Why measure distance in feet?

[Halcón]

Our Country is more divided then it has ever been but there are 2 things that unites us all, Soccer is terrible, it's slow, boring and unwatchable, and we all agree the metric system sucks.

This makes my stomach hurt.

 

[knettles]

Now, I'm the kind of person who doesn't mind changing and thinks we should look to other parts of the world for better ways. However, look at the course listing for the entire world. I'm estimating there's somewhere between 5500-6500 courses out there. We have 4823 listed for the United States. That's quite a majority. If disc golf was spread out evenly across the globe, maybe changing to metric would make sense. But, there are far more US disc golfers than any other nationality. And since the standard for measuring in this country is still inches/feet/yards/etc, disc golf should stay the same way.

How about this? Once football changes to meters, we change as well?

 

[Nasty Nate]

And we finally got there. If we really want the simplest solution we should measure everything in eV. Then we can use the same terminology for both distances and disc masses. Natural units, c=hbar=1.

Aaand you lost me




Speaking of meters and whatnot, didn't America invent disc golf? So then I guess we can measure it however we want. Not that I am trying to be all 'murica or anything. I still think we should use the metric system.

A meter is 3 feet and 3.6 inches, for everyone's reference! The more you know.

I guess you could round down to 3.5, though.

 

[tomte]

Meters is just too confusing.
Anybody watch that Australian tourney ?
I was so busy tryin to figure out how long the holes were, doing the conversions in my head, that I missed half the tee shots. :doh:

95% of the worlds population didn't have that problem... I don't have a problem converting feet to meter - maybe your calculator is too slow?

In 1893, metric standards, developed through international cooperation under the auspices of BIPM, were adopted as the fundamental standards for length and mass in the United States. Our customary measurements -- the foot, pound, quart, etc. -- have been defined in relation to the meter and the kilogram ever since.

So you actually don't have customary measurements. You just use a complicated version of the metric system. I have to admit though - I kinda like that thing with 12

http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/metric/upload/1136a.pdf

 

[thatdirtykid]

RE Americans having issues quickly understanding metric. Druggies don't have that problem, they learned just fine.

 

[DSmith]

Why don't we measure it in henweighs?

 

[Lewis]

May I suggest furlongs? A furlong is 1/8 of a mile, and almost exactly a 1/5 of a kilometer. That should make changes in both directions rather easy.

 

[scarpfish]

To me, a unit of measurement catches on when it has practical real world application. Notice that with metric measurement millimeters, centimeters, meters, and kilometers caught on, while decimeters, decameters and hectometers really haven't.

In regards to measuring disc golf courses, feet happen to work well, just as grams tend to work better than ounces in regard to weighing discs.

 

[grodney]

Why don't we measure it in henweighs?

What's a henweigh?

 

[Cgkdisc]

What's a henweigh?

I suppose someone had to ask.

 

[Toro71]

 

[1978]

Anyone know why we use feet to measure distance in disc golf in the US?

I was thinking about the recent SC coverage and wished they would have said 130 yards instead of 390 feet. I think it would put things in perspective for people that don't know anything about the sport. "Wow 130 yards, that's a football field and 3 first downs away" versus "Wow 390 feet, that's a bunch of feet"

You assume that more people relate distances to football than are able to remember that 3 feet = 1 yard. You are probably right, but anyway, our discs dont go "that" far, so I can understand the shorter measuring increment 80 yards vs 90 yards doesnt seem like that much difference. 240ft vs 270 seems much different. For me its the difference in discing up in some cases.

 

[liven1492]

Here in the USA it wouldn't make sense to use metric measurements. The sport is already obscure enough, no need to ostracize people even more as we try to converse. Feet versus yards as measurement? Feet is more precise and makes everything feel more diverse. If you see one hole being 122 yards, and then the next being 112, you don't really thing as much as you would 366 and 336.

 

[Steve West]

May I suggest furlongs? A furlong is 1/8 of a mile, and almost exactly a 1/5 of a kilometer. That should make changes in both directions rather easy.

That would make the internet distance braggers seem modest.

"I can sometimes max out a downhill throw of almost 1."

 

[Dave242]

If we are concerned about simplifying distance measurements and reporting, what makes most sense is to round all hole distances to the nearest 10'.

 

[chevis]

I'm with chuck on this. disc golf could lead the way to universal acceptance of the metric system.

If we switch to metric, it might be cooler if we measured in decimeters. More apparent precision and bigger rather than smaller values than feet. Nate's ace comes in at 1190 dm. Impressive on Sports Center. Since Americans don't know metric very well anyway, decimeters would be no more confusing than meters and have a cooler ring to it like comparing our "hyzer" versus "hook". You would get up to 3 dm behind your lie, up to 10 dm from OB and the putting circle would go out 100 dm from the pin. Discs are a little more than 2 dm.

For easy reference, 1 dm is about the length of a man's middle finger measured from the metacarpophalangeal joint (first knuckle).

 

[dysmike]

Here in the USA it wouldn't make sense to use metric measurements. The sport is already obscure enough, no need to ostracize people even more as we try to converse. Feet versus yards as measurement? Feet is more precise and makes everything feel more diverse. If you see one hole being 122 yards, and then the next being 112, you don't really thing as much as you would 366 and 336.

So I suppose you tell them that the circle is 393.7 inches.. or 32' 9 3/4".

At least the 2m rule is gone

I'm really not sure why the metric system so stymies the US... my wife tells me it was taught in public school here (yet she doesn't know it either).

 

[Cgkdisc]

For practice, try switching your newer car speedometer over to kilometers. Feel like you're really speeding along.

 

[sisyphus]

For practice, try switching your newer car speedometer over to kilometers. Feel like you're really speeding along.

^^^This!

...I always thought the best rationale for going metric would be folks could get excited about driving 100, and paying only 60 cents a liter. It was frustrating to watch Ohio (and other states) actually pay for signage changes back in the 70's, install them, and then later remove them when it didn't catch on.

 

[Mr. Butlertron]

Everyone that's in favor of meters probably would rather measure their discs in Stones as well(175 grams = 0.02755778277 Stones ) . It's a slippery slope folks, let's not go down that road.