[technothrasher]

The weirdest number translation I saw was on a package of spaghetti. The cooking time was 8-10 minutes in English, and 10-12 minutes in Spanish. Note that they were both in Arabic numerals, not spelled out. Why do I have to cook my spaghetti longer if I speak Spanish??

[kzrdude]

I've got a pack of rice that says put in X amount of water and cook until dry in danish, in swedish it says put in 2*X amount of water, cook Y minutes and strain the rice. Double confusion, why different instructions and who strains water from the rice

[smnrchrds]

It's an official recommendation in Sweden due to arsenic content of rice.

https://www.livsmedelsverket.se/en/food-and-content/oonskade...

[kzrdude]

Thanks for the revelation of the mystery

[usr1106]

For food to be kept in the refrigerator Danish, Swedish, and Finnish instructions differ by 1 degree centigrade each. Don't remember the values from the top of my head, something like 8, 7, 6 respectively.

[JAlexoid]

To this day, living in US for 8 years, I have to stop and think if I need to translate minutes and seconds to American.

[a1369209993]

There's a handy rule of thumb for this: is the number of seconds per minute (60 aka 2*2*3*5) a weird, random-sounding number that's way too easy to make clean subdivisions out of[0], rather than a nice, math-hostile power of ten? Then it's probably already in American units, unless it's British.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_composite_number

[juped]

Robespierre wanted to saddle us with metric time too, you know.

[ted_bunny]

The 60 is from Sumer.

[a1369209993]

It's in the context of:

> I have to stop and think if I need to translate [] to American.

and I assume (reasonably though not certainly) that the commentor is not Sumerian.

[actionfromafar]

After careful double blind studies, it was determined that if you directed impatient spaniards to cook for 10-12 minutes, they cooked it for 8-10 minutes?

This translation really is weird! :-D

[eunos]

Spanish speaker has different al dente preference?

[torcete]

We do. We tend to overcook pasta.

[mcv]

I'm surprised to learn that the English don't.

[bombolo]

Because spanish people like their pasta mushy and overcooked (true story)

[cozzyd]

Many cities in Mexico are at relatively high altitudw (but probably not high enough to make a difference...).

[cyclotron3k]

Probably a cut and paste job from another style of pasta they offer, and the intern was asked to just change the pasta name and cooking times...

[jahewson]

The English speakers will overcook it anyway.

[jmorenoamor]

Atmospheric pressure? Water hardness?

Go figure.