Hacker News Reader

Right, but I'd imagine you can conceptualize the 2l bottle of coke that you see in the supermarket - even if you don't buy it/drink it.

View on HN

Sure, now that people mentioned them. That's why I said "can't associate .... of the top of my head". But that's not the point. The parent implied that there is something that's 2 liters that all Americans know, and I was curious as to what that is, because I, despite living in a metric country, couldn't think of anything.

It's far simpler for an American because soda in the US is widely available in three sizes:

* 12 fl oz (355 mL) aluminum can

* 20 fl oz (591 mL) plastic bottle

* 2L plastic bottle

Depending on the brand and store availability I've also seen 12 fl oz glass bottles, 1L bottles, and sometimes smaller sized cans as pretty standard sizes. Other types of drinks (such as energy drinks) can vary in what containers they use.

In general, though, if you're buying soda for a family or for more than one drink/meal, you're going to be buying a 2L bottle (and refer to it as such).

Do metric countries sell as many 2L soda bottles as the US does, relative to other soda sizes?

Actually, the soda bottles in Finland are 1,5 L at most.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com