US length measurement units

[+fri.sch]

Hi,

 

This is an easy question for all US citizens but not for a German.

I need to know how length units are commonly used in the US.

For example when talking about the distance to a geocache.

I guess you guys use feet for shorter distances and miles for longer ones.

At which level of distance do you commonly switch between them?

Do you use feet up to 1000 feet and then miles?

Or feet up to one mile and then miles?

Or is there no common way?

 

Thanks for your help and greetings from the other side of the pond.

fri.sch

[+Harwell5]

Usually with most GPS units, it has been my experience that the measure of feet is used up to 0.1 mile and the measurements are in miles after. So we would use feet up to 512 feet and then use 0.1 miles, 0.11 miles, 0.12 miles, etc. That's how I do it. :-)

[+Walts Hunting]

We go to miles pretty quick. I would say anything over a quarter mile (about 1250 feet) and maybe less we state in miles. I have never heard anyone use feet for any distance that is further than the immediate area.

 

The GPS does the same after 528 feet it is in decimal parts of a mile.

[+StarBrand]

My GPS units all switch automatically. Feet at about 700 or less. Miles with 2 decimal points over that.

[+JBnW]

Usually with most GPS units, it has been my experience that the measure of feet is used up to 0.1 mile and the measurements are in miles after. So we would use feet up to 512 feet and then use 0.1 miles, 0.11 miles, 0.12 miles, etc. That's how I do it. :-)

This is how I usually think of it while caching, as this is what the GPS is telling me. otherwise, if I'm speaking to someone or thinking to myself (sometimes the same thing ), I'll usually use feet up to 300 ft, then go to yards up to a quarter mile, then quarter mile increments from there. I keep using "yards" from my shooting hobbies, as that's how many ballistics tables are set up.

[+WRASTRO]

It is no wonder so many cachers have problems finding things if their GPS units think 512 feet is a tenth of a mile and 1250 feet is a quarter of a mile.

 

In regular life I tend to think of distances in feet and yards for shorter distances and miles and fractions of miles for longer distances. When caching I think of things in terms of feet up to 528 feet and miles/tenths/hundredths of miles for greater distances.

[+Sharks-N-Beans]

I'm not sure why, but I refer to distances in increments of football fields until about a quarter mile.

[+Harwell5]

It is no wonder so many cachers have problems finding things if their GPS units think 512 feet is a tenth of a mile and 1250 feet is a quarter of a mile.

 

In regular life I tend to think of distances in feet and yards for shorter distances and miles and fractions of miles for longer distances. When caching I think of things in terms of feet up to 528 feet and miles/tenths/hundredths of miles for greater distances.

 

Hmmmm. Not sure how that got put in there. I didn't type that. Yeah that's it. ;-) That should have been 528 feet = 0.1 mile. Sorry.

[+fri.sch]

Ok. Thanks for your answers. I got an idea now.

[+Mark+Karen]

In the UK it's even more complicated as we use both! On the roads it's miles and feet, but personally I use metres for caching.

[+DonB]

In the UK it's even more complicated as we use both! On the roads it's miles and feet, but personally I use metres for caching.

It's funny, when a person uses a certain system all of his life it's hard to change. When someone uses meters with me before I even think about it my brain takes it times three and tells me that it's a little more then X number of feet. My spell checker is even telling me you spelled it wrong.

[+dfx]

In the UK it's even more complicated as we use both! On the roads it's miles and feet, but personally I use metres for caching.

 

Seems to be the opposite of Canada Here everything is officially metric, but the stupid imerial units are still in widespread use.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

I'm not sure why, but I refer to distances in increments of football fields until about a quarter mile.

Yeah, but how many Rhode Islands is that?

[+bflentje]

I'm not sure why, but I refer to distances in increments of football fields until about a quarter mile.

Yeah, but how many Rhode Islands is that?

 

About two.

[coachgrinnan]

In Texas we use hours. It is 3 hours from Dallas to Austin.

[+Team Dennis]

In Texas we use hours. It is 3 hours from Dallas to Austin.

 

Same for us here in Minnesota!

 

Not sure how (or if) this fits in, but I heard somewhere the biggest difference between people in the US and Europe is Americans think 200 years is a long time while Europeans think 200 miles is a long distance.

[+hzoi]

Our GPSr automatically switches from feet to miles when it crosses the 0.1 mile/528 feet threshold.

 

We used to have our GPSr set to meters, even after we moved from Germany to the US. But with road signs and cache descriptions all in English measurements rather than metric, we went back to feet to avoid confusion.