5 ms·

Myanmar units of measurement

17 points by curtis 9y ago

wsc981 9y ago
Not sure why the Myanmar units of measurement are posted here, but might as well add the Thai units of measurement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_units_of_measurement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_units_of_measurement
- pmontra 9y ago
  Probably they make news because they're still the main units used in the country > Most of the nation uses Burmese units only, although Burmese government web pages in English use imperial and metric units inconsistently
billpg 9y ago
I'd mock, but my own country's people are doggedly refusing to give up our own traditional units too.
eimg 9y ago
I'm from Myanmar and not sure why this is posted here. It's true that the traditional units are still in use. Mostly in rural areas and, local markets and small stores in cities. Although not all the unites from smallest to largest are all in use. Mostly middle parts of those unit are in common use. e.g., only Htwa (length from tip of your thumb to pinky finger), Taung (length from your fist to elbow), Lan (length of stretch of both hands) are in common use of length. Same goes to weight and volume as well. Even local people don't know the correct measurement of smaller and higher ones. I have created a converter app for that (Burmese language): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eimaung.thamardi https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eimaung.th... Imperial units are also in used, such as mile in highway roads, inches to measure clothes, feet to measure building, pound to weight foods, etc... Government is trying to migrate metric system (I think there was an official statement), but without proper plan, no progress so far. So, you will see all three of systems are in use in mixture of here and there. It's so mess-up. We have serious standardize problems. Measurements is not the only one. There is a similar story with character sets and encoding that seriously messing up Myanmar language on computer.
- MoBattah 9y ago
  How visible is the genocide against the Rohingya?
  - deleted 9y ago
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  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- stephengillie 9y ago
  Likely to provide evidence against the claim that the USA is the only country not using the metric system. But we (USA) sell soda and car engines in liters, just like everyone.
  - Jedd 9y ago
    Are there such claims? For as long as I've been on the internet, the common claim is that there's three countries not using metric - USA, Burma, and Liberia. I believe this is still the case, despite some hand-waving by the Burmese administration as described in TFA. USA doesn't sell soda, of course. Within USA, though it's been a while since I've been there, I thought most soda was sold in fluid ounces (a particularly weird-sounding unit to people outside the country, I'm sure). Car engines I thought were still mostly measured in cubic inches, horsepower, miles per gallon, etc. One area that the USA does embrace metric is photography - but then most cameras are designed and constructed in metric-adopting countries. I think it would be delightful if USitizens were obliged to talk about focal length in terms of fractions & multiples of inches.
    - SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago
      Soda cans are in fl-oz. Generally 12, though energy drinks are different. Soda bottles are in fl-oz or l. 20 oz, 1 l, or 2 l are the common values. Alcohol is similar: beer is in pint bottles or cans, hard liquor in 750ml bottles. Car engine displacement tends to be in l. Power is hp and gas mileage is mpg.
bouvin 9y ago
This struck me as remarkable: ငါးမူးသား(nga mutha): Literally "five mutha", but in fact it is only four.
- gjm11 9y ago
  It's no worse than the French use of "huit jours" (lit. eight days) to mean a week, or the terminology for musical intervals where a one-note interval is called a "second". I'd guess that the origin might the same in each case: if you start at 1 and count up N times, you get to N+1.
purplezooey 9y ago
Yuzana give me a full pour here, kawtha I got a designated driver.

17 points by curtis 9y ago

Not sure why the Myanmar units of measurement are posted here, but might as well add the Thai units of measurement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_units_of_measurement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_units_of_measurement

pmontra 9y ago
Probably they make news because they're still the main units used in the country > Most of the nation uses Burmese units only, although Burmese government web pages in English use imperial and metric units inconsistently

billpg 9y ago

I'd mock, but my own country's people are doggedly refusing to give up our own traditional units too.

eimg 9y ago

I'm from Myanmar and not sure why this is posted here. It's true that the traditional units are still in use. Mostly in rural areas and, local markets and small stores in cities. Although not all the unites from smallest to largest are all in use. Mostly middle parts of those unit are in common use. e.g., only Htwa (length from tip of your thumb to pinky finger), Taung (length from your fist to elbow), Lan (length of stretch of both hands) are in common use of length. Same goes to weight and volume as well. Even local people don't know the correct measurement of smaller and higher ones. I have created a converter app for that (Burmese language): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eimaung.thamardi https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eimaung.th... Imperial units are also in used, such as mile in highway roads, inches to measure clothes, feet to measure building, pound to weight foods, etc... Government is trying to migrate metric system (I think there was an official statement), but without proper plan, no progress so far. So, you will see all three of systems are in use in mixture of here and there. It's so mess-up. We have serious standardize problems. Measurements is not the only one. There is a similar story with character sets and encoding that seriously messing up Myanmar language on computer.

MoBattah 9y ago
How visible is the genocide against the Rohingya?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
stephengillie 9y ago
Likely to provide evidence against the claim that the USA is the only country not using the metric system. But we (USA) sell soda and car engines in liters, just like everyone.
- Jedd 9y ago
  Are there such claims? For as long as I've been on the internet, the common claim is that there's three countries not using metric - USA, Burma, and Liberia. I believe this is still the case, despite some hand-waving by the Burmese administration as described in TFA. USA doesn't sell soda, of course. Within USA, though it's been a while since I've been there, I thought most soda was sold in fluid ounces (a particularly weird-sounding unit to people outside the country, I'm sure). Car engines I thought were still mostly measured in cubic inches, horsepower, miles per gallon, etc. One area that the USA does embrace metric is photography - but then most cameras are designed and constructed in metric-adopting countries. I think it would be delightful if USitizens were obliged to talk about focal length in terms of fractions & multiples of inches.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago
    Soda cans are in fl-oz. Generally 12, though energy drinks are different. Soda bottles are in fl-oz or l. 20 oz, 1 l, or 2 l are the common values. Alcohol is similar: beer is in pint bottles or cans, hard liquor in 750ml bottles. Car engine displacement tends to be in l. Power is hp and gas mileage is mpg.

bouvin 9y ago

This struck me as remarkable: ငါးမူးသား(nga mutha): Literally "five mutha", but in fact it is only four.

gjm11 9y ago
It's no worse than the French use of "huit jours" (lit. eight days) to mean a week, or the terminology for musical intervals where a one-note interval is called a "second". I'd guess that the origin might the same in each case: if you start at 1 and count up N times, you get to N+1.

purplezooey 9y ago

Yuzana give me a full pour here, kawtha I got a designated driver.