5 weird units of measurement

When most people think about measurements, the most common units such as kilogrammes, metres, litres etc, come to mind.

Although popular, these are not the only units of measurement that are available. There are several other units of measurement, and some of them may be considered weird.

5 weird units of measurement

Here are five units of measurement you probably have never heard about;

1. Butt

The butt is an actual unit of measurement that is equivalent to two hogsheads (more commonly called a large barrel). You might have heard people say “buttload” when referring to something in large amounts. This came from the unit of measurement - butt.

2. Noggin

This is another unit of measurement that is not so popular. A noggin is equal to 0.6 cups and is usually used to measure alcoholic drinks just like a pint which is a more popular unit of measurement.

3. Smoot

A smoot is one measurement unit with a funny story behind it. It was named after Oliver Smoot when he was an MIT student and wanted to pledge to a fraternity. One of the rituals at the time was to do something dumb and in Smoot’s case, he and the other pledges were asked to measure the length of a bridge.

Smoot and the other pledges were asked to measure the length of a bridge [MIT Alumni] Pulse Nigeria

It was decided that Smoot would be used as the measuring ruler and he was five feet and seven inches at the time. Smoot would lie down and they marked his body length until they measured the whole bridge. The bridge ended up being 364.4 Smoots long, and since then, this unit of measurement just stuck.

4. Megadeath

A megadeath as the name implies is a unit of measure used to describe deaths, in millions, after a potential nuclear explosion. In other words, this unit of measurement is applied if there is a count of millions of people who died from a nuclear explosion. Specifically, 1 million deaths from a nuclear explosion is equal to 1 megadeath.

5. Poronkusema

Poronkusema is a Finnish word that roughly translates to Reindeer piss. It is a unit of measurement for the distance a reindeer can travel before it needs to pee. 1 poronkusema is equivalent to 7.5 kilometres, or 4.7 miles.

Which of these units of measurement did you find most intriguing?