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Expressing Measurements Via Analogies & Comparisons

What gets me is when they quote things like “ if your intestines were stretched out, they’d reach the length of 3 Olympic swimming pools” or “if your nerves were stretched out they’d reach half way to the Moon”... they’re the sort of images that are quite arresting, however, have ANY of these rather left field ‘ measurements’ ever been done, dear Members?
 
I wonder how many Cromer Piers it would take to get to the moon and back?.
Well none. It’s stuck to the bottom, has no capability of escaping Earth’s orbit and the toilets are woefully lacking for such a mission. Unless Cromer has made giant leaps in the Hook a Duck drive and the ship’s computer (aka Gypsy Rose Lee) has come on leaps and bounds and the transporter does better than only successfully working if three cherries turn up in the window, Cromer Pier’s space ambitions remain grounded.
 
Well none. It’s stuck to the bottom, has no capability of escaping Earth’s orbit and the toilets are woefully lacking for such a mission. Unless Cromer has made giant leaps in the Hook a Duck drive and the ship’s computer (aka Gypsy Rose Lee) has come on leaps and bounds and the transporter does better than only successfully working if three cherries turn up in the window, Cromer Pier’s space ambitions remain grounded.
But if it could? ..
 
But if it could? ..
It would be a liability and a danger to shipping throughout the galaxy.
And candy floss isn’t that good after you’ve had nothing else except the chews from the Twopenny Falls machine as food for a year.
 
I live in the upper Midwest of the 'States and I was always told this was sort of unique to us. Glad to hear other people do this as well...it just makes sense.
Speed = Distance over Time. Distance is not really measured as ‘aways’ or ‘about quarter of an hour’.
 
Distance is not really measured as ‘aways’ or ‘about quarter of an hour’.
I disagree. A lot of times, if you know your roads, it's easy to say, "Take HWY A for 10 minutes until you hit HWY 12, take a left, then Fort Atkinson is 15 minutes away." Mind you, I come from areas where "highway" means some random back-country road where you aren't likely to see more than one car for your entire trip...so it's easy to estimate your speed.
 
“ if your intestines were stretched out, they’d reach the length of 3 Olympic swimming pools” or “if your nerves were stretched out they’d reach half way to the Moon”
..not that you'd care, as you'd be dead, but yes. It also implies that someone has actually measured this - intestines, fair enough, but nerves? A 125,000 mile tape measure would be an amazing sight.
A lot of times, if you know your roads, it's easy to say, "Take HWY A for 10 minutes until you hit HWY 12, take a left, then Fort Atkinson is 15 minutes away."
There's a lot in this about cultural terms and context. When we lived in the US one of the first things that struck me was simplicity of directions, as communities were (generally) laid out logically and recently. The flipside is when people entirely used to this arrangement encounter that to which most Europeans are used, old places that have grown organically. We had friends over from the US years ago who marvelled at how narrow and labyrinthine our neighbourhood is - but that viewpoint is entirely informed by private car ownership and use. Anything built before 1920 was done so with the horse & cart in mind: take away the motors and they become surprisingly wide and airy streets.
 
Is that Mrs Swifty, 'laughing like a drain' in the background?
Nope .. she hates French & Saunders (and most other people for no reason .. especially you if I let her read what you've just written) and she laughs loudly, especially at things we're not supposed to.
 
Hole size of Nelson's Column opens in back garden
A mine-shaft as deep as Nelson's Column opened in the garden of a £250,000 Edwardian cottage

Last Updated: 7:57PM GMT 21 Dec 2008

Mark and Susan Gilbert watched in horror as the ground caved in and a "vast crater" appeared just steps away from their back door.

The couple heard a "loud creaking" moments before their patio collapsed into the pitch-black chasm.

When the smoke and debris finally cleared, they were left with a giant hole measuring 15ft in diameter - and 165ft (50m) deep. :shock:

Experts say the disused shaft would have been used by teams of miners up until the late 19th century to bring underground coal to the surface.

The couple said the ordeal at their home in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, left them "shaking for hours".

