why don't people say mega meters - eviltoast

How come people say 5,000 km and not 5 Mm?
why not just say millions of meters or Mega meters?

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Yes, I think it’s a question of use. I can’t think of many examples where you would quickly need to know the measurement to the nearest Mm. Maybe if for some reason you deal with a lot of lunar orbits? Diameters of exoplanets?

    Any earth distances we need to know with greater precision, and any stellar distances are probably better measured in light years, etc.