E: /stoned
How long is a meter? (Only weird answers/definitions allowed)
a year ago by Petersson to c/asklemmy
E: /stoned
They redefined it a few years ago to base all units on some objectively measurable natural constant. Because that stick of metal might still decay or warp or something and you don't always want to travel to France when you want to know the length of a meter. Much easier to measure the atoms and light you have on hand.
Found the vampire.
Australia, where even the animals are criminals.
It was defined as
one ten-millionth of the shortest distance from the North Pole to the equator passing through Paris.
The stick of metal in Paris is just so people don't have to do measure the distance between the north pole and the equator each time they want to check their measuring tool.
Wednesday dude or normal one?
Weird frog dude
Some dudes are longer than others.
"I see yer mother's been tellin' ya stories about me ag'in, boy!"
Meter‽ We are more than well acquainted.

Take a really long rope and put one end on either pole of the Earth, and the other end on the equator. Use the shortest path, and make sure the rope is tight. No squiggles allowed! Chop that rope into exactly 10 000 000 equal parts. One of them is as long as a meter. Now you just need to find the right one.
Edit: more zeros.
Good catch. I screwed up the zeros. Fixed it now.
Okay, so, right, okay. Um. In German schools (and probably some other countries...?), many many years ago (possibly still today? or maybe it's all digital now? what am I saying, this is German schools), the blackboard in every classroom was a large, green, rectangular middle part and two square "wings", one on each side (as wings are wont to be...). They can swing in and out, providing extra room for writing on the outer side of the wings. Also for extracurricular shenanigans such as writing "[name] + [name] = SEX" in the middle, swinging the wings closed to hide the writing and then breaking out into hysterics when the teacher opens the blackboard to reveal your incredibly highbrow joke.
This type of blackboard is quintessential to my recollections about and concept of school.
Why am I going into such unnecessary detail about this? I have ADHD and possibly autism, I need you to understand what I'm saying and I can't find any sources of this existing in the English speaking world and I can't find an English word for those "wings" either. I can barely find a German one ("Tafelflügel"? I don't think it's ever come up before in my life).
So here's a picture:

The width/height of the "wings" and the height of the middle part, that's a metre. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Does the metallic edge count as part of the meter too or just the green surface? What if it's so hot the wings expand?
Just the green. This is special German engineering high-tech space material whose name I absolutely do know but am not at liberty to divulge and that doesn't expand (i.e. I've never experienced a blackboard being warmer than slightly cool to the touch).
Is there an ultimate ancestor of all boards by which you can detemine if your board actually has the correct 1m height? Do we even need such a board if we accept Constructivism?
5 letters
‘a meter’
5 = 6 = 1m
The distance light travels when it goes one meter.
Just about half as twice as much.
About ten minutes, wait, what was the question?
The overall length of an M16A4
I didn't even know what a M16A4 is. Some US unit, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M16_rifle
39.37 in (1,000 mm) (M16A4)
I didn't know until today that it was exactly one meter long, though.
You did ask for weird
Is it a cute turtle?
But how do we measure the lenght? Do we have to find a way which includes the last drop? And what if I don't have a penis?
You piss in the snow to clearly see the pee and the furthest drop counts.
If you don’t have a cock you are free to bring a dick you trust to the measurement. Just make sure to fill the form A38 beforehand and your designated piss officer will give your team green light.
Can some non-German person please fill out the A38 in English without translating a single German word of the A38?

Only weird answers?
The truth itself is weird: The meter is defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 seconds.
Powers of ten my ass
Wasnt it defined using a wrong measurement of the size of the Earth?
Well yes, but only by a little. It was using ancient measuring techniques which were highly error-prone. Like running from one place to the next and counting the length manually. Shit like that. Still impressively close to the real size!
3 1/3 Subway sandwiches
About 4 stacked house cats, or a bit longer than a 3-year-old.
Peter who?
Well, meter, like atom meter? Or like gas meter? Anti meter? You need to specify the type of meter.
Pentameter
if the meter is dramatic, could be 5 feet.
Gas meter or water meter?
Take one liter of water at "room temperature" an aprox of 20 Celcuis degrees at one atmosfere pressure. Take a straight transparent tube of one centimeter inner thickness. Put the water in without spilling.
Measue...
A meter...
The distance that light travels in about a three hundred millionth of a second. Wait, that's just the actual definition.
About a yard
I think we can agree there are large and short meters. So everyone is right.
Five traditional sausages in a row.
Traditional in which country?
Franken selbstverständlich. Fränkische Bratwürste.
Which part of Franken?
The distance between the first line in a hopscotch game and where I would put the top line of the [4, 5] block.
Same length as a string.
About 2 bushels and a peck.
One-half a Darth Vader.
Around 2 cats long
One universe across, depending on your frame of reference
As long as a clap
About a yard.
The carpet I'm standing on. No, I'm not giving you any pictures.
about 33 AU's
USA moment.
You mean the the square root of the surface of Saarland divided by 2,569,690?
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Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
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It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
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"The length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a second, where the second is defined by a hyperfine transition frequency of caesium."
This is the actual definition, but it's also pretty weird.
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