Talk:3248: 182.8 Meters

2026-05-21T09:25:49Z

185.180.14.152:

I remember seeing a sign for a university saying it offered “more than 17 programs.” I can’t think of a reason for them to phrase it like that if they had anything other than 18 programs in total. [[User:KelOfTheStars!|KelOfTheStars!]] ([[User talk:KelOfTheStars!|talk]]) 04:16, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:Perhaps the sign was made while a potential 19th program was under consideration or when one of 19 programs was being considered for elimination. Another possibility is that it had small "programs" that were less than full-fledged programs and there was an internal dispute about whether those "programs" should count. My hobby: Thinking about possible excuses petty bureaucrats can use when drafting signs. [[Special:Contributions/150.221.155.241|150.221.155.241]] 04:54, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:: Or it has a variable number of programs, with some only running at certain times, but never less than a core 18 programs. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:28, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Fun fact! There's never been a US President measuring either 186 or 187 cm tall: https://potus.com/presidential-facts/presidential-heights/ [[Special:Contributions/86.23.176.63|86.23.176.63]] 04:34, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

why is it that when i look at the page this shows up:
This is a comic in the "My Hobby" is a series of xkcd comics in which Randall suggests (hopefully fictional) hobbies he has. The hobbies tend to be clever or smart-aleck things to do. They do not always fall under the type of activity that would generally be described as a "hobby", but often are merely things Randall (or Cueball) does when certain situations arise. "My Hobby" comics are not presented regularly, but there have been a number such strip.... (yada yada yada)
but when i actually edit it it shows an really short sentence??? --[[User:Utdtutyabthsc|Utdtutyabthsc]] ([[User talk:Utdtutyabthsc|talk]]) 04:54, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:It's fixed now.[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=3248%3A_182.8_Meters&action=historysubmit&type=revision&diff=413210&oldid=413206] [[Special:Contributions/150.221.155.241|150.221.155.241]] 05:07, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

I remember having a book about tabletop games and different sports, which was originally written in the USA. During translation all units got converted to metric, so the book had gems like "the billiards table needs to be 213.36 cm long and 108.68 cm wide". Eventually we reverse engineered it exactly like in the comic. --[[Special:Contributions/2A02:6BF:8009:1404:A0BE:9C5C:1FBA:A96F|2A02:6BF:8009:1404:A0BE:9C5C:1FBA:A96F]] 07:35, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
: I come across this apallingly often in my daily work. I work with patient information sheets for clinical studies. They are supposed to be worded "patient-friendly", so the people who write them convert those nasty mL into much nicer teaspoons and tablespoons. And then you get gems like "During the entire study, a total volume of approximately 31.33 tablespoons of blood will be taken from you." Which is EXTREMELY reader-friendly and easy to grasp, apparently. Recently, I even had a comment trail by previous editors attached to this, where one editor asked "shouldn't we round this to something more usable"? and the other one answered "Nah, you'll only get problems with rounding errors from inconsistently rounding up or down throughout the document, and then someone will complain. Just leave it like it is" --[[Special:Contributions/93.241.210.5|93.241.210.5]] 07:55, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:: I am a translator and I encounter this as well, although not exactly often. I remember a recent book about dinosaurs that listed sizes and weights in both metric and imperial units, and it was very apparent where an overly precise conversion was use.
:: A better solution there would seem to be to find an everyday object of about the capacity of the amount to be taken (a coffee mug?), and use that as a comparison. A volume in mL is likely to be just as meaningless as the 31.33 tablespoons. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:39, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
: In that case, though, it probably is appropriate, (at least to the mm, if not to the 0.1mm) in that the sizes have been specifically defined within the laws of the game, and then translated to metric for use in the modern world, without wanting to change the actual sizes of the tables. A professional player might well notice if the size of the table was 4mm out. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:39, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

This sort of stuff would be unfathomable if we didn't have Randall. --[[Special:Contributions/134.157.254.7|134.157.254.7]] 08:22, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

It always makes me smile when I get my milk delivered by the quaint old traditional milk man in '568mL' glass bottles. Should we have some notable real-world examples on the page? [[User:JeffUK|JeffUK]] ([[User talk:JeffUK|talk]]) 08:46, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:I don't know. There are a lot of times where packets have wierd measurements on them - I've found packets with '168g' on them. [[User:GSLikesCats307|GSLikesCats307]] ([[User talk:GSLikesCats207|talk]]) 10:01, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:: Those were probably previously 180g, but they've sneakily reduced the quantity while charging the same price. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:24, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

This is more of a pet peeve than a hobby. Ugh! [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 08:51, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

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Talk:3248: 182.8 Meters