USA just will not go metric.

Tuna as measurement

And if you don't want to go look, here is the headline.

Asteroid the size of 22 tuna fish to fly closer to Earth than the Moon - NASA

But what is the conversion factor between that and Corgis, bananas, and elephants? We need consistent units of measurement!

In reply to Noddaz :

Seems that the specific article is the one who is turning the measurement into fish.  All other news I see about that has either feet or meters for the asteroid.

So about this big?  That doesn't seem very dangerous. :)

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A nation that can't count to ten. I have never understood that. Might also explain the economy.

Tuna come in sizes from a few inches to over 14 feet. So exactly what size tuna was being used as a measuring stick? 

I find it hilarious how worked-up people get over what system of measurement is used. Honestly, what difference does it make? Feet, yards, meters, bits, skosh, cubits, does it really matter what people use? That little box in your hand will do the conversion to just about any measurement almost instantly. Stop being lazy and use it. 

Damn, that's only 196 cubits. That's not very big at all. 

15/16ths of the world uses the metric system. 

In reply to Toyman! : Tuna come in sizes from a few inches to over 14 feet. So exactly what size tuna was being used as a measuring stick? 

A tuna about the size of a large bunch of bananas, of course.

The article addresses the size of tuna used in this measurement, lest anyone think using tuna as a measuring stick is silly. 

The standard used was big honking tuna, i.e. full size Atlantic Bluefin.

ShawnG said:

15/16ths of the world uses the metric system. 

Soccer is actually popular in much of the world, and they call it "football."  Doesn't make it right.

Noddaz said:

Tuna as measurement

And if you don't want to go look, here is the headline.

Asteroid the size of 22 tuna fish to fly closer to Earth than the Moon - NASA

In this example the USA won't even use standard.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

You actually read the article? I'm impressed. I tend to bypass articles that use fish as a scale. 

What if those are metric tuna?

Toyman! said:

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

You actually read the article? I'm impressed. I tend to bypass articles that use fish as a scale. 

Sounds like you're willing to use fish once they've been scaled though or did I misunderstand???

Carp, it's only fifteen clams, get one just for the halibut or knot:

I once remember a american comedian (but I don't remember which comedian) say,

"In school they taught us the metric system and all we got was a way to buy soda and cocaine."

1988RedT2 said:

ShawnG said:

15/16ths of the world uses the metric system. 

Soccer is actually popular in much of the world, and they call it "football."  Doesn't make it right.

I mean you do kick a ball pretty much constantly rather then just once every 30 minutes.

Just remember, there are two kinds of countries in the world. Those that have put men on the moon, and those who use the metric system.

Toyman! said:

Damn, that's only 196 cubits. That's not very big at all. 

I have my metalwork students do some work in cubits and spans - "thereabouts" measurement for stuff that doesn't really matter.

Toyman! said:

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

You actually read the article? I'm impressed. I tend to bypass articles that use fish as a scale. 

Well, the author did a pretty good job of luring me in with his unusual title and hooking me with his clever prose.

Toyman! said:

Tuna come in sizes from a few inches to over 14 feet. So exactly what size tuna was being used as a measuring stick? 

 

The King's tuna.

1988RedT2 said:

The article addresses the size of tuna used in this measurement, lest anyone think using tuna as a measuring stick is silly. 

The standard used was big honking tuna, i.e. full size Atlantic Bluefin.

Good, I was thinking in terms of compact or sub-compact tuna (which in euro-metric terms would be B-segment or A-segment tuna).

My life has been spent doing bad stuff like consistently writing in the passive voice, but this is just absurd:

But this isn't one of those smaller asteroids, and at 90 meters, asteroid 2023 DZ2 is considerably larger than a fish. Assuming their maximum length of four meters, the asteroid's size is as much as over 22 Atlantic bluefin tuna fish lined up in a row mouth-to-tail

I have so many questions

1. Tuna have a 2:1 size range, so the size estimate for the asteroid might be only 40-tuna at the low end but 23-tuna at the high end?
2. For a volume comparison, do we have to use cubic-tuna (tuna^3)?
3. Does is matter if the fish are lined up alternating mouth-to-mouth/tail-to-tail?  How else are you going to arrange fish for a linear distance, use the vector dot product to get the equivalent magnitude of fish in random orientation?

I'm going to have to say my personal belief is that if God wanted the metric system he would have only had 10 disciples