Similarly large volumes of water should be given in kl, Ml, Gl etc. instead of m^3. Which one is bigger 2500000 m^3 or 790000 m^3? Count the zeros if you want and then tell me if using appropriate prefixes would have made it easier to tell the difference.
Comment on Why a ton, and not a megagram?
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
No good reason, just historical inertia and resistance to change. People stick to what they’re familiar with, either the imperial system or to common metric units. Making a “metric ton” similar in size to an “imperial ton” arguably helped make it easier for some people to transition to metric.
Megagram is a perfectly cromulent unit, just like “cromulent” is a perfectly cromulent word, but people still don’t use it very often. That’s just how language works. People use the words they prefer, and those words become common. Maybe if you start describing things in megagrams other people will also start doing it and it will become a common part of the language. Language is organic like that, there isn’t anyone making decisions on its behalf, although some people and organizations try.
Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
13esq@lemmy.world 9 months ago
If you see an IBC of water, do you see 1m³ or a thousand individual liters?
There’s nothing wrong with describing things the way that you experience them.
Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
Well I guess an IBC is a bit of an exception if it really does contain 1 kl, although there are also 0.8 and 1,2 kl containers. If you prefer to think of those in terms of cubic meters, then that’s perfectly fine.
It’s just that when you’re buying a reactor, comparing two ponds or reading about annual and monthly production of different companies you bump into these crazy numbers with mostly zeroes. That’s not convenient at all. Even though it could look cool, you don’t see computer people talking about SSDs in terms of individual bytes. You know, prefixes exist too, so why not use them.
hedgehog@ttrpg.network 9 months ago
If you used scientific notation or commas (or periods, depending on region) to format those numbers for human consumption, that would also make it easier.
13esq@lemmy.world 9 months ago
There is a good reason.
People can picture one ton in their heads, no one can picture one million grams.
You can imagine a ton bag of sand, you can’t imagine one million individual grains of sand that weigh one gram each.
The term “megagram” does make perfect sense, but it doesn’t fit well with the way the people experience the universe around them.
Shialac@lemmy.world 9 months ago
These two words mean the same thing, why would you be able ti picture one thing but not the other?
13esq@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Try it, count grains of sand in your head whilst you picture them. Unless your a savant, it probably starts getting a little blurry around the high teens, maybe a bit higher. You can use tricks like imaging a grid of ten by ten to picture a hundred, but it’ll still be rather blurry. Picturing a million of something is literally impossible, human minds aren’t designed for that.
If you wanted some sand to line your new brick driveway, would you ask the builders merchant for a few tonnes of sand or a x million grains of sand? It’s the same difference.
XTL@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
By this logic, a millianything is also completely unimaginable, because you can’t count to less than one. BS.
Shialac@lemmy.world 9 months ago
When I imagine 1km I don’t imagine 1000 individual meters in my head, I imagine 1km
Kalkaline@programming.dev 9 months ago
You’re right though, cromulent is a perfectly scrumtrulescent word.
13esq@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The sort of personal that insists on calling a ton a megagram is probably going to be the same sort of insufferable Jimmy Neutron arsehole that insists on calling salt “sodium chloride”, yes you’re technically correct, but people experience food as salty and no one is going to say “this food is very sodium chloridy!”
FooBarrington@lemmy.world 9 months ago
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13esq@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I order a megagram of sand and you bring me 1.000001 tons?!?! REEEE3EEEEEEEEE