50
Yards, feet and Football pitches (lemmy.nz)
submitted 6 months ago by daveywaveyboy@feddit.nl to c/anythingbutmetric@discuss.tchncs.de
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Without looking it up don’t know how 22 yards compare to 115 feet or why you would use different Measures, but why half a Football pitch?i assume that’s american Football but if not then for real Football while FIFA recommends 105 Meters actually the length can be between 100 and 100 Meters so if 115 feet is about 35 Meters that is not even close to half a - oh my Brain just Exploded

top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works 14 points 6 months ago

They should standardize their measurements to giraffes laying down.

[-] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)
  • 22 yards ≈ 20 metres
  • 112 feet ≈ 34 metres
  • A football field is about 68 metres wide

In other words, your article was written by an Assumed Intelligence.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

An American football field is 100 yards long, which is 300 feet, or a bit over 91 metres.

[-] vk6flab@lemmy.radio -2 points 6 months ago

How WIDE is the football field?

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

They're comparing the length.

[-] PunnyName@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

Why is that relevant?

[-] TachyonTele@piefed.social 3 points 6 months ago

Nothing compared to how TALL football fields are!

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago

This isn't an "anything but metric" though.

They're using a visual example of the size they described.

They didn't say "that's 22 meters" or twelve bananas, or whatever silly example unit might be subbed in.

Most people don't have good spatial sense based off of raw units, no matter what those units are.

American football fans tend to be good with yardage, so I assume regular football fans probably are similarly capable with meters, but I doubt if you gave a soccer hooligan an length in centimeters they'd automatically grasp what that looks like, even though the metric units should make that easier. It's a mental barrier you have to overcome with familiarity/practice.

A football field, however, is familiar enough to most Americans to be used as a rough sketch of lengths. We use school busses too, even when not dealing with metric units. There's just some things so visually familiar that they make good comparitors. That would be the same if the US used metric, because raw units just don't "fit" most people's brains in a way that lets them visualize what it really means.

I get where you're coming from, but I don't think this fits the vibe of the c/very well.

[-] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 months ago

Yeah the real issue here is that the numbers don't match up, regardless of units.

[-] daveywaveyboy@feddit.nl 2 points 6 months ago

Fair thanks

this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
50 points (91.7% liked)

Anything But Metric

814 readers
1 users here now

Americans will use anything but metric

The Rules:

  1. Posts must be a screenshot, crosspost, or link to someone using a bizarre unit of measurement (33 lanes wide, as heavy as 10 semi-trucks, etc.)

  2. Standard units are not allowed, unless it's a sufficiently bizarre usage of the unit (this is up to mod discretion.)

  3. Intentionally terrible units are completely fine! Satire is welcome here

  4. Curses are fine, slurs are not. If there are slurs in something you want to post, please blur them, or reconsider posting.

  5. Flag NSFW content as such. NSFW words in these posts don't need to be censored.

  6. Post titles should be just the unit of measurement used (not the thing being measured!), and should be the full name of the unit (Apples and Bags of Apples imply very different things!) NSFW units should be partially censored. If there are multiple units, list as many as you want. If the source is satire, the title should start with [Satire]

  7. In the comments be civil, both to each other AND the subject of posts.

Mod Policy:

founded 2 years ago