits and such. Ah... screw it: https://www.xkcd.com/394/ https://www.xkcd.com/394/
    - photojosh 9y ago
      I'm with you, but it's a non-issue when it comes to non-computer units, which is what we're discussing here.
- microcolonel 9y ago
  Decimal prefixes are standard prefixes for SI units.
sergers 9y ago
Western Canada, we use a short form pronunciation similar "Kay" too (pronounced like just saying the letter "K"). "K" is short form thousands as well written and pronunciated "k". Ex: 20,000 = 20k. But when talking about distance specifying units, you say the thousands and "k" as in short form kilometers. 20,000km is pronounced: "twenty thousand k" or kilometers. But if not specifying the unit, you could say I drove twenty "k", as in "I drove 20 thousand (kilometers)"
microcolonel 9y ago
> I'm in en_AU. How is it over your way? It's mixed here in en_CA (I've lived in Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto at different points). In my experience, kay is used for kilometres when talking about manual travel/exercise (bicycle, running) as in "couch to 5k", but it's almost always klicks or kilometres when talking about driving, and usually only kilometres when talking about most other forms of transport.
- photojosh 9y ago
  We occasionally use 'klicks' interchangeably with 'kay' or 'kays', but it's pretty rare.
  - myrandomcomment 9y ago
    It can be more confusing. US date - m/d/y. Distance in miles. If you are in the US military - d/m/y and klicks (km). Was in UK a few weeks ago and rented a car, mph for speed, everything else (except beer) in metric.
    - dx034 9y ago
      The UK is more complicated than that. Most of the signs are in metric but some distances are in yards and heights are in feet. Petrol prices are in litres but consumption is in mpg, even though there's no indication on how many gallons you actually fill up. In stores, everything has to be metric because of EU regulation but packaging for liquids is often in pints (e.g. milk, beer) and then gets translated into litres. Temperatures are usually in Celsius but are shown in F once it gets hot (100 degrees sounds better than 38). Even though I'm a fan of the metric system, being in the US is easier than the UK, at least measurements are consistent...
      - wiredfool 9y ago
        And stone for weight of people.
      - SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago

Coincoin 9y ago

>I do like the nerdiness in the idea of saying "two megs" instead of "two thousand kays" But they are not the same!!oneoneone. Unless you are in the dog food prefixes camp. Are you?

photojosh 9y ago
2 000 km = 2 Mm? You're not thinking of the mebi-, kibi-, etc debacle, are you?
- Coincoin 9y ago
  Yes. I'm old school, 1K is 1024, 1M is 1024K, 64K is 65536 and I refuse to use kimblebits and such. Ah... screw it: https://www.xkcd.com/394/ https://www.xkcd.com/394/
  - photojosh 9y ago
    I'm with you, but it's a non-issue when it comes to non-computer units, which is what we're discussing here.
microcolonel 9y ago
Decimal prefixes are standard prefixes for SI units.

sergers 9y ago

Western Canada, we use a short form pronunciation similar "Kay" too (pronounced like just saying the letter "K"). "K" is short form thousands as well written and pronunciated "k". Ex: 20,000 = 20k. But when talking about distance specifying units, you say the thousands and "k" as in short form kilometers. 20,000km is pronounced: "twenty thousand k" or kilometers. But if not specifying the unit, you could say I drove twenty "k", as in "I drove 20 thousand (kilometers)"

microcolonel 9y ago

> I'm in en_AU. How is it over your way? It's mixed here in en_CA (I've lived in Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto at different points). In my experience, kay is used for kilometres when talking about manual travel/exercise (bicycle, running) as in "couch to 5k", but it's almost always klicks or kilometres when talking about driving, and usually only kilometres when talking about most other forms of transport.

photojosh 9y ago
We occasionally use 'klicks' interchangeably with 'kay' or 'kays', but it's pretty rare.
- myrandomcomment 9y ago
  It can be more confusing. US date - m/d/y. Distance in miles. If you are in the US military - d/m/y and klicks (km). Was in UK a few weeks ago and rented a car, mph for speed, everything else (except beer) in metric.
  - dx034 9y ago
    The UK is more complicated than that. Most of the signs are in metric but some distances are in yards and heights are in feet. Petrol prices are in litres but consumption is in mpg, even though there's no indication on how many gallons you actually fill up. In stores, everything has to be metric because of EU regulation but packaging for liquids is often in pints (e.g. milk, beer) and then gets translated into litres. Temperatures are usually in Celsius but are shown in F once it gets hot (100 degrees sounds better than 38). Even though I'm a fan of the metric system, being in the US is easier than the UK, at least measurements are consistent...
    - wiredfool 9y ago
      And stone for weight of people.
    - SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago