Sensible units
June 5, 2008 1:19 PM   Subscribe

123 mm = 12 stacked CD cases. 6 miles = 30 Eiffel Towers. 5 acres = 11 ice hockey rinks. Sensibleunits.com converts any length, area or mass into real objects.
posted by gottabefunky (34 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Pfft. No hogsheads.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:20 PM on June 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Interestingly, it doesn't know what to make of 40 acres...
posted by Mister_A at 1:30 PM on June 5, 2008


10 inches = ...oh, never mind. wow, naughty site
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:33 PM on June 5, 2008


I was going to snark about the site's name, but in my rather finite wisdom I checked the definition of sensible to learn that it can mean simply "something that can be percieved by the senses."

I thought the only definition was, colloqiually, "something that makes sense," as in:
It's not very sensible of me to point out to all of you how big of an idiot I almost made of myself.

Thanks, SensibleUnits.com!
posted by owtytrof at 1:35 PM on June 5, 2008


Unknown unit "plate of beans"
posted by blue_beetle at 1:36 PM on June 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Interestingly, it doesn't know what to make of 40 acres...

Neither does congress.
posted by shmegegge at 1:38 PM on June 5, 2008


Also, no kelicams, bees, or parsecs.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:39 PM on June 5, 2008


1 light years = I don't know of anything that size, sorry.
posted by monospace at 1:39 PM on June 5, 2008


"10 AU" = "10 average Earth-to-Sun Distances" Lame. I want to know how many 1993 Toyota Corollas that is.
posted by Science! at 1:39 PM on June 5, 2008


Suggestions for new objects to convert to are always welcome.
posted by gottabefunky at 1:41 PM on June 5, 2008


1 Bush presidency = 300 million failed dreams.
1 callout = 500 snarks
1 apology = insufficent for calculations
1 george lucas movie = 1 ruined childhood
posted by blue_beetle at 1:45 PM on June 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


Also, no kelicams, bees, or parsecs.

10 parsecs = 7.5 Earth to Alpha Centauri distances.

It's there blue_beetle
posted by Shfishp at 1:50 PM on June 5, 2008


Interestingly, it doesn't know what to make of 40 acres...
posted by Mister_A at 1:30 PM on June 5 [+] [!]


To say nothing of mules!
posted by basicchannel at 1:58 PM on June 5, 2008


10 inches = 1.3 5-month old fetuses laid end-to-end.

Yeah. Because I have all those fetuses lying around for measuring stuff with.
posted by GuyZero at 2:15 PM on June 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


10 inches = 1.3 5-month old fetuses laid end-to-end.

Yeah. Because I have all those fetuses lying around for measuring stuff with.
posted by GuyZero at 2:15 PM on June 5 [+] [!]


Yeah, you're going to need at least 2.7 to make that lampshade.
posted by basicchannel at 2:17 PM on June 5, 2008


Interesting--thanks, gottabefunky. If you type"144 f", it assumes "feet" and varies the equivalents as you complete the word. If you then type a space after feet, it assumes square feet.

Interestingly, it doesn't know what to make of 40 acres...
Yet 45 acres is 0.41 Vatican Cities. Weird.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:22 PM on June 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


I am exactly one quin tall.

What's really weird, though is that I'm 1.05 quins heavy.
posted by quin at 3:11 PM on June 5, 2008


I measure everything physical in European Standard Bananas, and everything metaphysical in scruples.
posted by jfuller at 3:31 PM on June 5, 2008


What? No Potrzebie?

My car gets 5000 potrzebies per milliliter.
posted by Laen at 3:31 PM on June 5, 2008


Apparently, a trip to the moon is "sensible", but a trip to Mars is not. What is this, some kind of doom site?
posted by gorgor_balabala at 4:05 PM on June 5, 2008


Also, it looks like humankind are fated to travel to the sun at some point (see "Astronomical Units").
posted by gorgor_balabala at 4:09 PM on June 5, 2008


Yocto is no go.
posted by Tube at 4:22 PM on June 5, 2008


44 acres= 0.40 Vatican Cities.
posted by obloquy at 5:08 PM on June 5, 2008


Pfft. No hogsheads.

That's (perhaps sadly) the first thing I tried as well. Google knows (no, seriously).
posted by Dark Messiah at 5:18 PM on June 5, 2008


When I saw this I first thought of Something Awful's guide to TV metrics.
posted by Monochrome at 7:03 PM on June 5, 2008


Hmph. Doesn't give measurements in asses that my rat does not give.
posted by isopraxis at 7:30 PM on June 5, 2008


No smoots either.
posted by bendy at 9:51 PM on June 5, 2008


Amusing cultural-learning moment anecdote time:

When I lived in the Rockies I once took a ride on the snowcoach that takes tourists up on to Athabasca glacier (part of the Columbia Icefields system).

On our trip my friend Jocelyn and I were the only locals -- the rest of the bus was composed of a tour group from the US.

During the ride up, the snowcoach guide was reciting statistics about the glacier and its rapid recession over the years, citing figres in metres. All over the bus Jocelyn and I could hear people muttering and whispering to each other, "Well, how long is a meter?" "How are we supposed to know how long a meter is?"

Finally someone from the group spoke up and said, in a juicy southern twang, "Y'all, a meter is like a baseball bat." "Oh!" everyone said. "Oh, okay!"

A metre, we cannot divine, but a baseball bat -- now you're speaking our language.
posted by loiseau at 10:42 PM on June 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Did that website get its start here?
I recall an askMefi along these lines (perhaps about a year ago?), whereupon it was agreed that someone should make a website that converts units into real-world objects.

Or do great minds think alike / fools seldom differ?
posted by -harlequin- at 12:38 AM on June 6, 2008


It doesn't appear to understand prefixes. It has the parsec, but not the attoparsec. Let alone the "attoparsec per fortnight" (which would be about an inch per second)
posted by DreamerFi at 1:25 AM on June 6, 2008


I'm not sure where the idea came from, but Rough Equivalents was posted to MeFi Projects recently.
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 1:34 AM on June 6, 2008


It doesn't appear to understand prefixes. It has the parsec, but not the attoparsec. Let alone the "attoparsec per fortnight" (which would be about an inch per second)

And that's why we have The Google!

NOTE: either your calculation was off, or Google's calculation is off:
1 (attoParsec per fortnight) = 1.00432766 × 10-6 inches per second
posted by inigo2 at 7:19 AM on June 6, 2008


I just let the King Of The Cosmos tell me what my Katamari is as big as. And Crow T. Robot to convert those figures to turkey volume.
posted by mgrichmond at 11:57 AM on June 6, 2008 [1 favorite]


This is exactly the kind of thing APIs are for. I want this integrated into Excel, stat.
posted by bwerdmuller at 10:36 AM on June 8, 2008


« Older Senate Intelligence Committee Phase II Reports   |   Mapping Iran's Online Public: Politics and Culture... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments