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> more natural for people to grasp You added sarcasm flag but sometimes it is more natural. I grew up with metric but can visualize "about an inch" better than
by exodust 4y ago
> more natural for people to grasp
You added sarcasm flag but sometimes it is more natural. I grew up with metric but can visualize "about an inch" better than "about 2.5cm".
It's common for "metric people" to sometimes use inches and feet in casual reference to certain types of measurements. "She is almost 6 feet tall" is another example that will be used instead of "180 cm" or "1.8 metres".
- Ekaros 4y agoNo one where I live and use metric system even have clue what is the feet and inches mess... Like five foot what? Why not do it properly and say five point something feet like sane systems.
- cgeier 4y agoAt least here in Western (continental) Europe, it really isn't. I have never heard somebody say something like "She is almost 6 feet tall".
- exodust 4y agoOkay so how would they describe someone's height? For example, telling a story about their daughter who has grown quickly and is now "almost [n units] tall"? Are you saying they would use centimeters and expect their listener to know what "184 cm" looks like? I'm not saying metric people use "5 foot 9", but it's common in my country (Australia) at least to use "6 foot" because that's a nice easy rounded benchmark. In metric height, there is no benchmark until 2 metres tall, which is a rare height even for men.
- cgeier 4y agoPeople would either use 10s of centimetres, so saying "my daughter is almost 170cm tall" or use a measure relative to somebody else, often including "heads" or "half-heads" ("my daughter is already half a head taller than me"). You might want to argue that a "head" is pretty similar to a foot though.