The biggest I’ve seen in a published source in the wild is an 80-fold error in a reported distance, which I think came from a series of at least three unit conversions and area/length misinterpretations.

https://explainxkcd.com/3065/

  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    3 square feet are 3 1x1 feet, 1/3rd of a square yard. 3 feet squared is a square yard, 3x larger than 3 sqft.

    Unless I’m missing your sarcasm.

    Also the purpose of this xkcd

    Edit to add, a 600 square foot studio apartment (about 3% of an acre) is much smaller than the 600 foot squared lot that a mcmansion will sit on. (About 9 acres)

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I believe “feet squared” and “feet, squared” is the discrepancy here.

      The unit ft^2 is pronounced “feet squared” and is equivalent to sq. ft.

      • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        "the Louisiana purchase added 838,000 square miles to the United States, tell me, was it 1/4 the size of the United States, or the 100x the surface area of the sun?

        One of those are square miles, the other is miles squared.

        But I don’t know why I expect you to understand this now.

      • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        No need to add the comma if you say it properly, feet squared are not squared feet, quantifier (3) adjective (square) noun (feet) vs quantifier (3) noun (square) affective (feet), it’s the order of operations in the English language, one is quantifying the distance of the edge, while the other is quantifying how many individual edges (squares) of set distance (feet) you have.

        I am not writing it with any discrepancy, though I do get tripped up when talking about it, but generally nobody calls anyone on it, except that’s when expensive projects go boom sometimes.

        Read out loud 3sqft and 3’^2,

        First one: 3 square feet

        Second one: 3 feet (foot? If you’re pedantic) squared (square if you’re a pedant)

          • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Did you not notice the unit modifier in the my second phrase???

            Let me spell it out for you.

            3 (three) ’ (feet) ^2 (squared)

            You’d have me repeating myself like a monkey, which is, NINE.

            3 (three) sq (square) ft (feet) is THREE.

            but I suspect you’ll disagree at at this point I’ll move on, my only sadness is there was a person out there who agreed with your original argument that they were the same.

                  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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                    2 months ago

                    Okay,

                    There’s this thing called the order of operations

                    And seeing as how you don’t know about it, it makes sense that you won’t know the difference between square miles and miles squared.

                    Please check out a junior high school math text book before bothering to argue on the Internet.

                    Edit i see where you’ve made the mistake,

                    If it’s (3+4)^2 then you’ve failed to combine like units, something they teach you about in kindergarten.