Converting to Metric
Converting to Metric
Guide to Converting to Metric
[There are five frames with tables for different units. Between the two upper frames is the following text:] The key to converting to metric is establishing new reference points. When you hear "26°C", instead of thinking "that's 79°F" you should think, "that's warmer than a house but cool for swimming." Here are some helpful tables of reference points:
[The frame in the top left lists the following temperatures on the left, with the corresponding descriptions on the right. Next to the last three entries we see Cueball spitting on the ground. The spit freezes.] Temperature
60°C    Earth's hottest 45°C    Dubai heat wave 40°C    Southern US heat wave 35°C    Northern US heat wave 30°C    Beach weather 25°C    Warm room 20°C    Room temperature 10°C    Jacket weather 0°C       Snow! -5°C     Cold day (Boston) -10°C   Cold day (Moscow) -20°C   Fuckfuckfuckcold -30°C   Fuuuuuuuuuuck! -40°C   Spit goes "clink"
Cueball: Ptoo Spit: Clink!
[The frame in the top right lists the following lengths on the left, with their corresponding descriptions on the right. To the right of the table is a human tower of four of the people from the Serenity crew. The head of the upper person is right below the first entry.] Length
1 cm         Width of microSD card 3 cm         Length of SD card 12 cm       CD diameter 14 cm       Penis 15 cm       BIC pen 80 cm       Doorway width 1 m           Lightsaber blade 170 cm     Summer Glau 200 cm     Darth Vader 2.5 m         Ceiling 5 m           Car-length 16 m 4 cm Human tower of Serenity crew.
[The frame in the bottom left has three columns] Speed
kph   m/s 5      1.5    Walking 13    3.5    Jogging 25    7       Sprinting 35    10     Fastest human 45    13     Housecat 55    15     Rabbit 75    20     Raptor 100   25    Slow highway 110   30    Interstate (65 mph) 120   35    Speed you actually go when it says "65" 140   40    Raptor on hoverboard
[The frame in the bottom middle lists the following volumes on the left, with their corresponding descriptions on the right. Volume
3 mL     Blood in a fieldmouse 5 mL     Teaspoon 30 mL    Nasal passages 40 mL    Shot glass 350 mL   Soda can 500 mL   Water bottle 3 L         Two-liter bottle 5 L          Blood in a human male 30 L        Milk crate 55 L        Summer Glau 65 L        Dennis Kucinich 75 L        Ron Paul 200 L      Fridge
[Next to the entry on nasal passages and shot glass (starting one entry higher and finishing one entry lower) is the following text:] So, when it's blocked, the mucus in your nose could about fill a shot glass.
[Below this text is a drawing of a mucus filled shot glass.] Related: I've invented the worst mixed drink ever.
[Below this next to the four last entries we see Cueball shoving Summer Glau, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul into an open fridge. Above the fridge in a loosely drawn ellipse is the following text:] 55+65+75 < 200
[The frame in the bottom right lists the following masses on the left, with their corresponding descriptions on the right
3 g          Peanut M&M 100 g     Cell phone 500 g    Bottled water 1 kg       Ultraportable laptop 2 kg       Light-medium laptop 3 kg       Heavy laptop 5 kg       LCD monitor 15 kg     CRT monitor 4 kg       Cat 4.1 kg    Cat (with caption) 60 kg     Lady 70 kg     Dude 150 kg   Shaq 200 kg   Your mom 220 kg   Your mom (incl. cheap jewelry) 223 kg   Your mom (also incl. makeup)
[Next to the entries of cat and cat (with caption) are two drawings of cats. The second one has a caption across its chest.] Cat (with caption): Mrowl? [Below this and next to the lady and dude entries are drawings of Megan and Cueball.]

Most people will eventually develop an intuitive feel for how big certain measurements are (e.g., how long an inch or a foot is, how much a pound weighs). This comic points out that people who were brought up using the United States system of customary units probably don't have the same intuitive understanding for metric units and attempts to provide some benchmarks for these people. Most of the benchmarks are common sense, highly-useful ones (e.g., if it's 30 degrees Celsius, you'd be quite comfortable outside dressed for the beach) but some of the benchmarks are humorous and/or completely useless as can be seen below.
Some people argue for switching to metric units in the US, and these people became part of the comic 1982: Evangelism .
In the book Thing Explainer a similar chart for metrics is shown in the explanation for How to count things , with four of the five measures from this comic also explained in simple language. Only volume is left out there. Only thing used in both explanations is the weight of a cat, but in the book it weighs 5 kg rather than 4 kg in this comic.
