this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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xkcd #3065: Square Units (xkcd.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de to c/xkcd@lemmy.world
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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/

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[–] waz@feddit.uk 2 points 2 weeks ago

I was briefly fascinated by ‘chains’ at school, in the system of rods, links and chains. The idea of chains was you go around the outside of an irregular area and the number of chains related to the area in acres. 1 acre to 10 square chains?