2x4s are one of the only things I can think of whose entire name is just literally raw dimensions, so finding out they are not even right was a real wtf moment.
I went down the street to the 24-hour grocery. When I got there, the guy was locking the front door. I said, “Hey, the sign says you’re open 24 hours.” He said, “Yes, but not in a row.” -- Steven Wright
A couple of years ago there was an urgent care clinic near me that put up a big banner that said "Now open 24/7" and in smaller letters underneath, "Closed Sunday, Monday, and Thursday". Presumably they had a novel definition of "/7".
If you’ve ever done construction work (particularly framing obviously) you tend to realize it very quickly, but you get quite used to dealing with it; it’s all quite standardized, simple carpentry.
A lot of batteries like 18650’s or CR2032’s as examples are basically just their size in millimeters, and as far as I know, they are accurate.
Seems a bit strange it was never rebranded... We just buy structural timber by its actual dimensions (the standard here is 90x45 mm) here in Australia.
For a lot of applications, you can assume thickness, so width is usually the headline number.
Floating shelves are typically going to be a nominal inch thick, likely planed to around 20mm, so you can tell an apprentice to go and get 2m of 140mm board
I thought they were supposed to be 12 inches long but for whatever they didn't end up that way. That's slightly different than a piece of wood that's supposed to be smaller than 2x4
I ordered a quarter pounder at a McDonald's drive through, and the cashier said, "There will be a wait on that." I asked, "Oh really? How much will it weigh?" There was a long pause, and they finally said, "About 5 minutes."
