London buses, football pitches, olympic-sized swimming pools

[Cnut237]

In the UK, TV news and other media outlets often convert measurements into a more readily comprehensible alternative. For example, a newsreader might say that x 'is 34 metres long, or as long as three London buses'.

Do other countries have similar examples? And if so what are the units of measurement?

Here, it tends to be:

Distance: London buses (or sometimes double-decker buses)*
Area: Football pitches
Volume: Olympic-sized swimming pools**



*I have no idea why the height of the bus is relevant in a length measurement. Or whether a London bus is longer or shorter than a non-London bus.
**I assume 'olympic-sized' because that is a standard, whereas other swimming pools will vary - although the fact that most people will have zero experience of an olympic-sized pool is for some reason overlooked.

[Ucy]

Where I live, regular people would normally use things they are familiar with for comparing the measurement of something they're trying to describe. They rarely use the units of measurement as far as I can tell.
They would say something like "The man's living room is as big as our compound",   "The boy is as tall as this standing fan" etc..
I've probably noticed the local news people combined units of measurement with things people are familiar with while describing something. Not sure how often they do that.

[Cnut237]

Maybe it's just a British thing, then. There's another unit of area measurement I'd forgotten... when football pitches just aren't big enough, things are often compared to the size of Wales.
There's even an article about the phenomenon here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46737277

[semobo]

I commonly heard that swimming pools and Football pitches from the news as well but also I think I heard people used the size of Elephants to measure things that are too huge.

[charge4]

What about the Americans, I'm use 9Gag and saw multiple times some measurements like : long as 100 cheeseburgers
Buses, pitches and pools are standard measurements there is nothing strange in them.

[MrMcKinney]

Sounds like only british do that, I don't hear that anywhere here in my country lol.

[peter0425]

In the UK, TV news and other media outlets often convert measurements into a more readily comprehensible alternative. For example, a newsreader might say that x 'is 34 metres long, or as long as three London buses'.

Do other countries have similar examples? And if so what are the units of measurement?

Here, it tends to be:

Distance: London buses (or sometimes double-decker buses)*
Area: Football pitches
Volume: Olympic-sized swimming pools**



*I have no idea why the height of the bus is relevant in a length measurement. Or whether a London bus is longer or shorter than a non-London bus.
**I assume 'olympic-sized' because that is a standard, whereas other swimming pools will vary - although the fact that most people will have zero experience of an olympic-sized pool is for some reason overlooked.

why does our News agencies don't use such words in relevance 

But i think those are given for clearer views about the pinpointed topics in which even Kids that watching or listening can appreciate and have ideas .

This is not for the mature but of course the main target here is the youngsters.

[ethereumhunter]

Yes, the other countries did that too because they want people to understand what they tell. But even if they already did that, some people still got misunderstood what they want to say. That can trigger a debate between them without any solution. I think the units of measurement will depend on the subject or the object.

[Ucy]

I commonly heard that swimming pools and Football pitches from the news as well but also I think I heard people used the size of Elephants to measure things that are too huge.

I have heard people use the elephant comparison here too. Most likely exaggerations... and I believe the society where things are said that way usually know they are exaggeration. I have heard people say someone is as tall as a particular tree. "The lady is as big as an elephant" is occasionally used here too. Many of them probably exaggerate that way to get people to understand the importance/magnitude of the things they are describing. And society that use them seems to know it's an exaggeration. They assume that the exaggerated things cannot do or be what they are compared with

[Ucy]

I commonly heard that swimming pools and Football pitches from the news as well but also I think I heard people used the size of Elephants to measure things that are too huge.

I have heard people use the elephant comparison here too. Most likely exaggerations... and I believe the society where things are said that way usually know they are exaggeration. I have heard people say someone is as tall as a particular tree. "The lady is as big as an elephant" is occasionally used here too. Many of them probably exaggerate that way to get people to understand the importance/magnitude of the things they are describing. And society that use them seems to know it's an exaggeration. They assume that the exaggerated things cannot do or be what they are compared with

It's Important to let people know when to use such exaggerations and when not to use them. Not a good idea to use them when communicating to  people who expect you to be precised when comparing things, or people who won't understand that they are exaggerations. It important to "highlight" when using them for publications, and it's also  important to also highlight even if you are sending them to people who are aware they exaggerations ... because they could be misinterpreted if accessed by people they aren't meant for.
 I prefer to be precised when comparing, unless maybe I don't see/know any publicly known things to compare with. I still try to be very precised when using the non-public things that are probably known by me alone.