Damn. Forgot about that weird centerline extra ten yards in the middle.
And over here a football *pitch *is 105 metres ± 5
Don’t forget that in the US for very large things we also have the Texas.
For sizing tumors in the body, is using various fruits as comparison universal or just a US thing?
There is a whole underworld of whimsical units of measure. My favorite is the Sheppey: A measure of distance equal to about 7⁄8 of a mile (1.4 km), defined as the closest distance at which sheep remain picturesque. List of humorous units of measurement - Wikipedia
Entirely scholarly articles have been written about the Eohippus, the ancestor of the horse that was said to be “dog-sized”, a comparison that disregarded the fact that dogs vary in size by a couple of orders of magnitude.
Rugby fields are 100m long and 50 wide if my memory serves me correctly. So exactly half a hectare.
Last week I was using some construction adhesive. The instructions said to use walnut sized globules and to place the “walnuts” a certain distance apart.
Of course everything written is just a rule of thumb.
Let’s not get started on Smoots.
I like the “Smoot”. As it turns out, Oliver Smoot, who was the standard, later became chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Just to point out further - in addition to soccer, there is also rugby that uses a roughly football sized field.
I thought those were always either grapefruit sized or golf ball sized.
Other handy units: Weight is measured in elephants. Explosive force (asteroids, volcanoes, unusually powerful farts, etc.) is X times the Hiroshima bomb.
An actual, honest-to-goodness unit that doesn’t see enough use is the BED, the banana equivalent dose. This is the dose of radiation you get from eating one banana (yes, bananas are very slightly radioactive).
We do use ‘candlepower’ though: (defined as the light produced by a pure spermaceti candle weighing one sixth of a pound and burning at a rate of 120 grains per hour).
It is obsolete as an SI unit, but does crop up from time to time, as do its relatives, Lumens and Lux.
How many Altuves is that?
Wow, that’s a tiny field. And oddly shaped.
One of my favorite pieces by Stephen Jay Gould is The Case of the Creeping Fox Terrier Clone, in which he traces the origin of Eohippus being described as being the size of a fox terrier.
Fetuses also take a tour of the produce department. This week Tater is the weight of, but not the size of, a large mango. Last week he was the size of a spaghetti squash.
I laughed out loud at this. Thanks for making me almost lose my sandwich.
Golf balls. Tumors are very often the size of golf balls.
And many things are as big as a house, often times in reference to a women’s rear area. Said women’s dresses are said to be as big as a tent. Peaches, coconuts and melons are also units of measure for a women’s anatomy. And the amount of suction required to move a golf ball thru a garden hose is a measurement of vacuum.
These measurement comparisions were made necessary because men are often mistakenly estimating things to be a foot long when they are actually barely half of 12 inches.
Hail is commonly described, at least in North Texas, in terms of sports balls and produce.
As in,
“Pea sized hail”
“Bean sized hail”
“Grape sized hail”
“Ping-pong ball sized hail”
“Golf Ball sized hail”
“Tennis Ball sized hail”
“Baseball sized hail”
“Softball sized hail”
Above that, I’m not 100% sure (extraordinarily rare!) but I’d guess it would be volleyball or cantaloupe sized hail.
Wait til Tater hits watermelon-size! :eek: (We can all hope for a small watermelon.)
Indeed, a large cantaloupe. 8 inch diameter.
Happy to help!