Why measure distance in feet?

[Basshunter]

I LIKE the use of feet. Why you might ask? Because to provide a sense of scale to non-DGers, the concept of feet in disc golf being ROUGHLY analogous to yards in ball golf makes it easier to get them to comprehend. Despite the feelings of some of our community that we should try to distance ourselves from ball golf comparisons and terminology, I am in the opposite camp. If we are going to grow the game, we need to make it easier for people to grasp the concept of what we do. When you can relate it directly to something they already are familiar with, they will take to it more readily. Most people are reassured by things that are not radical departures from what they know. So I'm cool with measurements in feet, disc golf "holes", scoring as a number relative to par, etc. if for no other reason than it makes discussing this game of ours with the uninitiated something they can relate to. Just my $0.02

 

[joecoin]

It's easier to lie in feet than yards.

 

[runningDoc]

feet is fine for americans. think about it, a 450ft shot is way past center field on most MLB ball parks. its hard to hit a heavy dense baseball probably thrown near 90mph and hit with a 32oz bat 450ft, let alone a 175g disc thrown just using your own body.

metric is the smarter way to do it but so confusing for those that don't really use it. americans used to feet and yards still have to do rough calculations or just think... "150 meters? ok thats like 450ft but kind of longer! "

 

[sisyphus]

Hey, c'mon guys, the OP asked for units of football fields, so
390' = 1.08333 football fields (goalpost to goalpost being 360', of course).
Simple!

 

[Basshunter]

^^^That was awesome

 

[Nasty Nate]

1 meter is 3.3 feet

A kilo is a thousand grams, that's easy to remember.

 

[eegor]

If I throw a disc 390 feet, I want it measured by 118,900,000,000 nanometers.

 

[HarkeyPuck]

Feet or Meters, doesn't matter. WHAT IS PAR??

 

[Nasty Nate]

If I throw a disc 390 feet, I want it measured by 118,900,000,000 nanometers.

This made me lul

We should measure in Planck Lengths!

 

[captain jack]

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:

 

[GT Chris]

This made me lul

We should measure in Planck Lengths!

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.

 

[teemkey]

Historically, units of time in many civilizations are duodecimal. There are twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve months in a year, and the Babylonians had twelve hours in a day (although at some point this was changed to 24). Traditional Chinese calendars, clocks, and compasses are based on the twelve Earthly Branches. There are 12 inches in an imperial foot, 12 ounces in a troy pound, 12 old British pence in a shilling, 24 (12×2) hours in a day, and many other items counted by the dozen, gross (144, square of 12) or great gross (1728, cube of 12). The Romans used a fraction system based on 12, including the uncia which became both the English words ounce and inch. Pre-decimalisation, Ireland and the United Kingdom used a mixed duodecimal-vigesimal currency system (12 pence = 1 shilling, 20 shillings or 240 pence to the pound sterling or Irish pound), and Charlemagne established a monetary system that also had a mixed base of twelve and twenty, the remnants of which persist in many places.
...
The importance of 12 has been attributed to the number of lunar cycles in a year, and also to the fact that humans have 12 finger bones (phalanges) on one hand (three on each of four fingers).[6] It is possible to count to 12 with your thumb acting as a pointer, touching each finger bone in turn. A traditional finger counting system still in use in many regions of Asia works in this way, and could help to explain the occurrence of numeral systems based on 12 and 60 besides those based on 10, 20 and 5. In this system, the one (usually right) hand counts repeatedly to 12, displaying the number of iterations on the other (usually left), until five dozens, i. e. the 60, are full.[7][8]

from wikipedia.

 

[BennettUA]

 

[Highway Bill]

Somebody started a thread about getting away from ball golf terms so maybe that's why we stick to feet. If we started using the same measuring standard as ball golf I'm almost certain the universe would implode

lulz

 

[ohtobediscing]

But then people like myself would have no clue how far 119m is

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:

Even a peanut farmer from Georgia could use metric.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

#Angstroms

 

[dysmike]

ftfy

America, first country to toss the Brits out and the last to use their archaic measuring systems (including England, which is metric) :doh:

 

[Monkeypaws]

I could see working on form for weeks, and feeling satisfied with 30 extra feet of distance. 10 yards just doesn't seem worth the effort

 

[loki the trickster]

First of all:wall::wall::wall: WHY do we need to convert ft to yards? Non disc golfers that dont know anything about this activity dont care if its distance is in centimeters, inches, feet, yards or meeters. they are just going to see a long hair throwing a wham-o Frisbee. If you and where you live uses feet then that is what needs to be used. I like others find it hard and confusing when seeing distances for discgolf measured in meters as i use feet. a mile is 5280ft a 1/4th mi is 1320ft and 1/8th mi is 660ft. I am not a fan of using feet and then using meters for the putting surface , being ob in a tree or relief from ob but it works. the best thing to do is...nothing and leave it alone cause it is not broke. We dont need to confuse people anymore then the are when they first start.

 

[Bikinimower]

I'm confused, 390 feet is totally 130 yards (A football field plus 30 yards)

130 yards x 3ft to yard = 390 feet

I like to use feet as a measurement, Using yards (a football field) would be a nice way for outsiders to understand the distances but bigger numbers make me feel cooler when I'm describing a drive.

Plus using disc golf as a reference I have learned to judge distances in feet much better. If someone describes something as being 600 feet across I now perfectly know the size of the object in question

Plus this is America, I think I speak for all Americans when I say, Yes, deep down we know the metric system is superior in every way, but still we all hate it. 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. I guarantee I will go to my cold dark grave never having measured even one drive in meters. Is there even 1 good reason for this, absolutely not, but we all feel that way.

Stick with feet