Giant asteroid the size of 1,000 capybaras to pass Earth Tuesday - NASA
While the asteroid is traveling too far to pose any risk to the Earth, a possible impact event with it could become a worldwide catastrophe.
https://www.jpost.com/science/space/article-761322Open linkView original on kbin.social254
Comments100
American really will use any measurement except metric
If you regularly use metric in the US, you're either an aerospace engineer or a drug dealer. lol
Edit: Thank you everyone who ackshually'd my obvious joke. I'm aware metric is more widely used that that.
Or the military, they use it a ton
The ton is a metric unit too isn't it?
A metric ton is 1000 kg. Source: Aerospace Military Industrial Complex drug dealer.
Yea, but the dealers only go to 900kg, because of their commission.
I only got 800kg from my guy to begin with, not sure where your numbers are coming from
It's both, or rather all three, because the Brits have their own ton as well.
And people give the Americans shit for their relationship with units and measures
At least American kids aren't weighed in stone lol
The fastest way to find out is to ask how many grams are in an ounce.
28.8? Engineer
28? Dealer
Wtf is an ounce? Scientist
TIL only aerospace engineers and drug dealers buy soda at the grocery store.
I'd switch, but I've been on the Capy system my whole life, and it's just much more intuitive for me. Everyone knows how long a Capybara is. How fucking long a meter is? Beats the fuck out of me, maybe a half cap?
It really was a disservice to my generation and after (late 30s) that they gave up on it.
And we'll misapply it as well. The asteroid isn't the size of 1000 capybaras, it's as wide as 1000 capybaras lined up. Assuming it's roughly spherical, it's actually closer to the size of 524,000,000 capybaras.
Asteroids can be wildly non-spherical though, in shapes way different than capybara non-sphericalities, so it's not only misapplied but likely also nonsensical... unless, it's a giant capybara shaped asteroid.
True, but we're only given the one measurement and can only assume it to be true and accurate. Even if it is non-spherical, so long as the "diameter" given is a true average we can treat it as spherical for this purpose. And, the 1000 capybaras "measurement" is still of by many orders of magnitude.
We talking length or width?
Volume.
Is 1,000 capybaras equal to 10,000 guinea pigs or is it 99,729.372456 guinea pigs? I'm bad at conversions.
It depends on your motivation to pack them in the allotted space.
You may deny it, but capybara measurement is peak measurement.
If it were an American measurement it would be made in Hamberders
Look I think the joke is as funny as anyone else but the "unit" is an animal most of the Americans its meant to lampoon most likely wouldn't have even heard of.
We’ve all seen the memes, thank you very much.
A kilocapybara
Real science
It's only missing 24 to make it one Kibibara.
Use measurement units damnit
This is a measurement unit. A bit unconventional, but it's not any worse than using three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end lengthwise, or the length of King Henry I's foot.
I know this is america but could we maybe, just this once, try to measure things better?
This one actually gave me a nice laugh. They are clearly taking a piss at unconventional units of measurement.
My friends and I use golden retrievers as a unit of measurement, would that have been better?
Here's a better article.
1 bridge = 1000 capybaras, you heard it here first
This might help:
https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html
I just had a huge breakfast. Easily one third of a capybara
Yup. first time I have seen capybaras used as a unit of measurement.
My ex had titties the size of capybaras but it was mostly because she had the physique of a manatee.
she was truly the sea cow of the land
That's the point, they're making fun of all the news sources that can't be arsed to give actual measures.
"The forest fire is as big as one million football fields!" means fuck all, but saying "Equivalent to a square 75km by 75km." that's a measure that actually means something.
What's really going to fuck with you is that the fire is mostly confined to the boundaries, so a fire would be better measured by units of length. It's not like you have 75 square kilometers simultaneously on fire, you've got 75 square kilometers burned, as in past tense, and some amount of the outline of that is currently on fire.
How do you measure the perimeter on fire though? Do you go tree to tree, leaf to leaf, or trace the perimeter of each separate leaf?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox
I remember the one that was half a girrafe tall. Which is apparently 2.14m which can also ve discribed as 1 Shaq
Well you're no fun at all
Me, a normal human being: ah yes, one thousand capybaras large, I know exactly its size now.
Y’all are weird not knowing this measurement system. Makes as much sense as miles and inches.
That's almost 3 football fields!
Remember to get out and vote!
he has my vote
Anyone downvoting this is boring and doesn’t understand the fun of capybara math 🤣
‘Americans will literally use any other form of measurement other than metric’
I don't think they know how volume calculations work. When I read 1000 Capybaras, I though "huh, that's not actually that big", until they say it's actually the diameter or that much capybaras.
EDIT: I did some pocket calculations and it seems like 1000 capybaras can fit into an around 13 capybara diameter sphere.
Right? There's no way 1000 capybaras can fill it if they're just reaching across the middle.
1.2 km long, for anyone wondering.
