• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Two of them is roughly the size of a pickup truck…

      Like, it’s volume, they could say X gallons, but it would be hard for people to visualize. So people use an example most readers would be familiar with.

      Have you honestly never wondered why journalists use random things? Or has no one taken the time to answer before?

      It’s been common literally for centuries before either of us were born, but most likely all of human existence. Just with animals like buffalo instead of pickup trucks.

      • andrewta@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        The problem is he’s Unfortunately, short, so he has a hard time on visualizing things like the size of pick up, which are quite large

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        Go to Boston, and you will near the story about how an engineering class from MIT was asked to measure the distance across a bridge without using any established unit of measure. So this picked this guy named Smoot and counted off how many Smoots the bridge were.

        For some reason, they tell this story to tourists as proof of ingenuity but it was the most pointless exercise I could imagine in engineering.

        • Bluewing@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          So, how would you make that measurement?

          The point of the lesson was to teach creative problem-solving. And a by-product of that, all measuring systems are simply arbitrary units made up by some random dude. And that in the end, no one standard is better than another. All that matters is that enough people agree upon a standard that is reproducible to a level of accuracy that is Good Enoughtm and fit for purpose.

    • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      And are we talking a reasonable work truck, or one of those American abominations referred to as ‘pickup trucks.’