5 ms·
The problem there is that the most obvious solution (4 tonnes) is a non-SI unit (but admittedly widely accepted), while the true SI solution (4 Mg) is even more
by folli 4y ago
The problem there is that the most obvious solution (4 tonnes) is a non-SI unit (but admittedly widely accepted), while the true SI solution (4 Mg) is even more confusing.
- tzs 4y agoJust compare to animals. They went from an about an elephant weight of waste to about half a donkey weight of waste. That has the benefit of giving people something to help them visualize the difference.
- srcreigh 4y agoWhy do you want me to visualize half a donkey? I propose Great Dane dog as an alternative.
- dmurray 4y agoIt's confusing hearing that a lab went to a Great Dane.
- FartyMcFarter 4y agoDonkeys can weigh up to ~590kg so that's not very useful. I guess you were thinking about miniature donkeys.
- Gigachad 4y agoIs 4Mg that confusing?
- sneak 4y agoYes, nobody does that. The SI base unit of mass is the kilogram, not the gram. (Yes, it's weird that that's the case. No, it's still not a good idea to buck the trend.)
- zamfi 4y ago...which brings us back to 4 kkg -- 4 kilokilograms!
- lmm 4y agoHonestly we should just introduce a new name for the kilogram and make the gram a millifoo.
- Arcorann 4y agoIn the original version of the metric system, the base unit of mass was the grave, corresponding to the kilogram. 1/1000 of a grave was a gravet.
- eru 4y agoAnd from what I heard, grave sounded to much like 'duke' (in French or German), so the French Revolutionaries weren't too keen on it.
- thaumasiotes 4y agoThe French word for 'duke' would be 'duc' (pronounced more or less identically to the English word, for the obvious reason that the English word is borrowed from French). The German word appears to be Herzog. It's hard to see where either word might be plausibly confused with any possible pronunciation of "grave".
- nitroll 4y agohttps://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_(titre) https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_(titre) somewhat equivalent of count or earl
- conformist 4y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graf https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graf
- function_seven 4y agoIf I see "4Mg" in print, it's more likely that someone erroneously capitalized the 'm' in "4 milligrams", rather than sincerely using "megagram" as a unit. It's just not done. Maybe that's weird, or inconsistent, or whatever. But it is that way.
- Gigachad 4y agoThere is the option of just writing it out “4 megagrams”
- function_seven 4y agoI guess, but that's longer than “4,000kg” and unusual to boot. Anyone reading it is going to convert it in their head to 4,000kg anyway. Four million grams is not something relatable. Hard to picture the weight of millions slips of paper vs. a few thousand large water bottles. Or roughly two sedans. The megagram is on the same list as the dekaliter and the hectowatt. They don't exist :)
- thrown_22 4y agoDuring my undergrad we had a physics professor who would only use si units. 3,000 km became 3 megameters. A billion dollars were a gigadollar. To this day I don't know how I feel about it.
- _Algernon_ 4y ago4 * 10^3 kg