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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for January 9th, 2026

Empirical units, π, 𝑒 and 𝜙 (pi, e, and phi)

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/09

Being a non-native English speaker and having monaural hearing¹, the first time visiting the USA I thought they mentioned Empirical Units² when they tried to explain miles, feet and other measurement units they use on their island.

Then I learned they are in fact United States customary units but in the USA, they actually name those Imperial Units, implying that the UK still has a very strong influence on the USA. In reality, there are differences³ between Imperial Units and United States customary units to keep things in the USA practical (or lazy if you want), so I will keep calling their system Empirical Units as it is more fit for purpose (can’t name them Freedom Units any more given their Project 2025 regime).

Anyway, quite a while ago there was this cool XKCD “The Maritime Approximation” (image on the right) including only Imperial Units holding for Empirical Units as well: π mph ≈ 𝑒 kn (let’s use ISO unit symbols here, shall we) which is correct to < 0.5%.

Recently, I learned that with the same accuracy, there is a golden ratio between metric and Imperial/Empirical Units: 𝜙 km = 1 mi, also correct to < 0.5%.

Kevlin Henney wrote two great blog posts on these explaining way more background information:

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Fontendo (@Fontendou) / Twitter: Identifying & documenting fonts, obscure and otherwise from video games and other media.

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/09

Interesting as I know very little about fonts in Japan and the evolution:

[Wayback/Archive] Fontendo (@Fontendou) / Twitter

Identifying & documenting fonts, obscure and otherwise from video games and other media.

It is by [Wayback/Archive] Kaihatsu (@KaihatsuYT) / Twitter

Creativity through culture, & cultural literacy through games. Type designer in Japan.

Via: [Wayback/Archive] What’s the deal with this font? – YouTube

–jeroen

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Posted in Font, Power User | Leave a Comment »