3 ms·

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 kilo

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 9y 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 9y 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.
  - grzm 9y ago
    > "And in your comment you just called "km" a unit again!" Are you referring to "as the difference in units (km vs miles)"? The base units are meters and miles. I use km there because that is the use (with scale) in the original context. "Unit" can have two different meanings. One is the use of measurement systems: meter vs miles. It can also refer to distinguish between the quantity and the unit in a measurement, such as "1 km" vs "1000 m": in the first case, the "1" is the quantity and "km" is the unit. In the second, "1000" is the quantity and "m" is the unit. As an aside, this sense of unit is often useful in "unit analysis" (also called "dimensional analysis"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis

grzm 9y 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 9y 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.
- grzm 9y ago
  > "And in your comment you just called "km" a unit again!" Are you referring to "as the difference in units (km vs miles)"? The base units are meters and miles. I use km there because that is the use (with scale) in the original context. "Unit" can have two different meanings. One is the use of measurement systems: meter vs miles. It can also refer to distinguish between the quantity and the unit in a measurement, such as "1 km" vs "1000 m": in the first case, the "1" is the quantity and "km" is the unit. In the second, "1000" is the quantity and "m" is the unit. As an aside, this sense of unit is often useful in "unit analysis" (also called "dimensional analysis"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis