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.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      Ελληνικά
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      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?

    • unoriginalsin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      Afaraf
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      9 months ago

      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.

      • jarfil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        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.

        • unoriginalsin@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          Afaraf
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          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.

    • Neto@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      9 months ago

      Is 1,000 capybaras equal to 10,000 guinea pigs or is it 99,729.372456 guinea pigs? I’m bad at conversions.

    • PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      The Jerusalem Post

      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.

  • maaj@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    45
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    9 months ago

    Who the fuck measures anything in capybaras? I hope the goddamn shit hits us at this point. We’re living in Idiocracy.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      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.

      • applebusch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        9 months ago

        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.

  • hperrin@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    9 months ago

    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.

  • at_an_angle@lemmy.one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    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.)

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      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.

      • ohitsbreadley@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        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?

        • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          It’s 3 football fields plus 2 baseball fields plus 7 soccer fields plus 4 cricket fields plus 200 tennis courts.

  • Hedup@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    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.

    • Mango@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      Right? There’s no way 1000 capybaras can fill it if they’re just reaching across the middle.

  • ComradeChairmanKGB
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    9 months ago

    Wake up, new type of measurement system just dropped. Will America finally replace imperial?

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      9 months ago

      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.

    • Mossy Feathers (They/Them)@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      “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.

  • woobie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    9 months ago

    We really need a bot to translate these oddball units of mass into Volkswagen Beetles like the good Lord intended. Embrace standards, ffs.