Frazz by Jef Mallett for May 26, 2012
Transcript:
Caulfield: How far today? Frazz: About 183 kilometers. Caulfield: Kilometers! How euro. Frazz: I like how it gives me a bigger number. Caulfield: Too bad you can't calibrate this thing in furlongs. Frazz: Ha! Ha! Caulfield: You're thinking about it now, aren't you? Frazz: I'll split the patent with you.
Harryfan over 12 years ago
So his speed will be measured in X number of furlongs per fortnight.
phuhknees over 12 years ago
So it’s about eight to the mile and five to the klick; but what’s that in cubits?
Stray over 12 years ago
It aint Euro…it’s rest of the world.
Kroykali over 12 years ago
I remember my science teacher saying how the U.S. will be totally metric in a few years. This was in 1977. I’m still waiting.
bagbalm over 12 years ago
On to cubits!
atajayhawk over 12 years ago
@kroykali: Library books are measured for cataloging in metric, because Melville Dewey figured we’d be going metric soon. That was in 1876.
Toxicdave over 12 years ago
BTW – 185 k is 919.6 furlongs
Toxicdave over 12 years ago
If Frazz wants to feel slow – 185 kilometer = 0.000 617 093 576 12 light second www.onlineconversion.com
khjalmarj over 12 years ago
I once figured my gasoline mileage in inverse acres. The dimensional analysis actually allows that (length/volume is the same as 1/area, right?). It’s too bad the numbers weren’t closer to the regular miles/gallon figures, or I could have had some fun with it.
sonorhC over 12 years ago
@phuh knees: A furlong is 440 cubits. And no, I didn’t have to look that up.Personally, I prefer the meter-ton-second system: It’s all metric, so you’ve got the convenient factors of 10, none of the base units has a prefix on it, and the density of water is 1, which is convenient.
Elderflower over 12 years ago
When I am required to reveal my weight, I prefer to do so in stones. It sounds much better, and usually no on knows what it means.
patskelly over 12 years ago
At Georgia Tech in the last millennium we used kilofurlongs per fortnight
prrdh over 12 years ago
Actually, the Celsius scale has no more (or less) claim to being base ten than the Fahrenheit scale; it’s just that the zero and hundred points are different. With the Fahrenheit scale, you can give a more precise temperature without having to go to the right of the decimal point.
prrdh over 12 years ago
Let me correct my last comment for Europeans…that’s ‘to the right of the comma’.
hippogriff over 12 years ago
I had fun during metrication in Canada. With the usual resistance to anything new, I would suggest that first we split the difference between US and Imperial quarts. Everyone would agree. “Then we could call it a litre.” Lots of sputtering..
Stephen Sirk Premium Member over 12 years ago
for my HS physics final the extra credit question asked us to calculate the speed of light in furlongs/fortnight —
el8 over 12 years ago
computed in stadia: 8.7mis (approx)
cabalonrye over 12 years ago
To prrdh: Brits are Europeans however they deny it and use the dreaded point for decimal, so you were one part right. They are even switching slowly over to the decimal system.
cabalonrye over 12 years ago
Don’t roll your eyes so, boyo. For the lack of a kilo a space probe was lost, because the Nasa sent course correction and thruster data using the pounds measurement when the probe internal programming was in metric units.
lmchildress over 12 years ago
There is a stretch of highway south of Tucson AZ that has the mileage sign posted in metric. This was done there sometime in the early 70s, with the thinking being that they would start in a relatively unused area of the country, so that people could get used to it, then they would slowly change all signs to metric. It’s really been slow because, in 2012, that stretch of highway is still the only one in the country that is in metric.
DKHenderson about 2 months ago
Wonder if Frazz has ever converted his swimming speed into knots?