I’ve realized that the display size, in inches, is sometimes in the name or model number of electronics that are sold not just in the US. Do people outside the US also talk about buying 55-inch TVs, 14-inch laptops, and 27-inch monitors? Does it naturally roll off the tongue or does it seem strange to anyone?

If it’s all inches, why didn’t measuring screens in centimeters take off?

  • litchralee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    2 days ago

    It gets even more interesting when aviation uses:

    • feet for vertical distances – such as 1000 ft overhead separation for aircraft heading towards each other
    • meters for horizontal distances, such as 1.3 km between two aircraft going for landings on separate, parallel runways of the same airport
    • statute miles for visibility ahead of the aircraft, such as when fog is ahead
    • nautical miles for distances to waypoints and navigational aids
    • dustyData@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 day ago

      Tho relationship of nautical miles and knots for speed is really good for navigating over a sphere. There are some handy shortcuts that make quick mental calculations fast and intuitive, specially with an e6b flight computer (not an electronic).

      The alternative would’ve been to use euclidean planes, projections and radian transformations, which would’ve been harder to use for navigating.

    • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
      0·
      2 days ago

      meters for horizontal distances, such as

      not really. distance is measured in (nautical) miles, speed in knots (1 knot is 1 nautical mile per hour)