• pemptago@lemmy.ml
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    5 hours ago

    Used this all the time until I recently stubled across the cli program units

  • marcos@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Seems useful for those cases you don’t know what a furlong even measures.

    I wonder how well it handles ounces.

      • altkey (he\him)@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 hours ago

        One spawns a pre-coded widget with obvious math equations inside, the other puts out values in a way you can’t tell if it calculated stuff or made it all up. I am sure it triggers a side-calculator too, but I can’t know if it exists, and if it was properly triggered this time after they presented the output like an answer from their Search Assist LLM tool.

        This, and that you get a working multi-unit converter widget you can use again and again without asking DDG once more. I think the old way clearly wins.

      • marcos@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        It converts into another imperial weight unity, and an international volume unity…

        It didn’t ask for clarification if you are dealing with precious metals…

        I’m not sure any system like that can really work for ounces. But well, that’s not bad.

  • gastroglizzy@piefed.social
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    11 hours ago

    Yeah, that’s great and all, but consider the following:

    If I’m standing in the middle of a field and I need to measure sixty-ish feet for a fence, and I don’t have a meter stick, I can get pretty close by walking heel-to-toe for sixty paces. There’s no equivalent method for a meter and no metric unit that has a human body equivalent, while the most imperial length units all have human body equivalents.

    Also, even if I do have a meter stick, how tf am I supposed to measure and mark 0.288 of one? Sixty feet is easier to work with.

    There’s also the matter of a foot being equally divisible into 2, 3, 4, or 6 equal lengths, all of which also have human body equivalents. If you know them all, and measurements relative to other objects aren’t required, you can build things that measure up relative to themselves by just using fingers, hands, feet, marks, a square, and a straight edge, no ruler or tape required. I have projects close to ten years old built that way that are still standing strong.

    • Lectral@lemmy.ca
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      9 hours ago

      My step length is 0.8m. After taking 25 steps, I have travelled 20m (roughly 65feet). 5 times that is 100m. 10 times that is 1km. Notice how easy those numbers are to multiply and divide. And notice how much easier it is to take regular steps than heel-to-toe steps. You know you could memorize how big your body parts are in metric too, right?

      I’d argue that the only reason your preferred units are easier for you is because you are familiar with them.

    • yesman@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Also, even if I do have a meter stick, how tf am I supposed to measure and mark 0.288 of one?

      If only there was a way to calculate 0.288 of a meter. Maybe we could get a mathematician to draw up some kind of formula that’d let us cypher 29% of a meter.

    • Diddlydee@feddit.uk
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      11 hours ago

      Pretty close? If your foot is a UK size 12 and therefore 1ft long that will work, but any variance, say 1cm, equates to 60cm / 2ft across your 60ft.

      I would measure the 60ft using a lifesize printout of Johnathan Edwards 18.29m triple jump world record from 1995 which I keep handy.

    • BeardedBlaze@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      A yard (3 feet) is .9144 meters. Since you’re throwing accuracy out the window using heel-to-toe of different foot sizes, it’s just as accurate, and just as usable.

    • [deleted]@piefed.world
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      11 hours ago

      Does it work for football fields to real units?

      I use noai.ddg and don’t get the converter thingy.

        • [deleted]@piefed.world
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          9 hours ago

          I don’t get it for football fields or other ‘anything but metric’ units which is what I was going for.

        • [deleted]@piefed.world
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          10 hours ago

          I use noai.ddg and don’t get the converter thingy.

          Tried going to regular ddg and don’t get the converter thing, just regular results. I probably turned off a setting somewhere.

          • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            I’m getting it intermittently too, for what it’s worth. Depending heavily on the unit. For example, I tried and realized “100 yards in real units” doesn’t work, but “100 feet in real units” does.

            • [deleted]@piefed.world
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              9 hours ago

              I don’t want to ask it yards. I want to ask it in ‘anything but metric’ units like football fields and Olympic sized swimming pools.

              Didn’t try regular measurements before, but yeah now I see it when I use those.