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Besides feet, gallons, kilometers and other such scientifically-accepted terms, there’s a whole host of unscientific, colloquial units of measurement we use almost without thinking about it. How many times, for instance, have you heard something’s height compared to the Empire State Building? Or been told that something was so many football fields long? This is a look at some of our more unusual units of what I call “folk” measurement — some more widely used than others.
The mickey, for instance, was coined by computer scientists, and is defined as “the smallest detectable movement of a mouse cursor on a screen.” The length of a mickey changes depending on the equipment being tested, but is generally about 0.1 millimeters.
Coined by Slate.com writer Collen Murphy, a Warhol is a measurement of length of fame, and is, naturally, fifteen minutes. Murphy explains: “A thousand warhols could be a kilowarhol or, perhaps, a jewell, after Richard Jewell, the man who generated news reports for months despite having failed to participate in the bombing at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. A milliwarhol, or about nine-tenths of a second of fame, might appropriately be named after the tyke whose rescue became a brief focus of attention last summer after he fell through the hole of an outhouse.”
The Routemaster double-decker bus is a popular unit of comparative measurement in Britain, and is used to measure length (so why does it matter if the decker is double?). A colossal squid, for instance, is about 2.5 double decker buses. (See above graphic for other comparative bus measurements.)
The Smoot was coined as an MIT fraternity prank in 1958, was named after pledge Oliver Smoot, an is equal to Smoot’s height, 67 inches. His fraternity brothers used him to measure the length of Boston’s Harvard Bridge by having him lay down repeatedly — every 67 inches — and they made markings accordingly. (The bridge is 364.4 Smoots, plus or minus one ear long.) The markings are still there, apparently at the request of Boston police, who found the Smoot measurements useful in determining the exact location of accidents (one such marking is pictured at left). The Smoot has since become something of a cult unit of measurement (among nerds), and Google incorporates the Smoot in both their Calculator program and in Google Earth. (The latter provides such useful information as the distance between Chicago and Dallas in Smoots: 756,128.11, give or take.)
The Pinkwater was coined by NPR hosts Click and Clack as a measurement of seating comfort. Named for writer Daniel Pinkwater, a 1.0 Pinkwater seat would be “pretty comfortable,” whereas most car seats fall somewhere in the 0.7 Pinkwater range.
Shhh…super secret special for blog readers.
I like the Warhol best, but I gotta say that I remember from working with some engineers a long time back, their use of the term RCH. It’s really really really small unit of measurement (as opposed to just a CH which is apparently much bigger). The definition? Well, this is a family type blog so we’ll go with Red **** Hair. I can’t even bring myself to type the c. . . .
And the reCaptcha is letter reasons - HAH!
posted by gwdMaine on 7-16-2008 at 11:23 am
Google actually recognizes the smoot. Try typing any length in any unit into the search box, followed by “in smoots”, and google will convert it for you!
For example, entering “3 meters in smoots” will get you the reply, “3 meters = 1.76283935 smoots”.
It also works the other way. “364.4 Smoots in yards” gives you “364.4 Smoots = 678.188889 yards”.
posted by gmsc on 7-16-2008 at 12:58 pm
A Friedman Unit is a unit of time equal to six months in the future.
I’ve also heard the term “Starbuck” to refer to a length of measurement of about one or two city blocks, roughly the distance between Starbucks in many major cities.
posted by Florida on 7-16-2008 at 1:08 pm
What about the good old breadbox measurement? It was always the standard question in 20 Questions: “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” Do people even use breadboxes anymore?
posted by Meghan on 7-16-2008 at 2:22 pm
Very interesting! I love the Starbuck one–I’ll have to look for chances to describe something one to two blocks away so I can throw that one in there.
And Meghan, I have a breadbox! (I’m not even old either–I’m 23). It’s shiny, and beautiful, and it’s from Target. I got it as a birthday gift–something I never thought about wanting, but have ended up really liking. It keeps my counter looking neat–it’s a good way to hide many things, not just bread.
posted by kate on 7-16-2008 at 3:54 pm
Any Rhode Islander, myself included, will proudly tell you that their state is a unit of measurement especially useful in describing the sizes of icebergs or Texan ranches.
posted by Julie on 7-16-2008 at 3:56 pm
Julie beat me to it…I cracked up when I read the Texas Monthly article that measured Texas Ranches in Rhode Islands…
Ha!
posted by Bob Jones, Esq on 7-16-2008 at 4:56 pm
Down Under, we have a measure for flood volume called the “sydarb”. It’s the volume of water in Sydney Harbour. The usual usage is “the floodwaters are at 4 sydarbs per hour”.
posted by Jess on 7-16-2008 at 6:57 pm
I have a picture I took in the Natural History Museum in London that measures the weight of a T. rex in “ten year-old children.” And for anyone who wishes to know, a T. rex apparently weighs about the same as 200 ten year-old children.
posted by Maureen on 7-16-2008 at 10:46 pm
One millihelen = the amount of beauty required to launch one ship
My favorite unit of measure is still furlongs per fortnight
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 7-16-2008 at 11:02 pm
What about a “Milli-Helen”?
A face that could launch a single ship.
posted by payrolldude on 7-17-2008 at 12:05 am
Ok, someone beat me to it.
But, “PartiallyDeflected”, you definitely have a scientific mind. My hat’s off to you.
posted by payrolldude on 7-17-2008 at 12:08 am
The “mickey” was not coined by scientists first!!! It was coined by drinkers….as in a “mickey of rum”, a small bottle of booze! (14 oz I believe) as opposed to a “26er” or “20 pounder”. Then of course there is the “Texas Mickey” which is much bigger!
posted by sandie on 7-17-2008 at 8:00 am