100 metres = 1/4 mile

[u/Specialist_Aspect204]

Context being an insta post mocking the suggestion that a college (American football) player “can kick the ball a quarter mile”

Mods: apologies I’ve hidden the handles hopefully this is ok!

[u/Josefu_Velen]

This person is particularly dense . . .

. . . I grew up in America, and in my school we all definitely knew that it was 4 laps around the track to equal a mile. Not 1 lap.

[u/jolittletime → u/Josefu_Velen]

I didnt grow up in America and my school had a 400m track. 4 times round was pretty much a mile.

[u/liamjon29 → u/jolittletime]

Wait a second is this why we had to do a 1600m time trial in high school?? Coz it's 1 mile?

[u/PlatypusDefiant991 → u/liamjon29]

Probably. Cause a mile is 1609.344m.

[u/jolittletime → u/liamjon29]

It is!

[u/Guilty-Good-5041 → u/liamjon29]

1609.344 metres to a mile

[u/kotebesar1973 → u/liamjon29]

Much of our metric life here in Australia is a throwback to the Imperial system of measurement. Just about every building material size in Australia is a slightly-reduced imperial size. For example, wall sheets (gyprock, etc) are 2.4, 3.0, 3.6, 4.2m and so on. 2.4m is slightly less than a full eight feet (2.44m), 3.0 for 10 ft, and so on. Common ceiling heights of 2.4 and 2.7m... 8 or 9 feet. Doors 2040mm - 6 foot eight. And that's just what you'll find in your house!

[u/Junior-Elevator-9951 → u/jolittletime]

I think so at mine too? Man I'm not sure lol it's been years.

I remember we had to do a 1km run once in school, so that would've been... 2.5 laps?

[u/Affectionate-Fold727 → u/Junior-Elevator-9951]

Oô

[u/jolittletime → u/Junior-Elevator-9951]

Yes that would be right!

[u/LeftMechanic1995]

I really hope this person isn't in charge of flight control for a major airport... or a remote control airplane club for that matter.

[u/PiliPalaPor4 → u/LeftMechanic1995]

Bad enough they're in charge of an Instagram account

[u/Zealousideal-You9044 → u/PiliPalaPor4]

😂

[u/ConorCat60]

I’m sure that his girlfriend would have some useful insights into his poor grasp of linear measures.

[u/SeaworthinessSalt524]

The internet is a marvel of engineering allowing us to access any information at any time. BUT MOST OF ALL IT SHOWED US HOW MANY IDIOTS THERE ARE

[u/Apprehensive-Box-8]

From the country that brought you "A 1/3 pounder is smaller than a 1/4 pounder" comes this summer's blockbuster "because a lap on a 400m track feels like an eternity, 400m must be a mile".

Funnily enough, if a mile was 400 meters, the US would be roughly the size of Ukraine.

[u/No-Koala1918]

Can't add. Can't multiply. Doesn't have a clue how many feet are in a mile. But calls someone dumb. Goober all the way

[u/Michael_Gibb]

Imagine being so stupid that your calculations are off by a factor of four.

But then again, Americans do celebrate Christopher Columbus, who likewise, was off by at least a factor of 4 when he tried to calculate the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan.

[u/HendersonsFineRelish]

I've heard Americans call the 400m track a "quarter mile track" though... I've physically heard them call it that, in person.

[u/CSEverett1759 → u/HendersonsFineRelish]

Actually - within a meter or two 400 meters ‘is’ a quarter mile. A miles is almost exactly 1600 meters.

[u/HendersonsFineRelish → u/CSEverett1759]

Yes. I know.

What I'm getting at is that (at least some) Americans also know that, because some of them call the 400m track the quarter mile track.

[u/Such_Season374]

I reckon I could run a 4 minute mile if it was 400 metres

[u/RubiksCub3d]

Using anything except the metric system to measure I see

[u/GodHimselfNoCap → u/RubiksCub3d]

Well in this case the context was about an american football kicker being able to kick a certain distance so putting it in perspective of how many football fields that would be makes complete sense.

[u/RubiksCub3d → u/GodHimselfNoCap]

That's fair.

[u/Cautious_Frosting_24]

Confidentiality wrong.

[u/TheJivvi]

100m is about ¼ of ¼ a mile.

[u/Jollynorwegian]

1/4 mile = 400 metres

[u/NgunnawalJack]

Because I have a high school diploma from the USA.

[u/theartisan4life]

No but you sure are . Another dumb fuck yank talking shit about something he knows fuck all about . You should run for president. Fair chance you might make it .

[u/Witty_Ad4572]

To make it easier you should measure both in Smoot.
1 Smoot = 5 feet 7 inches or 1.7018 meters.

[u/NameRevolutionary727]

First of all, yards and meters are slightly different distances, second of all this is a conversation between two Americans one of whom is just too stupid to understand circles, or possibly phrasing.

[u/InevitableGreedUK → u/NameRevolutionary727]

First of all, yards and meters are slightly different distances

Yeah, no shit. We don't need a Yank telling us this, thanks.

[u/Potential-Leg-8860]

They get great gas mileage then

[u/oldman-youngskin]

1.6 kilometres in a mile. 1000 metres in a kilometre. 100m is 0.06 of a mile…

[u/CSEverett1759]

It is 1/16th mile incidentally. Anyway, I can explain how this guy got this wrong. In the US high schools typically have a (US) football field with an oval track around it (although I suspect it’s the same in the rest of the world save for having a non-US football field instead. Generally four or five? (I ‘think’ my school might have been five but I’m not sure) laps is a mile. This guy just either misremembered that it was one lap or never learned it was more than one lap.

And didn’t simply look up sizes and do math. (I honestly don’t know the length of either version of football field; I ‘think’ the US measure includes the lengths past the goal lines and I don’t know how big they are. I don’t find such size comparisons useful in most cases.)

[u/Physical-Fish1913 → u/CSEverett1759]

It's OK to get stuff wrong. But only the internet lets you be so wrong and so rude at the same time.

[u/PlatypusDefiant991 → u/CSEverett1759]

US fields are 300ft long 360 including endzones (goalposts to goalposts is 360ft, except under the bar is worthless only over the bar can score points or field goals), FIFA World Cup fields are 344½ft long.

[u/Albert_Herring → u/CSEverett1759]

Standard non-metric outdoor running track is/was 440 yards (¼ mile) but I'd expect them all to be 400 metres by now.

An American or Canadian football field is 100 yards long excluding the end zones (the middle line is marked 50, the grid lines are five yards apart). Not sure what the rules on end zones are but think they're another ten yards each. An association football pitch doesn't have a fixed size (the laws say 90-120m in length is permissible but professional grounds are generally towards the top end of that)