4 ms·

Is anyone else bothered by the unit switching this guy is doing? > On the traverse of Antarctica we were trying to cover 1,850km. After the first week, we had

Is anyone else bothered by the unit switching this guy is doing? > On the traverse of Antarctica we were trying to cover 1,850km. After the first week, we had only done a few miles total and then had to climb 3,000m onto the high polar plateau. That's 3 distance units in two sentences where 1 unit would suffice with almost no changes ("a few miles" is approximately identical to "a few kilometers").

robterrell 8y ago
Perhaps the second unit is "meters," as in, "climbed 3km onto the high polar plateau."
- InitialLastName 8y ago
  For sure it is, and that one is almost reasonable, as meters tend to be used more than miles or km for elevation. The switch between miles and kilometers with no cause bothers me more than that.
  - jdblair 8y ago
    But there's no use of miles at all in the article. It uses kilometers for distance and meters for elevation.
    - InitialLastName 8y ago
      > After the first week, we had only done a few miles...
      - jdblair 8y ago
        Ok, my bad.
  - Thlom 8y ago
    In Scandinavia at least we use mile for 10 km. Not sure how common it is elsewhere.
    - crispyporkbites 8y ago
      An imperial mile is 1.6km in the UK and USA
- jschwartzi 8y ago
  Yeah, he's definitely talking elevation gain, which is always either in feet or meters. 3000 meters is a ton of gain in a single day. Some of the bigger peaks here in Washington might get you 2000 meters in a day. Rainer has significantly more gain but is not typically done in a single day. You'd never use km or miles for elevation gain. I really don't understand what the problem is.
NegativeK 8y ago
It also happens in rock climbing in America. The primary safety rope has a length and diameter measured in metric, but the distances climbed and the size of the rock's cracks are measured in feet and inches. Other ropes might be measured with imperial lengths and metric diameters, or (occasionally) all imperial. Your discussions are going to talk about 60m, 9.8mm lead ropes, two 7mm cordolettes (they're usually 20' long when untied,) some spare 9/16" webbing, and a bunch of 60cm/single length slings. Your climbing route can be anywhere from 30' to 3,000'. Like all jargon and measurements, you just get used to it. I know what 9/16" webbing looks like and implies. I also can do the mental math to convert it to metric, but there's no point unless I'm talking to someone who needs those details and doesn't speak the same lingo (i.e., climbers from Europe who aren't yet used to our bullshit.)
chmod775 8y ago
Off topic: Today I learned that in the English language "kilometers" are considered their own unit, whereas in my native tongue (German) we'd understand a kilometer as 1000 meters - and if anyone asked we'd tell them the unit (Einheit) is meters with a si-prefix in front of it. Especially so if that "anyone" happened to be your electronics/maths/etc teacher. The combination of a unit and a prefix is called "Einheitenzeichen" in German (of course a unit symbol by itself can be an Einheitenzeichen as well). A concept that doesn't appear to exist at all in the English language. We also don't have a Wikipedia entry for "Kilometer": it redirects to Meter (SI-Prefix-Chapter). It appears to be one of those many things that are understood just slightly differently in various languages, only affecting understanding in the rarest of edge-cases.
- grzm 8y ago
  I believe you’re reaching the wrong conclusion based on some poorly worded comments. Which scale one uses may depend on the context: km for distance by car, m for elevation. Your parent is using “units” very loosely to refer to the difference in scale (m vs km) as well as the difference in units (km vs miles).
  - chmod775 8y ago
    You were quick with your reply and I actually added a paragraph to my comment since. Basically I wasn't able to find any English equivalent to the system of naming conventions we use to denote "units" in the German language. Most of the Wikipedia articles dealing with those things in German have no equivalent English article, or the english version bears no resemblance of the German version and vice-versa: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einheitenzeichen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einheitenzeichen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vors%C3%A4tze_f%C3%BCr_Ma%C3%9Feinheiten https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vors%C3%A4tze_f%C3%BCr_Ma%C3%9... My takeaway is that in English you call the result of adding a prefix to a unit still "unit", albeit it consists of a "base-unit" and a "prefix". And in your comment you just called "km" a unit again! Edit: Made both links link to German version to avoid confusion. Edit 2: What amazes me is that we managed to standardize systems of units and quantities - without standardizing the lingo surrounding them.
rjsw 8y ago
Maybe his map is in metric, for contour lines and distances, but he is used to thinking in imperial units.

robterrell 8y ago

Perhaps the second unit is "meters," as in, "climbed 3km onto the high polar plateau."

