h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How do I go about issuing one of those "Request for submissions" articles?
I have an idea about the odd units of measurement used; but only have two real examples so far:
The double-decker bus - A standard unit of volume i.e. "The millenium dome is big enough to contain 10,000 double decker busses"
Wales - A unit of area i.e. "An area of rainforest the size of Wales is destroyed every year".
But there must be a whole lot more - and people in the US must have an alternative to these both.
Care to put together an RFS?

Football pitches also - which must be confusing for the Americans, but to anyone raised on the Essex marshes "the size of five football pitches" is an understandable comparison.

Dear DJ, I take it you are referring to the "Call for entries" that you see sometimes see on the front page. Today's subject for example is how to cook a chicken. If so, the subjects are decided upon by the Editorial Team. I have had a chat with Peta - if you would like to set up a page asking for suggestions from fellow reseachers we would be delighted. Equally I would be happy to note your suggestion on my list.

Bathtub fulls - volume of liquid i.e. "more than a million bathtub fulls of water flow over the Victoria falls every second".
This is especially good when you get the plural wrong

Texas - as in 'An asteroid the size of Texas !'
(Armaggeddon)

Dunx, could you please make more use of the sign.I mean, I know you know that the plural is Bathtubs full but a passing hitchhiker might not realise that you've been properly educated, especially in English grammar

oh so he has been properly educated then?

The incorrect quote was taken directly from National Geographic no less.
I would say that my education has a few holes in it - I don't know my kings and queens, and my latin never got past "Canis ist in culio"

You can get by very well without either, if you avoid foreign friends who want to know "Who was king during the Battle of Trafalgar" or "Was Richard III a Tudor?'(NO)and I have been asked by a student to translate the Latin tags in the National Geographic. But how big _is_ a bathtubful? Up to the taps or just eight inches deep? Can you lie full-length in this bath or do your knees stick up. Was it an old tin bath that you put in front of the fire? I think we should be told.
Also, how much tea is "all the tea in China"? How many daffodils in an armful? How many children in a "quiverful"? How many raisins in a "handful"?
Is rain heavier if it's coming down in buckets or stairrods? How much light can you hide under a bushel? How much rye was there in a pocketful? I think the world must have been much better when it wasn't so regimented, whehn the top of the king's thum was an inch, and from his elbow to his fingertips was an ell, when a mile was a thousand paces for a fully-laden (Roman) soldier but I guess it isn't possible to r7un modern technology on guesstimates.

Also - why do all language books start with animal location?
I definitely remember "Canis ist in Culio" from Latin and "La singe est dans l'arbre" from French and Christina says that she recalls a good week of her early Irish lessons being dedicated to where the swans were and where they were going .

..as for running modern technology on guestimates - I have written a "Give or take a bit" function to compare loss ratios more quickly within the last week - so you could well be wrong

Well, not really, but we had "The height of 10 St. Pauls cathedrals" recently....any more?

sorry I am lost.....

if you're lost then you'll have to follow the thread back like yer man with the maze and the minotaur and stuff.

Does a "bucket-load" apply to the thing you can carry or the bit at the front of a digger? And how big's a "s**t-load"?

For prudity's sake this phrase has become "a shed load" which sounds odd, as surely it should be "a shed full"?

I realise that there have been few postings to this question recently, but here's a unit of measurement which sprang to mind.

The moon and back - e.g. "The factory makes enough string to reach to the moon and back 37 times".

How often does it make that much? Once a day, once a year? Just once? (In which case what happens then?)

I omitted the each year bit, although it was only an example, but they often use that sort of example on the news and such like.

I always liked the triple F system of weights and measures - Furlong, Firkin, Fortnight. So speed is measured in the exceptionally useful units of Furlongs per Fortnight.

And by the way, not *all* language books start with locations of animals: Cornelia sub arbor est. Flavia cantat. Cornelia et Flavia puellae Romanae sunt. Et ceterea ad nauseam.