This is actually a super fascinating example of the way data can be displayed in a technically correct way to lead the viewer to completely invalid conclusions.
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
1304 points (97.0% liked)
196
16303 readers
2936 users here now
Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.
Rule: You must post before you leave.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Fever is not 100F. A fever is defined as 100.4F. Why 100.4 when 100 is a much easier to remember and handle number? Because fever is defined in humans as 38C, and that converts to 100.4F.
It's been a while but I think they tried to establish 100F as the average human body temperature. But after they established that baseline turns out they were off by 1.4 degrees and couldn't change it.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(11 replies)
“Inches in 8.33 feet”
“Mm in a foot”
Fool, the scientist in me is infuriated. Good work, mate!
This is one of the most stupid things I've ever seen. Good job.
Saturday Night Live actually had a good sketch about this a few weeks ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqfVE-fykk
Washington: "We fight for a nation where we choose our own laws... choose our own leaders... and choose our own systems of weights and measures.
I dream that one day, our proud nation will measure weights in pounds, and that 2000 pounds shall be called a ton."
Rebel: "And what will 1000 pounds be called sir?"
Washington: "Nothing. Cause will have no word for that."
...
Washington: "Distance will be measured in inches, feet, yards and miles. 12 inches to a foot!"
Rebel: "12 feet to a yard..."
Washington: "If only it were so simple. 3 feet to a yard."
Rebel: "And how many yards to a mile?"
Washington: "Nobody knows."
Rebel: "Ok, how many feet to a mile?"
Washington: "5280, of course! It's a simple number that everyone will remember."
load more comments
(1 replies)
wait 100 F is only 38 degrees?
Wow that's funny. I've seen so many people complain about extreme heat below 100 F.
I get that what you're not used to is difficult but like 38 degrees is a relatively ordinary (now) summer day for me.
From how people spoke about it I thought 100 F was more lile 45
I think that if the air is moist enough 38 degrees will overheat the body and kill it. Because the human body sweats to lose heat.
So some regions on earth are probably less pleasant when the temperature rises. While other regions are more tolarable for humans.
So there might be a reason why some people complain that they suffer from the heat. There could also be other reasons like their living conditions. A lack of ac and water, or living in a urban heat hell.
Lets not trivialize experiences of people who suffer.
load more comments
(7 replies)
Fun fact. -40 degrees is the same in both C and F, and is also called "January" where I live.
load more comments
(7 replies)
load more comments
(12 replies)
USA's measurment system dosn't make any senses.
Shut up. If you don't know how many buckets there are to a hogshead, that's not our fault.
load more comments
(1 replies)
That's medieval units for you. At least they use the same units in the whole country, which is progress compared to how it used to be in the rest of the medieval world. They just didn't take the last step to modernity.
load more comments
(4 replies)
1776-07-04
Sorting algos all agree.
Lolz. It's funny because it's so stupid.
I think the two points missing from most debates are
-
The imperial system does a damn good job at measuring things the way a human would. A foot is roughly the length of a big foot. A single degree farenheit is just big enough that you could guesstimate it with enough practice. If the temperatures are negative, you dump sand on the roads instead of salt.
-
It's like seven units of measurement in a trenchant. You never have to convert gallons to cubic miles. You never have to convert from dots to angstoms, and nobody has ever had to convert the surveyors mile to the nautical mile. It feels schizophrenic because claiming it's one singular system is like saying Italian, French, and Portuguese languages are all regional dialects of Europeanese.
My point isn't "it's not a bug, it's a feature", I'm saying for the average non-scientist there may be a logical reason why we like it so much
Yeah. You're used to it
No no. The rest of the world is constantly out of sorts on what common measurements are. It's like how monolingual non-English-speaking people are constantly aware they're not speaking the natural language of English.
/s
load more comments
(4 replies)
Tbh I don't really get why people get upset about mm/dd/yyyy vs dd/mm/yyyy. Is it a little weird? Sure, but personally, saying "July 4th, 1776" feels as natural as "the 4th of July, 1776". The former is more formal, the latter is more casual.
People don't get upset about saying the date in whatever format. They get upset when you write it in that format without specifying, so that you don't know if 07/04/1776 is July 4th or April 7th.
I love it when someone sends me a message like this:
Hey there! What are you doing on 4/5?
????
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
One word: Ambiguity. We need to either have a standard and stick to it, or a small handful of standards that cannot be confused for each other. DD/MM/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY can be confused for each other, so the nonsensical MM/DD/YYYY should move over and make room for DD/MM/YYYY, or we should drop both and just use YYYY-MM-DD.
ISO 8601 for life.
load more comments
(2 replies)
It's not about saying it. It has to do with ordering it by size of time unit. Like I don't write the time as 43:12:19 to denote 43 minutes and 19 seconds past midday do I.
If it’s about size of time unit surely it should be 2023/11/20?
ISO8601 is the best format and the international standard to denote date and time.
2023-11-21T00:34:2
load more comments
(9 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
but personally, saying
I don't understand why it matters how you say the date vs. how it's written with slashes.
If someone asks you the time, and you look at your watch and it says 11:45, you could just answer "eleven forty five", but depending on the context you might just say "It's noon" or "It's almost noon" or "It's a quarter to noon". 11:45 is how you get the information into your brain. How you process that information and how you pass it on depends on the context.
The best date format is clearly ISO-8601, YYYY-MM-DD. In that format, US independence day is 1776-07-04. But, you don't need to say it as "seventeen seventy six, seventh month, fourth day". You can say "July 4th, 1776" or "The 4th of July, 1776".
ISO 8601. 1776-07-04. Everyone else is a heathen.
I don't really care which way it goes, it just gets confusing if both month and date are 12 or lower and the format wasn't specified ahead of time
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(9 replies)
Mother tell the children not to check the temps. Tell the children not to read my books what they mean what they say.
Sorry i read Danzig so I though of the band
load more comments
(1 replies)
1776-07-04 gang
Another fucking imperial versus metric meme, never seen this before. Most of us use metric already, shut the fuck up
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›