See also 1643: Degrees about not being able to choose between the two temperature scales and 1923: Felsius about a compromise between the two scales. In the comic 1982: Evangelism , some people are stated to argue for the US to convert to the metric system, except for the Fahrenheit scale which they wish to keep.
Here both the SI unit m/s as well as the more commonly used unit kph (km/h) is given. Note that the SI prefers "km/h" over the non-standard abbreviation "kph".
The title text refers once again to Summer Glau's Firefly character, River Tam , who (after being subjected to a long series of medical experiments) is severely mentally ill and often comes out with macabre — though scientifically accurate — pronouncements. In Firefly episode "Safe" (season 1, episode 7), she says: "The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds given adequate vacuuming systems."
The idea of the comic is to establish new metric reference points and not to resort to unit conversions. Nevertheless, the following table lists all units from the comic with their US customary equivalents:
Guide to Converting to Metric
[There are five frames with tables for different units. Between the two upper frames is the following text:] The key to converting to metric is establishing new reference points. When you hear "26°C", instead of thinking "that's 79°F" you should think, "that's warmer than a house but cool for swimming." Here are some helpful tables of reference points:
[The frame in the top left lists the following temperatures on the left, with the corresponding descriptions on the right. Next to the last three entries we see Cueball spitting on the ground. The spit freezes.] Temperature
60°C    Earth's hottest 45°C    Dubai heat wave 40°C    Southern US heat wave 35°C    Northern US heat wave 30°C    Beach weather 25°C    Warm room 20°C    Room temperature 10°C    Jacket weather 0°C       Snow! -5°C     Cold day (Boston) -10°C   Cold day (Moscow) -20°C   Fuckfuckfuckcold -30°C   Fuuuuuuuuuuck! -40°C   Spit goes "clink"
Cueball: Ptoo Spit: Clink!
[The frame in the top right lists the following lengths on the left, with their corresponding descriptions on the right. To the right of the table is a human tower of four of the people from the Serenity crew. The head of the upper person is right below the first entry.] Length
1 cm         Width of microSD card 3 cm         Length of SD card 12 cm       CD diameter 14 cm       Penis 15 cm       BIC pen 80 cm       Doorway width 1 m           Lightsaber blade 170 cm     Summer Glau 200 cm     Darth Vader 2.5 m         Ceiling 5 m           Car-length 16 m 4 cm Human tower of Serenity crew.
[The frame in the bottom left has three columns] Speed
kph   m/s 5      1.5    Walking 13    3.5    Jogging 25    7       Sprinting 35    10     Fastest human 45    13     Housecat 55    15     Rabbit 75    20     Raptor 100   25    Slow highway 110   30    Interstate (65 mph) 120   35    Speed you actually go when it says "65" 140   40    Raptor on hoverboard
[The frame in the bottom middle lists the following volumes on the left, with their corresponding descriptions on the right. Volume
3 mL     Blood in a fieldmouse 5 mL     Teaspoon 30 mL    Nasal passages 40 mL    Shot glass 350 mL   Soda can 500 mL   Water bottle 3 L         Two-liter bottle 5 L          Blood in a human male 30 L        Milk crate 55 L        Summer Glau 65 L        Dennis Kucinich 75 L        Ron Paul 200 L      Fridge
[Next to the entry on nasal passages and shot glass (starting one entry higher and finishing one entry lower) is the following text:] So, when it's blocked, the mucus in your nose could about fill a shot glass.
[Below this text is a drawing of a mucus filled shot glass.] Related: I've invented the worst mixed drink ever.
[Below this next to the four last entries we see Cueball shoving Summer Glau, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul into an open fridge. Above the fridge in a loosely drawn ellipse is the following text:] 55+65+75 < 200
[The frame in the bottom right lists the following masses on the left, with their corresponding descriptions on the right
3 g          Peanut M&M 100 g     Cell phone 500 g    Bottled water 1 kg       Ultraportable laptop 2 kg       Light-medium laptop 3 kg       Heavy laptop 5 kg       LCD monitor 15 kg     CRT monitor 4 kg       Cat 4.1 kg    Cat (with caption) 60 kg     Lady 70 kg     Dude 150 kg   Shaq 200 kg   Your mom 220 kg   Your mom (incl. cheap jewelry) 223 kg   Your mom (also incl. makeup)
[Next to the entries of cat and cat (with caption) are two drawings of cats. The second one has a caption across its chest.] Cat (with caption): Mrowl? [Below this and next to the lady and dude entries are drawings of Megan and Cueball.]
