Stupid question:
Let's say that a Sagan's Contact-type scenario occurs, and ayy lmao's send us blueprints for cool new technology, what units of measurement would they use?
Other than describing things in terms of "X-atoms in width", is there an objective way to reference dimensions in a manner that could be understood by anyone with knowledge of mathematics or physics?
They would use inches, the most scientific unit of measurement.
Well if we're talking about inches you might as well say the 'scientificest'.
aliens don't know what an inch is
Speed of light divided by atomic vibration frequency
They'd send along a scale based on the distance between our galaxy and Andromeda.
Brainlet civilizations who haven't calculated this distance to the required precision don't deserve their technology.
Plack lengths, but not for the reason popsci brainlets will tell you.
obviously fucking light years
yeah light years are totally logical if they send blueprints to make something on a human scale.
That's why we do that
They would use algebraic lengths with the ratios that are important. Anything that must be constant would be defined by some natural length such as the distance between two atoms of a certain molecule.