42 | From Planck to Parsec: the madness of measurements

Q: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
A: That depends on which measurement system he/she prefers.

Measurements, i.e. specified quantities of a wide variety of 'somethings', are so ingrained in the way we think about the world, that we barely notice their existence. If you've ever rushed out of your underpaid 9-5 job at 5:30PM, got a $75 fine for breaking the 100KMH speed limit on the way home, thereby making you 45 minutes late to pick up the kids from after-school class where they've melted into howling bloblets in the 92° Fahrenheit, Humidex 38 heat, you'll see what we mean.

Over the past several millennia, deep thinkers around the world came up with numerous systems of measurement designed to standardize our understanding of quantities. You can thank them for sentences like the one above as you decide whether or not to spend the next 32 minutes and 8 seconds listening to this podcast while trying to shed a few unwanted pounds working out. Or, if you're like us, you'll shell out twenty bucks for a pizza, dial up an old episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and call it a day.

Music and image credits:
Hoagie and calipers by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
Excerpt from Heaven is Ten Zillion Light Years Away by Stevie Wonder
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock