Why YSK: If you’re an American (or Liberian/Myanma), simply knowing that 1m~=3.28ft is… not that helpful. Understanding a unit requires lived experience, after all
Well, if you play Minecraft: good news! Blocks in Minecraft are exactly 1m3. If you can close your eyes and visualize a Minecraft grid, you’re probably already surprisingly good at measuring things in meters.
Let’s give it a shot:
- How tall is the average person? A little bit less than
2 blocks2 meters - How wide is the average person? About
1/2 a block1/2 a meter - What’s the furthest a young person can fall before it starts getting painful? Just over
3 blocks3 meters - How big is the average room? About
6x6 blocks6x6 meters
Some players might even be familiar with kilometers if they use waypoint mods, such as Xaero’s Minimap. If a map marker says it’s 1000 blocks away, that’s 1km. How long does it take a healthy person to walk 1000 blocks 1 kilometer? About 10 minutes!
“More Meter sticks!”
“But sir! We’re already at capacity! The school can’t possibly take anymore!”
“I said more! If we don’t get those meter sticks in that school, we could put the world in jeopardy. Nobody would know how long to run for charities, science would fail, entire populations would be trampled by feet!”
“My god… They’re… Sir!”
“What is it?”
“They’re… they’re American.”
“Good help us all.”