Mr Gilbert, 54, said: "The whole patio literally disappeared and fell into a vast crater.

"The ground in that area just fell away to expose a massive mine shaft 50 metres deep.

"It was a scary sight and although no one was injured, we were both shaking for hours afterwards."

Mr Gilbert, a delivery manager for Royal Mail, added: "There are some things that you just don't expect to happen - and that was certainly one of them."

The couple bought the three-bedroom end-of-terrace cottage nine years ago but had no idea its grounds contained the openings of a mine.

The property is on the outskirts of what was once a thriving coal mining region, and they carried out extensive land surveys before moving in.

But the searches failed to spot the shaft, which experts believe was never officially registered.

Since 1999, they have used the 18ft by 12ft patio on a daily basis to hang out the washing, enjoy BBQs with friends, and relax in the evenings.

But earlier this year, it began to "sag" in the middle and Mr Gilbert was forced to hire a builder to flatten it out.

The workman filled the depression with two tonnes of concrete before re-laying the slabs at the correct angle.

But within weeks it had dropped "significantly' - and Mr Gilbert finally realised what could lie below.

He said: "We'd undertaken lots of surveys when we bought the place, but they never revealed anything.

"We knew the area was once a mining area, so when the ground started to sag again, we knew something could be amiss."

Last month, experts from the Coal Authority, the Government agency which deals with abandoned coal mines, visited the property and confirmed the presence of a mine.

They erected fences around the patio and advised the Gilberts against walking over it until it could be filled after Christmas.

But at around 8am last Thursday, the ground gave in completely - swallowing the patio whole and leaving a vertical shaft in its place.

Mr Gilbert said: "It beggars belief to think that there's such a large hole in our back garden.

"When it caved in, the earth around it covered it up a bit so it's difficult to appreciate exactly how deep it is.

"But you really wouldn't want to walk on it - there's a drop of 50 metres below that which I've been told would open up under the weight of just a gram or two.

"It was just a miracle that neither of us weren't in the garden at the time, or we would surely have been killed."

The Coal Authority (CA) believes the shaft was part of the Quarry Pit Mine network, which was last worked in 1836.

It is among an estimated 170,000 unregistered mines, which are frequently discovered by homeowners across the UK.

Luckily, residents who find mines on their property are protected financially by the Coal Mining Subsidence Act, which ensures that holes - and any damage they cause - are repaired free of charge.

The Gilbert's shaft will now be filled in by CA workmen using tens of thousands of gallons of liquid concrete.

A spokesman for the CA said: "A shaft measuring 50 metres is certainly unusual and was clearly dangerous to the homeowners.

"The Coal Authority visited the property and made the area safe, and we will now be carrying out a filling operation to return their back garden to how it once was."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... arden.html
Found the above when searching as I thought I'd posted about this before; but obviously not so here goes...

Part of my professional training was in assessing information and one exercise we were given (pre internet) was to search as many sources as possible for the height of Nelson's column.

First issue - Which one? (Quiet at the back) there are several monuments some no longer extant.

Second issue - Height above ground or height above sea level?

Third issue, and the main source of confusion was just Column, or column and plinth and column plinth and statue?

There were nearly as many answers as there were sources including the Britannica which listed two values in separate articles, very handy when confronted by their, at the time aggressive marketing.

Add in confusion over conversion to metric and poor transcription the whole thing was a mess.

The internet hasn't helped, when I last looked a few years ago there were still different heights listed, including one site who had set out heights for statue, column and plinth then added them up incorrectly.:doh:
The whole thing was cleaned in 2006 as, to quote Spike Milligan

‘Tis due to pigeons
That alight
On Nelson’s column
That make it white

It was found to be shorter than the expected measurement by sixteen feet if you believe one site but at least one other says fourteen and a half feet! All this despite John Noakes climbing it for Blue Peter in 1977.

That, according to one site is a variation of between 1.6 and 1.4 times the maximum size of erect Blue Whale willies which I propose as a new basis for measurement.
 
And nothing tops a triceratops.
I beg to differ....

