4 ms·
> 500kcm "kilo-circular mils", that's an impressively cursed unit even for US standards: Combining an SI prefix, a decimal fraction (1/1000th) of an imperial b
by formerly_proven 1y ago
> 500kcm
"kilo-circular mils", that's an impressively cursed unit even for US standards: Combining an SI prefix, a decimal fraction (1/1000th) of an imperial base unit (inch) and then defining the area by diameter instead of square. Even if someone told you it's an imperial area measure that's about 0.5 mm², you'd never figure out on your own how kcm was defined to arrive there.
- ProllyInfamous 1y ago>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_mil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_mil As blue-collars, we always referred to 500kcm as elephant cock (350kcm is donkey dick)... because it's almost an inch thick, with the sheathing. The copper is approximately 253mm² (177mm², respective). When phased we used brown/yellow/purple ... so it was anatomically correct, from afar. Sword-fights with 3ft sections of scrap [@$$$$$$$$$/foot] could actually become bloody (accidental).
- navane 1y agoIf a cmil has a diameter of one thousandt (mil) of an inch, then a kcmil (kilo=1000) has a diameter of 1 inch? 500kcmil has a diameter of 500inch? Which is about 10 meter?? Yeah I'm an engineer but this must be wrong.
- ProllyInfamous 1y agoThis is incorrect. Please see the wikipedia link, above.
- formerly_proven 1y agoYes, but that's what makes it even more cursed. SI prefixes normally bind tighter than exponents, so km² = (km)² = (1000 m) * (1000 m) = 1 million m², not 1000 m². Meanwhile kcm applies the prefix last - so it's off by three orders of magnitude from the normal way.
- BobaFloutist 1y agoI recently saw the much simpler but still deeply, viscerally upsetting unit of length ∛tsp
- formerly_proven 1y agoAlmost 3/4 in