If a calorie measures how much energy was required to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius, why would we use calories to measure energy in food we eat? If I recall correctly, a calorimeter is the device used, at least in the past, not sure about the present, to measure the amount of calories inside of food, and it would do this by burning the food. Why do we apply this human digestion? I believe I read somewhere that today we just figure out the macronutritents of foods (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) and just add those up to figure out the calories, but why a calorie?
I've bloomed to full adulthood without having to use units of distance/measurement except when a mainland European happens to use them.
If someone asked me how far away something was I'd tell them in time, because something might be 10km away but if the road there is windy and bendy then it'll take you longer to get there. Surely what you actually want to know is how long you'll spend en route, not the exact distance you'll travel?
If describing how big something is I'll just say it's the size of my thumb, a cat, a house, etc.
Once I was visiting Germany and the B&B owner wrote precise directions "leave train station, turn left, walk 10 metres forward, turn right, cross the road for 3 metres, turn left, walk 10 metres", when all they had to say was "walk out of the train station, look diagonally left, and you'll see a blue house, number 15".
Today talking to a French person they said to leave "2mm" of space between the coffee and the top of the cup, instead of just "leave a small bit of space".
I've never once in my life seen the need for using precise measurements, am I the only one noticing this is particularly mainland behaviour? I'm willing to accept I've been living in a bubble.
Edit:
Another enlightening example
Had to change trains in a German train station, with only 10 minutes to do so. Called station to see if I would have enough time.
Me: I have 10 mins to change, is that enough?
German: The other train is 5 metres away.
Ok, the two trains are physically 5 metres apart from one another, but is there a barrier in the way? Do I have to go around a long winding passage just to get to the other train on another quay? A unit of distance tells me nothing! A unit of time contains more info: it will take 2 minutes to change trains. Clear, understandable.
I swear the only thing I ever see measured in centilitres is alcohol and almost everything up to a litre is measured in millilitres.
Who decided that 500ml is better than 50cl? Or 750ml bottles are better than 75cl?
This will keep me up tonight..
I've bought some Sega Stock because I have a feeling P5 scramble will do well. I described it to somebody as "I own 1 quill of Sonic the Hedgehog."
So for distance and speed. Yes or no? Why?
It might sound weird but whenever I hear a number over a million I tend to to think of the population of RI which is basically 1 million. For example say in the news they say that such and such has 5 million infected, my monkey brain immediately thinks: "wow that's 5 rhode islands!" Anyone else? Just me?
Cm to ft, inches to mm, nautical miles to bananas.
"Add 10 zips of fresh nutmeg". What the fuck? Google search is coming up empty too.
A few examples that come to mind:
- We buy gasoline in gallons, but soda bottles are sold in liters.
- We drive in miles, but track and swimming events are raced in meters.
- Medicine is always milligrams, but we tell our doctors how many pounds we weigh.
E.g https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/l02kk5/chopped_down_a_tree_with_a_machete/ and a million others, WHY a banana? because they come in different sizes.
Confused in California :)
If I was asked to draw a map, and I scaled the East-West dimension in miles and the North-South dimension in leagues, would you buy that map from me? No matter how I turn this over in my head, it makes zero sense, solves zero imaginable problems, and only makes things unnecessarily difficult. What is the reason for this decision?
Also, how do I get perfectly square cells? I tried the "switch to page layout and the ruler becomes inches" method and it isn't working. As soon as I switch back to normal view, everything is wonky again.
I'd like to calculate how many gigs of nonfiction I have, but while Calibre provides a numerical value for 'Size' it doesn't tell me what the unit of measurement is. Bytes? Kilobytes? Does it include all the data with the entry (cover, multiple formats, etc) or is it just the data of the text the first instance the book was imported?
