Editing Encyclopedia:Measurements Debate (section)

==Trinity Site==

[[Trinity site]] is currently a good example of an article that is highly perplexing to American readers, because (nearly) all of the measures of distances are given in metric units.  Now, I know that a 'metre' (or 'meter') is about the same as a yard, but I have no intuitive grasp of how far '9000 metres' is.  The article has always been that way, it isn't that someone just ruthlessly changed it.

The funny thing is that some measurements in the article are in Imperial units, but ironically only those of the small quantities that people can probably convert in their heads easily enough.

I have nothing to add to the debate that hasn't already been said.  Often we should give both units, somehow, and context matters, and blah blah blah.  Yes to all that.  :-)  I just wanted to comment on how perplexing the metric system is to me.  [[User:Jimbo Wales|Jimbo Wales]] 08:22, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)

: This came up over a year ago on the mailing list, and I remember Maverick saying to you that you probably don't ''actually'' have a grasp of what 9000 yards is, you just think you do. Bottom line: you're obviously a smart guy, Jimbo. It doesn't take much to learn the metric system. ;) -- [[User:Tarquin|Tarquin]] 12:55, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)


::Yeah, Imperial is perplexing to me & to make it worse, the US doesn't use Imperial but their own system which is mostly the same ... oh, and worse still you've got Troy ounces for certain metals.  9000 metres is about 10000 yards but have a go at converting that to miles.  [[User:Jimp|Jimp]] 15Jun05