To celebrate the USA's enthusiasm for Imperial measurements and ways of measuring things that are not used by the rest of the world, there should be a new unit, equal to about half a micrometre, which would be used for measuring very small things. The definition of this unit would be that it is equal to the difference between the USA's two contradictory definitions of a foot (the "International Foot" and the "US Survey Foot").
-- hippo, Jan 25 2024

(As [a1] points out, NIST are trying to ditch the Survey Foot; however it is still in several states' laws as the designated unit of measurement for surveying)
-- hippo, Jan 25 2024


Calculations using values from a1's link yield a length of about 6.096 * 10^(-7) metres. Seems legit.

However, you need to give this unit an official name.
This needs to fit in with the other traditional length names, to whit: league, mile, furlong, chain, rod, foot, link, inch (- but apparently not the barleycorn, as far as the US is concerned.)

Given that some of these units are approximately the same length as a readily-available (but variable in size) thing they name, you could use something with an equivalent size. And the name must have the advantage of being short and memorable, because that's really the only thing this system has going for it.
Bacteria are often about half a micrometre wide, so I suggest you name it the "bug".
-- Loris, Jan 25 2024


Their gallon is different too. Having said that, I only use imperial measurements for everything. All of those 00000s confused my brain.
-- xenzag, Jan 25 2024


But what are those in cubic US Survey Feet?
-- hippo, Jan 25 2024


as a fraction, of course
-- pocmloc, Jan 25 2024


Ha! - very good
-- hippo, Feb 01 2024


//as a fraction, of course//

I make it 3/4921250 metres.
-- Loris, Feb 01 2024



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