reminds me of an article where the area of a solar array was measured in units of Olympic swimming pools....
just why?
this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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Because humans are notorious for not being able to estimate area and volume. Pretty much anything but length. People can visualize an Olympic swimming pool. They cannot visualize an acre or hectare.
But mostly, it's because units are about communicating. They need to provide understanding to the user. That's why feet and inches are so useful as units. They're real to everyone.
Let me give you an example.
DC fast chargers operate at 250 kW. I can do all kinds of physics with that number. How long it would take to boil a cubic meter of water. How fast can that accelerate a rock. All the things.
That's not very helpful though. It doesn't tell me anything real in my life.
Now, I'll tell you that that number will trip the main breaker of 5 typical houses. That's better, but I don't really know how much a house is.
What I do know is how hot an oven is when running on full blast.
250 kW is more than 80 ovens running on full blast.
That's about as good an intuitive understanding of that number as I can get.
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(4 replies)
How many Smoots is that?
Terrible unit of measurement. I need to know how many bananas.
So there's a comet. Big deal. It'll burn up in our atmosphere and whatever's left will be no bigger than a chihuahua's head.
ITT: People with no sense of humor