Height and weight

One problem with moving countries is that I no longer know how much I weigh, and I don't know how tall I am.

It isn't always true that moving countries causes you to lose track of your height and weight. It only happened to me because I switched to the metric system. I know in my head what the metric system is. I just don't have a good intuitive sense of what any of the measures mean.

That's not completely true. I've figured out by now what temperature feels like in centigrade, and I'm very proud of myself for that accomplishment. Good start, me!

But I really don't have a good sense of what a kilogram is, or how many centimeters wide is a wall. I wanted to hang a new white board in my office. When we measured the wall, I gave a number that was off  by a factor of ten, and the woman helping me laughed. She has a good intuitive sense of what a centimeter means. And then she looked at me in pity. "You don't really know centimeters, do you?"

No, I don't. PhD in mathematics, and can't measure the length of a wall.

In teaching, I used to have this really great example of limits in which the average speed of a bicycle increases and increases as you approach a certain value. But my speed was in miles per hour, and that is meaningless to students here. I had to make up new numbers in kilometers per hour. I hope the numbers I made up were reasonable, in the unreasonable way that made the example funny when I presented it in miles per hour. Humor is different in the metric system.

And recently, I popped a hole in the toe of my good pair of black tights, so it was time to get a new pair. I happened to be in the city centre looking for birthday presents, and saw the wall of tights and remembered to look for myself. But tights are sold by height and weight. Standing there, against the wall, looking at all the numbers on the chart of sizes, I realised that I have no idea how much I weigh, or how tall I am.

They don't sell tights in queen size, or king or jack or ace. The options were tall, extra tall, and medium. I do know that I am rather tall for a woman, so I was pretty sure I should buy tall or extra tall. But which? Ladies on the left of the chart don't need extra tall, the chart said, unless their height is at the very bottom. All ladies on the right of the chart need extra tall, whether their height is at the top or middle or bottom. And those in the middle have to take extra care picking between their sizes.

Since I have no idea where my numbers fit into the chart, I took a wild guess and purchased extra tall.

Just to make sure they fit, I'll wear my five inch platform heals tomorrow so that I definitely fit in the category at the very bottom of the chart, no matter what. Except I still won't know how many centimeters those five inches add.

Maybe I'll ask google what my height is in centimeters, and my weight in kilograms. I've done that before, thinking that next time, I will know for sure. But it doesn't stick in my head, because kilograms and centimeters are still meaningless. I'll just buy extra tall and cross my fingers.