# Odd units of measure. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 3, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226 "2005-11-03T02:39:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/41 "2005-11-04T14:21:16Z")
Don’t forgwet The Period – when talking about tiny things, you always have to say something like “it would take 5 million of them to equal the size of the period at the end of this sentence.” My favorite parody of this was a “Light elements” column in the old Oni magazine (I think). The article was on punctuation, and , talking about periods, they included the phrase “…each of these punctuations marks was so small that it would take _one_ of them to equal the size of the period at the end of this sentence.” ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/42 "2005-11-04T14:26:44Z")
I was always greatly amused by “hogshead” as a measure of volume. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/43 "2005-11-04T14:28:30Z")
Dammit – that’s “Omni” magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/44 "2005-11-04T14:47:27Z")
Let’s not forget the “Millihelen.” That’s the amount of beauty required to launch a single ship. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/45 "2005-11-04T15:30:18Z")
How about the “fill the” unit of measure? For example, to build the 5th runway at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, contractors will have to move enough dirt to fill the Georgia Dome 5 times. The Falcons are having a decent season - why would anyone want to fill in the Georgia Dome now? I vote we move the dirt to Phillips Arena. The Hawks suck. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/46 "2005-11-04T16:37:35Z")
"It’s only three miles as the crow flies, but to get there you have to go **'round Robin Hood’s barn."** I don’t know how big Sherwood Forest was, but I bet going 'round it was **a fur piece.** I live a long, long way from Sherwood Forest, and it’s possible Mom only used this expression because we’re **Nottinghams.** 😛 > [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Wales. Every day - or every week, or every month, or every year - we lose an area of rainforest the size of Wales. So, if you ever lose Wales, it will be referred to as “an area the size of the yearly lost rainforest.” ---
**Author:** ![rpinrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@rpinrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rpinrd)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/47 "2005-11-04T16:44:10Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > My wife’s dad used to measure drive times by how many cans of beer he would drink along the way. Yes, he was a drunk. Ha! That reminds me of my Fluids I professor in college. He measured the difficulty of exam problems by the number of Miller Lights it would take him to score that question on all of the test papers. A “Two Miller Light Problem” was particularly difficult. I don’t think he was a drunk. I just thought he was cool. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/48 "2005-11-04T19:11:49Z")
I worked construction for a couple summers during my college days. It seems to me just about everything we measured was off by a cunt hair. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/49 "2005-11-04T20:02:53Z")
I knew a guy in college who measured his gas mileage in parsecs per cubic mile. I had no luck convincing him to use the SI unit, m[sup]-2[/sup]. > [@TJdude825](#): > > and the whole thing about laying things end to end from here to New York. “If all the girls at Vassar were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.”–attributed to Dorothy Parker. “If all the people who fall asleep in church were laid end to end, they would be a lot more comfortable.”–attributed to Mrs. Robert Taft ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/50 "2005-11-04T20:05:55Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > I worked construction for a couple summers during my college days. It seems to me just about everything we measured was off by a cunt hair. Not fine enough for some. Would that be a red or blonde cunt hair? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/51 "2005-11-04T20:11:27Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > I worked construction for a couple summers during my college days. It seems to me just about everything we measured was off by a cunt hair. “How’s it looking?” “Bring it to me a cunt hair” “What kind?” “Big black and curley” **Whack!** or “A nice red one” Whack! or “Blonde” tap the CH is the universal measurment. Works in imperial as well as metric. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/52 "2005-11-04T20:12:52Z")
Wasn’t the “bigger than a breadbox” expression used frequently on the old TV quiz show, “What’s My Line?” Although that doesn’t mean that’s where it originated, just where it was popularized. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/53 "2005-11-04T20:30:54Z")
Two measurements frequently used over here are " the height if x number of London double decker buses" or “so many time taller than the height of Nelson’s Column” Regarding football fields , do they soccer , rugby or American footballs . One measurement I use is to do with weight. I know that a bag of potatoes I buy from the farm shop is 25kg or about 56 lbs. So when I read , for instance, that a WW1 soldier carried nearly 60 lbs when “going over the top” I can visualize that and sympathize with him. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/54 "2005-11-04T22:17:13Z")
P. J. O’Rourke is pretty trenchant on this subject, in his own inimitable fashion: ‘The USS _Mobile Bay_ is 567 feet long, almost four times as long as the Statue of Liberty would be if the Statue of Liberty were lying on its side and floating in the water {which makes no sense, but there are professional-writer bylaws requiring comparisons of this type whenever anything very large is being described}.’ ‘The _Mobile Bay_’s “Welcome Aboard” pamphlet was full of Statue-of-Liberty-on-its-side style information. Building the ship “required enough steel to fabricate 4000 cars, aluminium sufficient to produce 26 million soft drink cans, over 200 miles of electrical cable…” There is enough fuel on board, the pamphlet said, “to run the family car nearly 25 million miles.” I always wish the people who figure these things out would just keep going: “The hawsers and bowlines carried aboard the _Mobile Bay_ are long enough to hang every Democrat electedto Congress since Roosevelt’s second term. The synthetic rubber in the fire hoses would make enough prophylactics to allow every business executive in Japan to visit Manila. The ship’s bilge pumps could drain all the ecologically significant wetlands in Oregon in 24 hours.” And so on.’ {P. J. O’Rourke, from _Parliament Of Whores_} ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/55 "2005-11-04T22:40:19Z")
> [@Tentacle Monster](#): > > I was always greatly amused by “hogshead” as a measure of volume. Don’t joke - it’s still used in serious context. The landlord of my local was complaining that he could only order a particular beer from a wholesaler by the hogshead…althought the actual meaning seemed to be that they expected the beer to be unpopular, increasing wastage. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/56 "2005-11-04T22:41:37Z")
Oh, and nobody’s yet mentioned the British media’s measurement of choice: “x times as high/long as a double-decker bus”. Completely meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/57 "2005-11-04T22:48:33Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Oh, and nobody’s yet mentioned the British media’s measurement of choice: “x times as high/long as a double-decker bus”. Completely meaningless. That’s been mentioned as many times as a double-decker bus has levels. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/58 "2005-11-04T22:49:07Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Oh, and nobody’s yet mentioned the British media’s measurement of choice: “x times as high/long as a double-decker bus”. Completely meaningless. Oh yes I did , see above ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/59 "2005-11-04T23:01:16Z")
That’ll teach me to leave things logged on while I go to the pub (Time between 11.20 and the last drink being drunk…now _that’s_ a good measure of unpredictability) Although you didn’t mention bags of sugar, which appeared on Top Gear today to weigh parts of a Porsche ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226/60 "2005-11-07T12:28:06Z")
Less we not forget Doug Adams’ contribution to Units of Measure with **Cafe Mathematics** which I can’t remember at this point, but I’m sure another doper knows verbatim. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-units-of-measure/329226.md?page=4)