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artisinalyesterday at 6:26 PM4 repliesview on HN

Nothing screams freedom more than using ancient terms like horsepower and measuring tires in inches and percentages.

The other day I heard an American talk about a TV being 65 inches. Took me a while to understand they had a 165 centimeter diagonal television.


Replies

tancopyesterday at 7:49 PM

most tv makers and electronics stores in europe give you the screen size in inches first and cm second. they only come in a few common sizes so the specific units dont really matter.

clickety_clackyesterday at 7:02 PM

I bet you’d use lightyears over petametres or exametres though.

show 1 reply
vel0cityyesterday at 8:02 PM

Speaking of tires, its actually a crazy mixture of units here in the US. You might have a size like P215/65R15 which translates to a radial passenger tire of a 15" rim, 215mm wide tread (sidewall to sidewall), and an aspect ratio of 65 which is a ratio of the sidewall to tread width.

So a tire size is expressed in inches, millimeters, and ratios.

alehlopehyesterday at 6:54 PM

Surely you mean tyres? It’s all arbitrary. Get over yourself.