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Pokémon Go Is Teaching Americans the Metric System
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- truantbuick 10y agoSo are drugs.
- danmaz74 10y agoLol why?
- Nexxxeh 10y agoFrom what I understand, cocaine and other harder drugs are sold by the gram at an end-user level, and by the kilogram at the street distribution level.
- madaxe_again 10y agoConversely you by weed in imperial units, pretty much everywhere - except Amsterdam, where you buy in 7g increments (28.3g in an Oz).
- kuschku 10y agoIn Northern Germany, it's definitely in grams. That much I know, considering half of my high school used to talk all day about that.
- uxp100 10y agoWell, 7g is about a quarter oz, so it's still imperial influenced at least. And in the US, we often refer to imperial amounts by their gram amounts as well. Especially in legal states I feel. Usual amounts are 1 gram, 3.5, 7, 14 and so on, lining up with the old, small amount ("dime"), eighth, quarter, and half o.
- gwildor 10y agoI think it's just in grams. You're "allowed" to carry 5 grams on you, so 7g wouldn't make sense.
- Symbiote 10y agoI'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure it's sold per gram in the UK. The American units sound very unfamiliar to most British people under about 40 years old. 3/8 oz? Road speed is still given in miles per hour, but anything where fractions or calculation might get involved (cooking, measuring furniture, drinking spirits) is done using metric units.
- ascorbic 10y agoIn the early noughties it was certainly in ounces, though it may have changed in the past decade.
- imgabe 10y agoThat used to be the case, but lately I learned the gram is becoming a common unit for weed - replacing the dime bag. The eighth is still common, as in (1/8 of an ounce) but now measured as 3.5 grams. It's a weird mix right now.
- mschuster91 10y agoIn Germany, it's common to measure drugs of all kinds, including dope, in (kilo/milli) grams (kg if you're talking about some serious shit, mg for the synth stuff).
- mediocrejoker 10y agoAs a counter point, buying marijuana as a teenager was the way I learned that there are 28 grams in an ounce and 16 ounces in a pound.
- ragebol 10y agoThose are measured in grams and kilos Source: movies & TV. I have 0 experience with drugs.
- free2rhyme214 10y agoNo it's not. People just ask Google or Siri. They still don't know that 1km equals 0.62 miles.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- lfowles 10y agoSure, but once you do that for the 4th or 5th time you'll remember that it's "sorta close to half a mile".
- bigdubs 10y agoIt is interesting that it would be trivial for them to localize the units, it seems like they specifically didn't. As a datapoint of one I was fine with thinking in kilometers because those are generally the units I use when running (you don't typically enter 3.11 mile races). My sense of metric vs. imperial is that metric will seep into public conscious slowly over time, and hopefully some time in the future, we'll realize it's better for everyone to use the same units, and have a referendum.
- Symbiote 10y ago> It is interesting that it would be trivial for them to localize the units, it seems like they specifically didn't So, just like a good number of apps made by Americans for use in other countries.
- Symbiote 10y agoIncidentally, why doesn't Android provide a global units setting? Some apps that do change seem to do so based on location, but I don't often want to see miles and feet when I'm travelling in the USA. I assume most Americans travelling elsewhere would rather be given directions in miles.
- krschultz 10y agoIn general I think software engineers do a bad job with units. We shouldn't work with floating point numbers, we should work with a number class that has a value and a unit. Prior to working on Android & iOS I basically didn't bother with i18n. Now I never hardcode a string, it's always a reference to a string resource that is easily translated. I think this is a mindset shift brought about because the tools & libraries make it easy. The same is true for datetime formatting and unicode. We're collectively much better at supporting i18n in those areas than we were 15 years ago. I think the next step is for us to do the same but with numbers.
- derefr 10y ago
- sandworm101 10y agoNo it isn't. At most it is teaching a single unit, not the system. And if all it's doing is teaching them how to convert that unit into something they know, rather than them actually use the kilometer for what it is, then it teaches nothing. Until you live with americans you don't appreciate how focused they are on accent and vocabulary. Social groups are defined by their vocab. Someone using the wrong synonym for the context betrays their foreignness. I remember once using the phrase "by whatever metric" in a lecture only to be informed that he correct wording was "by whatever measurement". Even the word is a red flag. The was a law lecture. Had it been a physics lecture my choice would have been apt. It isn't a lack of knowledge that holds them back. It's a class system in which the use of the metric system is an important identifier. Also, pokemon can do nothing in comparison to the US military's increased use of metric, but even there its use in casual conversation remains an identifier of background/rank history.
- ragebol 10y agoFinally!
- imgabe 10y agoAnyone interested in running has known how many miles are in 5km for a long time.
- bunkydoo 10y agoFinally, a way to teach Americans the metric system that doesn't involve weed
- stesch 10y agoOr landing on Mars.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- p4wnc6 10y agoWhen I read the title of this post, I first imagined a happy and earnest grade-school teacher saying it, perhaps sharing the story with some fellow teachers in a teacher's lounge, all discussing it positively. Then I imagined an angry state legislator slamming his or her hand down on a brown lacquered table in some indiscriminate political conference room and yelling, "Pokémon Go Is Teaching Americans the Metric System!" and a bunch of interns scurrying in fright.
