this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Why state a car's length in millimeters? Why state any length over a meter in millimeters?

Why doesn't the world use the decimeter? I don't think I've ever seen it used anywhere.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Using millimeters is pretty common in engineering.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

millimeters allow these numbers to be displayed as integers

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Is that how numbers work, fascinating.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've seen technical drawings where the dimension of something is 10000+ mm. At that point I feel like the whole utility of the metric system is moot.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I disagree with you. If you need five digits of precision, 12345 mm is precise and perfectly usable (and slightly less complex than 12,345 meters). Others might just say that the machine (or whatever) is twelve meters long. And all the math you need is removing three digits.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I only use furlongs, rods, chains, and links in my calculations.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This guy gets it!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In countries that aren't America, we use centimetres and metres. But it was suggested that yanks are a bit thick and might be happier using woodworkers units of millimetres and metres.

No one uses deci anything, in my experience.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've seen deciliters around some places for beverages.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Interesting, only place I have seen them is in science fiction books, and the occasional scifi themed bar.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We use deci-bells to measure sound volume

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Good point well argued. I had not thought of them!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Builders, carpenters, plumbers etc all state any length up to 10m in mm

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Because too many people don't understand sig figs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My decimeters be decimating

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Its quite common around here to see height restrictions signed in mm. For example a car park entrance might have a sign labeled 1800mm max height

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm curious to see how the arguments for using mm instead of dm varies from the argument for using imperial vs metric. You're right that there's way better units to use here, but I think mm is used out of convention. Which is the exact same reason that feet and miles are used, because everyone is used to it.