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this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025
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Autism
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The size of an inch or a centimeter is arbitrary. In fact, all measurements other than natural units are arbitrary. Units need not scale linearly either. E.g. dB or the Richter Scale. A women's number 11 or a size 10 shoe or a meter are all equally valid units of measure. What is fucked is the delineation of "men's" and "women's" sizes and the fact that women's clothes have fewer and shallower pockets.
How is a physical measurement that is universally agreed upon "arbitrary"?
What we call a centimeter can be however large we choose. Say it were twice as large as it is now and we all agreed that size is a centimeter. What if we chose the inch and the centimeter to be the same size? Agreement doesn't negate the fact that we could have chosen it to be any arbitrary size.
The only true "universals" are universal constants like the speed of light or Planck's Constant. They set boundaries and scales irrespective of the units we use to describe them.
That's an interesting way of looking at things, but generally measurement standards are agreed upon. Regardless of whether they can change, that doesn't negate their usefulness in measuring things now.