Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2024 February 13

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February 13

Lighthouses

Are there any lighthouses in freshwater lakes in Eurasia? Are there still lighthouses in Lake Ladoga, in Russia? --40bus (talk) 14:28, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

One example: Lindau Lighthouse in Lake Constance. --Wrongfilter (talk) 14:40, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

There's a light at the head of the Neva River in Shlisselburg on Lake Lagoda, but that's little more than a mast. --Wrongfilter (talk) 19:10, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

Stavoren Lighthouse, Urk Lighthouse, the Paard van Marken and nl:Oud Kraggenburg, all in the Netherlands, were build along the sea in the 19th century, but as the sea was dammed off in 1933, it was turned into a freshwater lake. That wasn't the end for Oud Kraggenburg: another dam and some pumping stations drained the water around it completely in 1942, so it's now an inland lighthouse. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:22, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Danish waters

Why most online interactive sea map softwares (such as Navionics and C-Map) do not show territorial waters of Denmark and its dependencies? Are there any similar services that show them, including Faroe Islands and Greenland? --40bus (talk) 18:50, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

Metric units

1. Is there any country that prices jewellery by grams, rather than karates?
2. Is there any country that measures display screen sizes of TVs and computers in centimeters, rather than inches?
3. Why airport elevation is measured in feet in Sweden but in meters in Finland?

--40bus (talk) 20:29, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

1. Yes, all of them. To name two off the top of my head - the UK and USA. Karat is a measurement of gold purity, not weight. Do you instead mean Carat (mass)? If you do, then that is a measurement where 1 carat is equal to 200 milligrams. Nanonic (talk) 22:13, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

The only thing I can think of that's measured in karates is chops. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:12, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

3. According to this,[1] altitude in feet is the standard, which would make Finland the outlier. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:38, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

(3) Several other Eastern European countries, such as Russia, measure airport elevation in meters. --40bus (talk) 17:29, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Europe, except the UK and Ireland, has been fully metric since before the Wright brothers took off, so naturally European aviation started off in metric units. Only after World War 2, when the European aviation industry (except UK and Soviet Union) was destroyed and the UK and US dumped their surplus military transport planes on the civilian market, they managed to force those alien units on us. And naturally, the Soviet Union managed to resist and stayed on sensible metric units. Finland wanted to remain neutral during the Cold War and I suppose that was a factor for them to remain partially on metric units for aviation. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:52, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

(2) When I look at Amazon.co.uk, the TVs are shown with cm measurements. RudolfRed (talk) 05:54, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

(2) I went to Amazon.co.uk and entered TV into the search bar. All screen sizes are in inches, although some also give cm as an alternative. See this example. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 09:55, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Not to be snarky, but the Finns are outliers in many ways (and I greatly respect them for it, in general!) IrlSmith (talk) 14:15, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

The Finns were obliged to keep one foot in the Soviet camp by the Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948; my impression from visiting the country in the 1970s was that the Finns were far from happy about it, but preferred it to the perceived alternative which was another Winter War. Alansplodge (talk) 12:02, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Question 4

Is there any country that has formely been a British colony that was first metricated before 1950? Was there anything that was measured in metric in 1950 in UK or Australia? --40bus (talk) 15:37, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Yes, Mauritius metricated in 1876 (see Mauritian units of measurement). Metrication in the United Kingdom describes the process of adoption in the UK, before 1950, the metric Centimetre–gram–second system of units was widely used in scientific research, and before 1950 there were some other uses, such as the adoption of a metric National Grid. Warofdreams talk 00:22, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Of course decimalisation of the UK currency started in 1849 with the introduction of the florin (2/-, 10p), though it did take until 1971 to complete! 122 years seems a reasonable time frame for government. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 11:26, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

The UK Ordnance Survey National Grid originated in 1935 and is based on a grid of 1 kilometre squares. Alansplodge (talk) 11:53, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

The UK is actually a lot more metric than you think. It is, however, quite stubborn in a few areas, such as roads, and beer, where things are still measured the old fashioned way. Pablothepenguin (talk) 14:21, 25 February 2024 (UTC)