6 Strange Units of Measurement We Still Use

From a Jiffy to a Furlong, what are these strange units of measurement that we still use everyday? Join Olivia Gordon and learn about the weird units you use every time you put on your shoes or read about dark matter! Let's go!
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Sources:
Sources:
Introduction:

Furlong:

Barleycorn:

Micromort:

Jiffy:

Banana Equivalent Dose:

Barn:

Image Sources:

[HandeToon]

Not so common anymore but in Finnish Lapland people used to measure distance by the "Deer Piss" (poronkusema), which is the distance a reindeer could pull a sleigh before it needed to stop to take a piss. There's no standardised length for that, but a reindeer will run at most 7, 5 kilometres before needing to urinate.

[IstasPumaNevada]

For anyone interested, they marked the Smoots out on the bridge, and repainted them yearly, to the point where local police offers started recording accident positions by what Smoot they happened at. And then later when the bridge needed to be reconstructed, it was done so with deck parts not of the standard length, but one Smoot long. Or so I read.

[knutritter]

As a former natural scientist (chemistry) I like the concept of BEDs very much. Because most people freak out when they hear about radioactivity. Counting in BEDs makes them realize that everything around us and ourselves are actually radioactive, too! Additionally people can assess the invisible relative amount of radioactivity by something they know, they can touch and see. I will use this unit in future!

[nighthawkkrsx]

The program mathcad has Smoots as a unit. I turned homework in once where I made all velocities measured in Smoots/Fortnight. TA wasn’t amused

[TissueCat]

My favorite unit of measurement is the millihelen, the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship.

[MrFixit-fbbu]

Actually, the barleycorn as a shoe size measurement goes back to Hammurabi. His army was followed around by a bunch of shoemakers who had to carve wooden lasts (the shoe form for making a shoe). Every new recruit got a set of lasts with his name on them that was used to make his shoes. When he was killed, the last ceremonial act was to throw his lasts into the camp fire. That's a lot of activity, so Hammurabi had a contest to find the guy in his army with the biggest feet. They measured 39 barleycorns in length, and since 36 barleycorns is a "foot" 39 barleycorns became "size 13" and each half size up or down adds or subtracts one barleycorn, or 1/3 of an inch from that initial measurement. So now the army only needed about 52 sets of lasts, (Narrow, Medium, and Wide widths) and no more were burned. Now, how many pints in a firkin?

[KingfisherTalkingPictures]

My favorite is the Teller, a unit of unfounded confidence. It was named for Physicist Edward Teller, around the time he was helping pitch the Star Wars anti-missile system for Reagan. 1 teller was so ridiculously large, that most daily units were in nano- or pico-tellers. “Hey, I can get my car into that parking space, ” might be a nano-teller large.

[therealjammit]

Cop: "Do you know how fast you were going?"
Me: "66, 179 smoots per hour"

[joonarepo]

There's this funny unit of distance in Finland called "poronkusema" which literally mean the distance a reindeer can go without peeing. It obviously isn't in use anymore but it's an interesting remain of the old measuring units. And how long is one "poronkusema"? Several kilometers but not more than 7, 5 due to the fact that reindeer cannot pee while running. If they run for too long, they can get paralysis.

[thekaxmax]

'furlongs per fortnight' allows you to measure snail speeds in whole numbers.

[elizamccroskey]

I know that bridge well, and the Smoot story. I LOVE that Mr. Smoot went on to head a measurement agency! Thanks as always for giving out quite interesting information.

[justanoman]

Australia is so dangerous, that sitting in a chair in Australia is more dangerous than sharks.

[TornixGalensti]

Solar mass is an interesting unit. It's based on the mass of our sun which loses millions of metric ton in weight every second.

[rogerking]

Giving dimensions a name is actually very important in that it enables you to visualise what you are doing. I realised this when an Italian supplier of mine (in a precision engineering environment) asked for dimensions in thou, even though we always made sure he was given metric dimensions. When I asked why, he said it was because it was much easier to visualise machining 3 thou off something than .0762mm

[uss_]

No mention of Butt Load (126 Gallons]?
Disappointed.

[cyrenecai]

My pet peeve is with the overuse of "width of a human hair" (WOAHH), "length of a football field" (LOAFF) and "olympic size swimming pool" (OSSP) in journalism - especially science journalism - to describe things. I know they think these are common things everyone understands, but how many people really understand the actual sizes of them? To me they do more to obfuscate than clarify what's being written or talked about, particularly in science writing where the people it's targeting already understand proper measurements...

[Tnkcommander]

Other related units to the barn are the shed and outhouse. Actually had outhouse come up on one of my nuclear tests back in college

[hurricaneofcats]

My dad is an electrical engineer and apparently when he was in technical school he liked to calculate distances in units of 'furlongs per fortnight' just for the heck of it.

[JesusFlores-jumh]

Im glad I’ve discovered this channel and PBS Eons. They have become my favorite channels on all of YouTube.

[Aipe]

Measuring a bridge for a fraternity? that's like the nerdiest frat pledge I've ever heard. I love it!