Which is why it’s silly to represent the size of the asteroid in capybara lengths. We should be representing it in capybara volumes or masses. Probably be something more like 1 billion capybaras.
Volume is the worst reported measure, it's only Olympic swimming pools. I want to know acre feet.
That's a planet killer.
Would you rather see 1 astroid size capybara or 1000 capybara sized astroids?
That's easy, the capybara sized asteroids. The only ones who have to care are in space.
I only accept measurements in washing machines and football fields.
No London buses?
That sounds like some Metric bullshit.
How many large McDonald's sodas is it? As an American, I don't understand any other measurement.
I like to measure in statue of liberties if it going to be really big.
How big is it in beans pray tell
Would that be Heinz finest, and are we including the juice?
Just the beans
One capybara weighs on average 108lbs or about 16.5 AR-15s fully loaded.
So the asteroid weighs roughly as much as 422,559 AR-15s with a loaded 20 rd magazine. (Warning my math is bad as I'm American.)
It looks like they are using the length of a capybara, which is just over a meter not the weight. So it's 1,446 ar15s in diameter.
But how many Olympic swimming pools is that? Or is that a unit of volume... sorry, I think I'm looking for the number of football fields, yes how many of those is it in diameter?
It's 3 football fields plus 2 baseball fields plus 7 soccer fields plus 4 cricket fields plus 200 tennis courts.
And that equals how many freedom units exactly?
Wake up, new type of measurement system just dropped. Will America finally replace imperial?
Once again, the US is behind the times. The UK switched to Lobsters recently... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NJloYFS4pY
But how many bananas is that?
Using an average capybara measurement of 4 feet in length, that would be 6.8 bananas, so 1000 capybaras would be roughly 6800 bananas.
Assuming a banana of an average length of 7 inches.
The Jerusalem Post keeps posting articles comparing asteroids to random things and I love it.
"massive asteroid the size of a small island"
Okay. That literally told me nothing about the size of the asteroid, but that's pretty funny and I bet it gets people to click the link.
I also like how OP's article also appears to take a dig at fear mongering around asteroids by talking about how the asteroid isn't coming near earth, it really isn't a problem, if it hit earth it'd cause untold devastation but you really dont need to be afraid because it's not gonna hit us ever.
“2.3 times the size of a dinosaur“
I assume they mean the hummingbird subtype
We really need a bot to translate these oddball units of mass into Volkswagen Beetles like the good Lord intended. Embrace standards, ffs.
How many bananas or Toyota Corollas is that?
Thank you for your service, doctor
i love this measurement. it belies the articles importance
The capybara puns in this news article are terrible. This article was not worth the read, but since Soo many people in here are complaining about the capybara measurement I shall give you the exact measurement which is 1.2 kilometers wide
How many Smoots is that?
reminds me of an article where the area of a solar array was measured in units of Olympic swimming pools....
just why?
Because humans are notorious for not being able to estimate area and volume. Pretty much anything but length. People can visualize an Olympic swimming pool. They cannot visualize an acre or hectare.
But mostly, it's because units are about communicating. They need to provide understanding to the user. That's why feet and inches are so useful as units. They're real to everyone.
Let me give you an example.
DC fast chargers operate at 250 kW. I can do all kinds of physics with that number. How long it would take to boil a cubic meter of water. How fast can that accelerate a rock. All the things.
That's not very helpful though. It doesn't tell me anything real in my life.
Now, I'll tell you that that number will trip the main breaker of 5 typical houses. That's better, but I don't really know how much a house is.
What I do know is how hot an oven is when running on full blast.
250 kW is more than 80 ovens running on full blast.
That's about as good an intuitive understanding of that number as I can get.
idk, maybe use units of famous mountains for asteroids instead of rodents? an asteroid a quarter the size of mt everest, for example.
yeah, people may not like SI units as much as i do but that doesn't mean whatever you pick is an improvement.
I don't know how big mount Everest is. How big a mountain is is even ill defined in geography.
They probably should have used house cats, but capybaras are unique, and current journalism is about "viral" attention.
I also hope you don't think that 1k capybaras are one quarter the size of Everest.
Aside: SI units are amazing. Just only necessary for scientific use (and legal). On a day to day basis, you need to communicate. That's the purpose.
i only have had outdoor cats so the house cat unit is meaningless to me. there really should be standardized international unit that everyone agrees to measure things in. using a house cat is as good as using King Charles forearm
Lol. :)
Anything that gets measured in housecats doesn't need 12 digits of precision.
Forearms are cubits. That's also a great unit of measurement if you don't need precision.
Terrible unit of measurement. I need to know how many bananas.
ITT: People with no sense of humor
So there's a comet. Big deal. It'll burn up in our atmosphere and whatever's left will be no bigger than a chihuahua's head.
wtf are capithigny ? Don't bother I don't care.
You'd care if you knew how adorable they are.
For this, you receive the Capybara of Disapproval.
Its a giant guinea pig