Comment on Why a ton, and not a megagram?
13esq@lemmy.world 9 months agoThere 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.
13esq@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That’s the point, millis and megas make sense for things that aren’t tangible in real life. That’s exactly why we use tons and not megagrams.
Shialac@lemmy.world 9 months ago
When I imagine 1km I don’t imagine 1000 individual meters in my head, I imagine 1km
13esq@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The point is that you can easily estimate a meter.
Look to the horizon and estimate a kilometre and I’ll bet that your error is significant by comparison to your estimate of a meter.
There is a big difference between imagining/understanding a concept and judging it accurately in the real world.