Apr 6

“The thing you need to know about an oil tanker is that it’s really big. It’s about four soccer fields long”

Why do American writers do this

All this tells me is that oil tankers are really long

I know that oil tankers are long, and I kind of know what one football pitch looks like, but it’s kind of meaningless to say it’s four of them when all I know is “football pitches are long end to end”

Show thread   Apr 6

“They weigh as much as a skyscraper”

HOW MUCH IS THAT!!! HOW MUCH DOES ONE WEIGH???? All that tells me is that an oil tanker is just really heavy, which is something I already know!!!

Show threadPrimavera, inevitável  
@yassie_j the best part of this is that no one has an actual notion of how much a building weighs, so even the "intuitive measurement" angle fails lol
Apr 6 at 9:15pmWeb
Show thread   Apr 6
@Primavera I have never ever needed to consider the weight of a building because all I know is “buildings are heavy and bigger buildings must be really heavy”
Show threadPrimavera, inevitável  Apr 6
@yassie_j lifting buildings is not a common activity lol
Show threadDavid JONESApr 7
@Primavera @yassie_j yeah? Why do skyscrapers all have this button then? *points to button labelled "LIFT"*
Show threadPrimavera, inevitável  Apr 7
@drj @yassie_j good point
Show threadEli the BeardedApr 7

@Primavera @yassie_j

Around here, lifting buildings is also not rare. "House movers" don't relocate buildings much, but lifting them, sure. I can walk 100 meters to the nearest building currently lifted, and there's a closer one being prepped.

This is the most important step in replacing a foundation: lifting the building off of that foundation.

But really, you can tell someone a thing is 200,000 tons and how many people have any idea what that means? Best to have a number and a reference

Show threadartemistApr 6
@yassie_j @Primavera the only time someone has to think about building weight is when either designing the foundation or when they're enough of a nerd that they think about it anyway
Show threadPrimavera, inevitável  Apr 6
@artemist @yassie_j I am now thinking about it.......
Show threadAgnieszka R. TurczyńskaApr 7
@yassie_j @Primavera I had some realisation when doing a deep renovation of the house. Just the amount of cement bags used for bathroom was astonishing. So, even a single detached brick&mortar house weights A LOT.