this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- The entire showerthought must be in the title
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- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
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Fun fact: that's not the only non-linear unit out there. Like, the Mohs scale and all the various gauge units Americans love. Lots of fun units out there.
All of it makes sense if you want to screw around with people. For example, this figure went from 20 to 15 while that one went from 50 to 45. It's the same difference, right? Who needs linear units when you can have confusion units.
I don't understand? What's the alternative?
L/km, or L/100km practically because it puts the litre value in a useful range for comparison.
This is exactly as linear as miles per gallon.
Yes that's because we're comparing it with miles per gallon....
Linear units follow the format [what you give]/[what you get]. That format makes comparison easier. ~~With non-linear units a 1% change can be negligible or huge depending on where you’re at the scale.~~ Linear units are always very clear regardless of where it’s used.
If your fuel consumption drops from 6 l/100km to 5 l/100km, it’s exactly as useful as the drop from 16 l/100km to 15 l/100km. Try that with mpg, and you’ll see how deceptive those numbers are.
Edit: That 1% stuff was wrong. The argument would have made sense if I had written something like 1 unit change can be negligible or huge.
Both this and miles per gallon are linear.
Edit: A 1% change is THE SAME no matter where you are on both. A 1% increase in miles per gallon is a (100/101) times [decrease] in gallons per mile (which is linearly convertible to l/100km). What you did is two different % changes.
My bad. Fractional changes are are immune to this. Absolute changes get weird with non-linear units.
Skill issue
I don't get how the change between 5 and 6 (47 to 39mpg) is the same as 15 and 16 (16 to 15mpg). One is a much smaller change than the other.
I always just think stuff like 30 mpg means a full 10gal tank can go 300 miles.
Let's say you drive the a 300 mile distance with two cars. First one does 45 mpg and the other one does 40. Seems like a small difference, and it is. Once you reach the destination, and compare how much money you spent on gas, the difference is probably something like 3.6 dollars.
Next, you do the same trip with a different set of cars: 20 and 25 mpg. That was a small difference, right? Not any more. At the end of the trip you compare the receipts and find that it's a 13.2 dollar difference now.
As gas is the material being consumed and miles is what you get in return, having them in the mi/gal configuration implies you should care a lot more about the miles. However, the distance you need to drive usually isn't something you think about that much. Instead, people care much more about how much you have to spend on gas. The volume of gas connects with how much you end up spending, and that's why you should put it on top, not below.
If gas was nearly free, an all you cared about is distance, mpg would be ideal.