1644836221493.png
 
What gets me is when they quote things like “ if your intestines were stretched out, they’d reach the length of 3 Olympic swimming pools” or “if your nerves were stretched out they’d reach half way to the Moon”... they’re the sort of images that are quite arresting, however, have ANY of these rather left field ‘ measurements’ ever been done, dear Members?
Now you're asking us to admit to being murderers, of a scientific bent....

When I learned to ride, to avoid your pony being kicked when you rode in a line, we were always told to keep 'one pony's length' away from the rider in front of you. It's surprisingly difficult to estimate the length of a pony, when moving at speed...
 
Now you're asking us to admit to being murderers, of a scientific bent....

When I learned to ride, to avoid your pony being kicked when you rode in a line, we were always told to keep 'one pony's length' away from the rider in front of you. It's surprisingly difficult to estimate the length of a pony, when moving at speed...
One and a half Blue Whale willies?
 
I'm not sure why they had to clarify the height of the turbine with a comparison to Nelsons Column, which traditionally is itself something of a difficult thing to establish. Do they mean the height of just the column, or including the statue itself, from ground to tip, or height above sea-level? etc etc etc.
Also;
When the column was measured in 2006, during a £420,000 renovation, it was discovered that the monument is 14 ft 6 in (4.4 m) shorter than had always been thought. The actual height of Nelson’s Column, from the bottom of the pedestal to the top of Nelson’s hat, is 169 ft 3 in (51.6 m).
So either of the measurements doesn't support the article.

Too windy for a WIND TURBINE! Villagers in Wales wake to horrific crash as £20million 300ft eco-energy generator is blown over in 50mph storm
"The £20million wind turbine, which is double the height of Nelson's Column,...."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...fic-crash-300FT-wind-turbine-blown-storm.html
 
Now you're asking us to admit to being murderers, of a scientific bent....

When I learned to ride, to avoid your pony being kicked when you rode in a line, we were always told to keep 'one pony's length' away from the rider in front of you. It's surprisingly difficult to estimate the length of a pony, when moving at speed...
If you do that on the M6 some twat in a Beamer'll sneak into the gap, does that happen with ponies too?
 
I picture two yards/metres of length, especially on the ground, as my ex stretched out writhing in agony subsequent to a sharp kick up the arse or 'nads.

Preferably delivered by myself but I don't mind someone else joining in, I'm generous that way.
 
Chevrons are placed at intervals of 40 metres, ensuring that a safe distance is kept between vehicles travelling at 70 mph as long as drivers keep a minimum of two chevrons apart.
An average pony length we could guesstimate (smaller than a horse) at about 2 metres for a medium sized pony, possibly a Welsh pony.
So you would want to keep a distance of about 40 ponies from the vehicle in front, if you were galloping at 70mph.
 
Chevrons are placed at intervals of 40 metres, ensuring that a safe distance is kept between vehicles travelling at 70 mph as long as drivers keep a minimum of two chevrons apart.
An average pony length we could guesstimate (smaller than a horse) at about 2 metres for a medium sized pony, possibly a Welsh pony.
So you would want to keep a distance of about 40 ponies from the vehicle in front, if you were galloping at 70mph.

So that's 40 ponies, which equates to my ex being laid out by a size 8 to the testicles or anus 40 times consecutively.
:thought:

I'm getting the idea now.
 
The smurfs were described as being three apples tall, so I tend to use that as measurement.
German has "Dreikäsehoch" - three cheeses high - for a young child, especially one who's trying to do something for which they're not old enough. Probably old-fashioned, like "half-pint". Not sure whether it can also be applied to a shortish man with an exaggerated opinion of himself, like "wee nyaff".
 
So that's 40 ponies, which equates to my ex being laid out by a size 8 to the testicles or anus 40 times consecutively.
:thought:

I'm getting the idea now.
Forty ponies is a herd. So you could abbreviate 'one chevron apart' to 'one herd of ponies, (possibly Welsh).

So, drivers, be careful and remain one herd of 12 hands ponies apart. Or maybe 12.2. Or 13.2 if they are Section C.

'Chevrons is probably easier to put on a sign though.
 
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