I’ve always loved the “lengths of wire” line. As a kid I used to check out lots of outdated library books about building a home science lab, and they consistently called a short piece of wire a “length” of wire. I don’t think I ever saw that term in any other context until Futurama, so it really brought back my nerdy roots.
I think a length of wire is more about being a vague measurement and to distinguish it from a wire coil, which is a separately useful thing in electronics.
Calling things a length isn’t indicative of being short. Terms like a length of rope and length of wire are fairly normal ways to talk about things without a strict measurement.
Yes I think it’s just a substitute term for “piece” of wire. But distinctly I recall “length” being commonly used in those old science books from the 40s and 50s. To me Professor Farnsworth seems cut out of that mold, the classic black and white movie scientist character.
I’ve always loved the “lengths of wire” line. As a kid I used to check out lots of outdated library books about building a home science lab, and they consistently called a short piece of wire a “length” of wire. I don’t think I ever saw that term in any other context until Futurama, so it really brought back my nerdy roots.
I think a length of wire is more about being a vague measurement and to distinguish it from a wire coil, which is a separately useful thing in electronics.
Calling things a length isn’t indicative of being short. Terms like a length of rope and length of wire are fairly normal ways to talk about things without a strict measurement.
Yes I think it’s just a substitute term for “piece” of wire. But distinctly I recall “length” being commonly used in those old science books from the 40s and 50s. To me Professor Farnsworth seems cut out of that mold, the classic black and white movie scientist character.
I’m barely 40 and calling something a length of X seems totally normal to me. Making me feel old with that grandpa talk kid.
LOL I’m 70, talking about books from the 40s and 50s that my small-town library had in the 60s.
Come to think of it I have seen length of pipe or length of tubing in modern plumbing instructions.
It is normal, they’re just being weird about it because social media has rotted the brains of basically every living person.