@petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
2026-10-18 01:16 UTC
I’m not really following. What, are we counting feet, then? Mine?
Feet are just really entrenched in the way Americans think about lengths. It may not sound like it’s abstract, but it is. If I said “yeah, it’s about sixteen hands long”, people would have to parse wtf I’m talking about, but then have to grapple with how long a “hand” is exactly and what 16 of them means.
Replies (2)
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@SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-10-18 04:12
Depends on how into feet the person is
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@Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 2026-10-18 01:51
The foot is no less arbitrary than the meter. If you are just unfamiliar with the unit and confused by the fact it’s named after something often close in size to it that’s fine, but keep in mind for a while a meter was defined as the length of a specific metal rod, same as the foot and yard.