this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
138 points (96.0% liked)
World News
32317 readers
828 users here now
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Why do people use football fields and swimming pools as units of measurement.
I can mentally picture an Olympic swimming pool, that's why.
I need to get better at editing myself.
How much is that in giraffes?
Roughly 1651 girraffes, assuming an olympic swimming pool is 2.5 million litres.
I assume it’s to help people visualize volume/distance/size/etc. If an article said “50,000 gallons”, it would be much more precise, but also harder to relate to. When an article says “500 Olympic-sized pools”, it’s significantly easier to picture in my mind.
It’s also worth remembering that this is a newspaper intended for the casual edification of the general public, not a scientific document.