The Suck That Refreshes

[calulu]

I could have understood it if this woman had any other accent but genuine American redneck. I could have easily converted it to metric, learned metric in grade school and lived in Europe for eight years. I would never assume someone from somewhere else was stupid for not knowing our bass-ackwards measurement system, it's the local yokels that astound me with their levels of D'oh!

[PepperElf]

20 inches = just a little shorter than 2 barbie dolls together.
maybe headless barbie dolls.

metric: 20 inches = 508mm
so... 508 dimes in a stack

[RayvenQ]

Maybe she just wanted you to help her visualise just how big that was with hand gestures

[Nyoibo]

Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States.

Meters rule.

I find that amusing, and yes they do.

But I find it a bit strange that other parts of the world don't have at least a vague idea of what one of the most high profile nation's system of measurements is like. Twenty inches is about half a meter, btw. (oops! .5 metre)

To be fair, you could say the same thing in reverse, the whole time I was in the US the only people who had a clue about Metric measurements were engineers and some builders, most of them were from Metric countries though.

Short answer 2: $$$

How much did that Mars lander cost again?



I want measurement based on a "stones throw" and a "hop, skip and a jump"

[Gabrielle Proctor]

SC: Is it as tall as a two liter Coca Cola bottle or as tall as a 20 ounce coke.

Sounds like someone has a coke problem.

I wish America would switch to metric, even if it does make my job hell. I will say one good thing about cutting fabric for a living is that it's given me good training in math, especially fractions.

[calulu]

Maybe she just wanted you to help her visualise just how big that was with hand gestures

Hard to do on the phone....

[protege]

Coke System of Measurement.

It sounds like she's had plenty of coke already...and I don't mean the liquid kind

[dalesys]

England has some outre measurement standards:

Area (nanoWales - nW)
Force (Norris - No)
Length (linguine - lg)
Temperature (Hilton - Hn)
Volume (grapefruit - gf)
Weight - (Jub - Jb)
Percentage of maximum velocity of sheep in a vacuum

the Reg online standards converter

[Ironclad Alibi]

Me: 20 inches
SC: How big is that?
Me: 20 inches

20 inches is about a cubit and two fingers.

[Mister]

Irony of all things. If that woman wanted to know how big 45 centimeters was, I'd understand. But the one and only thing that’s good about the imperial system is that it refers to body parts. A foot is as long as a big foot, and inches are as long as the top digit of your thumb.

[calulu]

I have decided in the future to invent my own unit of measurement just for idiots. The Hamster Scale. Assuming most hamsters are around four inches long I'll just tell the Coke lady that it's 5 hamsters high.

[sms001]

The Hamster Scale. Assuming most hamsters are around four inches long I'll just tell the Coke lady that it's 5 hamsters high.

So half a decahamster. Let's just hope that she knows that means nose to tail stacked, and not belly to back. She'd order a size too large and really be miffed.

[Rapscallion]

SC: How big is that?
Me: 20 inches
SC: How big is that?
Me: 20 inches
SC: (whiny voice now) I know, you keep saying that, but how tall is that really?

"Ask your husband, but don't believe him."

Rapscallion

[Slytovhand]

So half a decahamster. Let's just hope that she knows that means nose to tail stacked, and not belly to back. She'd order a size too large and really be miffed.

I'm not sure that system is likely to work... it might get confused with geometry, and they might think a decahamster is a 10 hamster shaped object, like a dodecahamster or something (except smaller..). Kilohamsters would probably work, depending on the average weight of a hamster (6 pounds, maybe??)

[Jester]

Now, the woman in the story is at fault of maybe one thing: Not admitting that she doesn't know the system. Maybe she isn't from any of the countries I mentioned earlier. Chance are, she grew up in a country where they teach decent English, but not the US system of measurement.

According to the OP, she sounded very American.

So chances are she's at fault for something else: being a fucking idiot.