I've seen it done. Not for precision, but for rough estimates, I've seen someone toe-heel their way across a job site. Honestly, that and the fact that an inch is usually pretty close to the length of a finger knuckle are really the biggest redeeming qualities of the imperial system in terms of making quick length guesstimates

[–] phuntis@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

no I highly doubt anyone does that but that's what the meme here implies as a funny haha

[–] EmptySlime@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago

Nah I've definitely done a quick heel-toe walk across an area to get a ballpark of distance. Along with basically any other body part I could reasonably use to measure something when I don't have a tape measure on me at that moment.

I've also previously measured and I know that for example my bare foot is about 11 inches long heel to toe and that my shoe makes it about 12. I could do exactly the same thing with metric.