• n2burns@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      Okay? Still not sure what unit that is.

      This sub is for Canada, where every unit of measuring length is based on the meter!

      • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        Apparently six apostrophes is equal to 182.88 cm. Seems like a rather arbitrary value to me.

        • easily3667@lemmus.org
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          4 days ago

          Actually the US is pretty heavily metric. There just isn’t much purpose to making everyone change millions of road signs and millions of cars so they match.

      • easily3667@lemmus.org
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        4 days ago

        That’s weirdly ignorant but that’s ok, everyone can learn something new. ’ is shorthand for foot, which was a historical unit used in various forms for several thousand years.

        Since 1959, the foot has been an SI-derived unit, being pegged to precisely 0.3048 meters thanks to the Commonwealth of nations, including Canada, agreeing with the united states to set the value as a metric unit as part of both nations’ slow but steady moves towards the metric system.

          • easily3667@lemmus.org
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            4 days ago

            So you did know all that but were just playing dumb in a petty show of patriotism? Color me shocked and appalled.

            • Otter@lemmy.caM
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              4 days ago

              The comment asking what a foot is, was building off the joke in the post image which was asking what a mile is, which itself is a reference to an American line https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-the-fuck-is-a-kilometer

              What The Fuck Is A Kilometer, also known as WTF Is A Kilometer, refers to an American catchphrase that is satirically patriotic by being aggressively ignorant of the metric system. This is because the United States doesn’t use the metric system (kilometers) and instead uses the imperial system (miles). The phrase’s first usage was in a moldy meme featuring George Washington with a bald eagle and a giant firearm.

              Only it started as being satire, but now it’s also used by some people trying to be patriotic