InitialLastName 8y ago
For sure it is, and that one is almost reasonable, as meters tend to be used more than miles or km for elevation. The switch between miles and kilometers with no cause bothers me more than that.
- jdblair 8y ago
  But there's no use of miles at all in the article. It uses kilometers for distance and meters for elevation.
  - InitialLastName 8y ago
    > After the first week, we had only done a few miles...
    - jdblair 8y ago
      Ok, my bad.
- Thlom 8y ago
  In Scandinavia at least we use mile for 10 km. Not sure how common it is elsewhere.
  - crispyporkbites 8y ago
    An imperial mile is 1.6km in the UK and USA
jschwartzi 8y ago
Yeah, he's definitely talking elevation gain, which is always either in feet or meters. 3000 meters is a ton of gain in a single day. Some of the bigger peaks here in Washington might get you 2000 meters in a day. Rainer has significantly more gain but is not typically done in a single day. You'd never use km or miles for elevation gain. I really don't understand what the problem is.

NegativeK 8y ago

It also happens in rock climbing in America. The primary safety rope has a length and diameter measured in metric, but the distances climbed and the size of the rock's cracks are measured in feet and inches. Other ropes might be measured with imperial lengths and metric diameters, or (occasionally) all imperial. Your discussions are going to talk about 60m, 9.8mm lead ropes, two 7mm cordolettes (they're usually 20' long when untied,) some spare 9/16" webbing, and a bunch of 60cm/single length slings. Your climbing route can be anywhere from 30' to 3,000'. Like all jargon and measurements, you just get used to it. I know what 9/16" webbing looks like and implies. I also can do the mental math to convert it to metric, but there's no point unless I'm talking to someone who needs those details and doesn't speak the same lingo (i.e., climbers from Europe who aren't yet used to our bullshit.)

chmod775 8y ago

Off topic: Today I learned that in the English language "kilometers" are considered their own unit, whereas in my native tongue (German) we'd understand a kilometer as 1000 meters - and if anyone asked we'd tell them the unit (Einheit) is meters with a si-prefix in front of it. Especially so if that "anyone" happened to be your electronics/maths/etc teacher. The combination of a unit and a prefix is called "Einheitenzeichen" in German (of course a unit symbol by itself can be an Einheitenzeichen as well). A concept that doesn't appear to exist at all in the English language. We also don't have a Wikipedia entry for "Kilometer": it redirects to Meter (SI-Prefix-Chapter). It appears to be one of those many things that are understood just slightly differently in various languages, only affecting understanding in the rarest of edge-cases.

grzm 8y ago
I believe you’re reaching the wrong conclusion based on some poorly worded comments. Which scale one uses may depend on the context: km for distance by car, m for elevation. Your parent is using “units” very loosely to refer to the difference in scale (m vs km) as well as the difference in units (km vs miles).
- chmod775 8y ago
  You were quick with your reply and I actually added a paragraph to my comment since. Basically I wasn't able to find any English equivalent to the system of naming conventions we use to denote "units" in the German language. Most of the Wikipedia articles dealing with those things in German have no equivalent English article, or the english version bears no resemblance of the German version and vice-versa: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einheitenzeichen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einheitenzeichen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vors%C3%A4tze_f%C3%BCr_Ma%C3%9Feinheiten https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vors%C3%A4tze_f%C3%BCr_Ma%C3%9... My takeaway is that in English you call the result of adding a prefix to a unit still "unit", albeit it consists of a "base-unit" and a "prefix". And in your comment you just called "km" a unit again! Edit: Made both links link to German version to avoid confusion. Edit 2: What amazes me is that we managed to standardize systems of units and quantities - without standardizing the lingo surrounding them.

rjsw 8y ago

Maybe his map is in metric, for contour lines and distances, but he is used to thinking in imperial units.