Short by 0.72" but obviously close enough for your purposes. (For recording official records, I assume we'd break out the calculator.) I've used the same approximation many times, fellow cyborg.twelvefootboy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 10:14 am As 2.5 cm ~ 1 inch, most of the time, it is easier for me to divide by 4 than to multiply by 2.5, but it goes both ways. It's kind of humorous because the coaches are reaching for a chart or their phone and think I'm some kind of cyborg for knowing 18" = 45 cm (180/4 for me, actually divide by two twice) on the fly
On a similar note, when our son was born, a nurse put him on the scale and recorded his weight. A few minutes later another nurse looked over her shoulder and said, "that can't be right. He's obviously more than 3.39 pounds." She checked the scale and said, "this thing is set to kilograms." She set the scale to pounds and went to take the baby away from my wife who was busily bonding.
The doc said, "You don't need to do that. One kilogram is 2.2 pounds." They had a calculator RIGHT THERE. The nurse ignored the doctor, took the kid away from my wife, and put him back on the scale to note that he was in fact 7.46 (i.e. 3.39 x 2.2) pounds and wrote that down. The doctor and I shared a look.
Of course, what we really wanted to tell people when we phoned them--In 1992 I didn't have email, let alone Facebook. I was on Prodigy, but that would've only worked for notifying my dad--was weight in pounds and ounces. I decided against asking the nurses if the scale had a setting for that and if they would mind weighing him a third time. I don't think they would have understood the joke. I just did the conversion myself.