# Know any less-usual units of measure? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 6, 2001, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431 "2001-07-06T02:05:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![No\_Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ba8739/32.png) [@No\_Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Bones)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/1 "2001-07-06T02:05:49Z")
Besides inches, feet, meters and gallons, there are many unusual, usually vague, sometimes fanciful units of measure. Unit    Example Sitting - He will eat 2 pizzas at one sitting. Serving - Calories/serving: 200. Servings per 2oz. bag of chips: 5. Household - Limit one coupon per household. Batch - When it rained at the bake sale, we lost 5 batches of cookies. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/2 "2001-07-06T02:29:47Z")
A pinch. As in, a pinch of salt. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/3 "2001-07-06T02:53:11Z")
**Round** - a round of golf, also a round of drinks ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/4 "2001-07-06T02:54:51Z")
A few from the Jargon File: [microfortnight](http://tuxedo.org/jargon/html/entry/microfortnight.html), a unit of time. (There are also references to a microcentury, attoparsec, nanoacre and milliHelen, the amount of beauty required to launch one ship.) [microLenat](http://tuxedo.org/jargon/html/entry/microLenat.html), a unit of bogosity. [milliLampson](http://tuxedo.org/jargon/html/entry/milliLampson.html), a unit of talking speed. And every MIT student should be familiar with the [Smoot](http://web.mit.edu/museum/fun/smoots.html). In 1958 students measured the Harvard Bridge using classmate Oliver Smoot as their unit of length. The bridge is 364.4 Smoots and 1 ear long. Every year since then students have gone out to the bridge to repaint the Smoot numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/5 "2001-07-06T03:03:52Z")
Well, in archaeology, we have a unit called TFD. Anything 50x50 cm square that you have to dig deeper than like 90 cm or so is Too Fuckin’ Deep, cuz you can barely reach the bottom. Ok, so TFD is just something we made up. But still. ---
**Author:** ![bare](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bare/32/471_2.png) [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/6 "2001-07-06T03:05:25Z")
Links and Chains Metes and Bounds ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/7 "2001-07-06T03:06:37Z")
Not just MIT students. I grew pretty familiar with smoots in high school track when a common four-mile run often took us across that bridge. Also, I bike over it from time to time. And of course there are the other additions, such as “heaven” at 69, and “halfway to Hell” at the halfway point. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/8 "2001-07-06T03:09:46Z")
**milliHelen** - the exact amount of beauty necessary to launch 1 ship. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/9 "2001-07-06T03:14:59Z")
The [hogshead](http://www.packandsend.com/liquid.htm) (sometimes known as a “weekend at the cottage”). ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/10 "2001-07-06T03:22:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Robot Arm \* > \*\*And every MIT student should be familiar with the [Smoot](http://web.mit.edu/museum/fun/smoots.html). In 1958 students measured the Harvard Bridge using classmate Oliver Smoot as their unit of length. The bridge is 364.4 Smoots and 1 ear long. Every year since then students have gone out to the bridge to repaint the Smoot numbers. \*\* A similar measurement was performed at Caltech in 1937, when it was determined that the distance from Throop Hall on campus to the Pasadena City Hall was five thousand six hundred seventy-eight mackerel. You just don’t get freshman pledge tasks like that anymore (thankfully). ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/11 "2001-07-06T03:37:50Z")
My wife just reminded me of another one: the **kan** , a unit of modesty. Named after physicist Robert Millikan, who was apparently a rather arrogant guy. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/12 "2001-07-06T04:10:06Z")
Back in a [jiffy](http://www.triviastic.com/items/462.html). ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/13 "2001-07-06T07:00:46Z")
The Planck Stupidity (h[sub]duh[/sub]): The point at which mental density becomes great enough to suck the intelligence out of the surrounding space. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/14 "2001-07-06T07:37:23Z")
The ell, an old English unit equal to 45 inches, is a favorite of crossword puzzle designers everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/15 "2001-07-06T07:47:35Z")
I love the ancient Japanese measurement system. Some of them use ridiculously nonstandardizable measures like the amount of rice you can fit in one bamboo joint. The only one I think is in common use today, unaltered, is the shu. Sake is sold by the shu, it’s a big 1.8 liter bottle. Gotta love those non-metric systems! ---
**Author:** ![MrO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@MrO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrO)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/16 "2001-07-06T13:17:52Z")
Japanese rooms and apartments are often measured by the number of standard-size tatami mats it takes to cover the floor. Eight-mat rooms, twelve-mat rooms, etc. Back home in Texas, my mother often adds a “skosh” of some spice to what she’s cooking. That comes from Japanese. She sometimes adds just a “smidgeon,” but I don’t know where that comes from. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/17 "2001-07-06T13:34:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KarlGauss \* > \*\*The [hogshead](http://www.packandsend.com/liquid.htm) (sometimes known as a “weekend at the cottage”). \*\* “The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that’s the way I likes it!” – Grandpa Simpson ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/18 "2001-07-06T13:48:20Z")
Th3e definitive site for units: [http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html](http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/19 "2001-07-06T15:43:54Z")
How about… A loaf. A carafe. A bucketfull. A “yay”. \ “That fish was about yay long!” A mouthfull A handfull An armload. A drawerfull A little bit. Down the road a piece A “powerful” \ “it’s powerful hot!” “that’s powerful heavy!” A shitload A tub (of lard, butter, bathwater, etc) A shovelfull A pot (of spaghetti, soup, etc. or for houseplants) A smidgen A box (of dishes, newspapers, packing peanuts, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Qis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Qis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qis)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2001, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431/20 "2001-07-06T16:43:28Z")
the number of metal balls of diamater = to the diameter of the barrel of the gun required to make up 1lb in lead. ( that’s how i understand it anyway) Pretty wierd huh. feel free to correct me, i am naive and silly. ``` :D ``` [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-any-less-usual-units-of-measure/71431.md?page=2)