Why YSK: If you’re an American (or Liberian/Myanma), simply knowing that 1m~=3.28ft is… not that helpful. Understanding a unit requires lived experience, after all

Well, if you play Minecraft: good news! Blocks in Minecraft are exactly 1m3. If you can close your eyes and visualize a Minecraft grid, you’re probably already surprisingly good at measuring things in meters.

Let’s give it a shot:

  • How tall is the average person? A little bit less than 2 blocks 2 meters
  • How wide is the average person? About 1/2 a block 1/2 a meter
  • What’s the furthest a young person can fall before it starts getting painful? Just over 3 blocks 3 meters
  • How big is the average room? About 6x6 blocks 6x6 meters

Some players might even be familiar with kilometers if they use waypoint mods, such as Xaero’s Minimap. If a map marker says it’s 1000 blocks away, that’s 1km. How long does it take a healthy person to walk 1000 blocks 1 kilometer? About 10 minutes!