- chillaxtian 10y ago> Unfortunately, there’s no way to change the in-game units in Pokémon Go. i think they meant 'fortunately'
- joezydeco 10y agoMetric is in a lot more places than you'd care to believe. And it's been there for decades. Ask any high school student if their science classes are in metric units or English units. What units does the AP Physics test use? How about the SAT? And college chemistry 101?
- return0 10y agoI still think the ,/. decimal separator issue is bigger deal.
- gpvos 10y agoGiven the obesity epidemic, it would actually be reasonable to let Americans walk 1.6 times as far.
- spullara 10y agoAmericans know the metric system. They just don't use it regularly for things outside science and technology. Everyone has to learn it though.
- SmokyBorbon 10y agoRight. There's no reason to force everyone to use a single measurement system. There are advantages to using US customary units in most situations.
- chriswarbo 10y agoI don't know much of the imperial system, but since the metric system only has one unit of length (the metre) it would presumably be easiest to convert that directly into imperial, rather than choosing arbitrary multiples (e.g. 1000m). In fact, the metre coincides quite nicely with 1 yard (or 1.1 yards if you want more precision; which is still "just ones"). That seems much easier to remember than, say, 1610 metres/mile, or 0.62 miles/1000m. Once you're in imperial you can presumably use the various conversion rules to get feet, miles, inches, furlongs, etc.
- iainmerrick 10y agoI grew up with a mix of metric and imperial (like most people in the UK), but the imperial conversions are all really weird and hard to remember -- 1760 yards to the mile?? For me it's easier to remember "a yard is a little less than a meter" and "a mile is about 1⅔ km", and then use the most natural metric unit for figuring out estimates.
- iainmerrick 10y agoThe Fibonacci sequence is a pretty good rule of thumb for converting between miles and kilometres. 2 miles is about 3km, 3 miles is 5km, 5 miles is 8km, etc.
- nickcw 10y agoI always approximate the number of kilometers in a mile to phi (which it is pretty nearly - it is about 5% out), then you can use the Fibonacci series to convert between them. 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 ... So if you want to know what 5 km is, find 5 in the Fibonacci series and the number of miles is the one just below - 3 in this case. Just use the next higher for miles -> km, eg 5 miles is 8 km.
- notatoad 10y agothat sounds a lot harder than multiplying by 1.6
- formula1 10y agoIm not sure which I appreciate more. An overengineered solution that probably cane about by some eureka type observation. Or the cold calm criticism that Ive learned to appreciate by making too many over engineered solutions
- jsmthrowaway 10y agoI value that criticism a lot, particularly when it follows fun thoughts like "why don't we write our own consensus? Raft isn't too bad, right?" In the words of Wally[0], the urge eventually goes away. [0]: http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-01-28 http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-01-28
- conistonwater 10y agoIt's a perfectly well-defined number system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeckendorf%27s_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeckendorf%27s_theorem
- percept 10y agoYou're both upvoted. I'm going to try the Fibonacci version for a while. (Though perhaps as is suggested with languages, it's better to start applying the new system directly, instead of performing a conversion step first.)
- chriswarbo 10y agoUrgh, more discussions involving some contrived correspondence between 1 inch and 0.01m, 1 foot and 1m, and 1 mile and 1000m. There is only the metre; divide it up however you like, compare it to whatever imperial units you like, but "centi", "kilo", etc. are just a different way of writing ÷100 and x1000. The "real" reason to use metric is that all of the constants of proportionality are defined as 1. "1m = 100cm" is trivially true, by the definition of "centi", but 1m is also equal to all of the following, which I wouldn't even want to attempt to figure out in imperial units: 1 metre 1 Joule / 1 Newton -- Applying 1N of force over a 1m distance requires 1J of energy 1 Volt * 1 Coulomb / 1 Newton -- 1 Volt is a potential difference of 1 Joule per Coulomb of charge 1 Volt * (1 Amp / 1 second) / 1 Newton -- 1 Amp of current is 1 Coulomb per second 1 Volt * 1 Amp / 1 Newton * 1 second -- (by rearranging) 1 Watt / 1 second * 1 Newton -- 1 Volt * 1 Amp gives 1 Watt of power 1 Watt / 1 second * 1 kilogram * (1 metre / (1 second * 1 second)) -- From Newton, force is mass * acceleration 1 Watt / (1 kilogram * 1 metre / 1 second) -- (by rearranging) 1 Watt * 1 second / 1 kilogram * 1 metre -- (by rearranging) (1 Joule / 1 second) * 1 second / 1 kilogram * 1 metre -- 1 Watt is 1 Joule per second And so on. We just need to get rid of anachronisms like litres (1l = 0.001m^3), defining "kilogram" as the name of a unit, and of course prevent the use of weird language-juggling like reporting the distance to Saturn as "1000 million kilometres", or measuring energy in "kilowatt hours". Genuine question: does the imperial system even have distinct units for mass and force? I tend to see ounces, pounds, stones, etc. converted to kilograms, which implies they measure mass; but pressure seems to be measured in pounds per square inch, which would be a 2D density (e.g. used as a measure of paper quality).
- Armisael16 10y agoYes. The pound is a measure of force and the slug is a measure of mass (1 lb = 1 slug*ft/s^2). That said, a the pound-mass (lbf for pound-force, lbm for pound-mass) is probably used more in casual conversation because it has surface gravity built it.
- nayuki 10y ago> Genuine question: does the imperial system even have distinct units for mass and force? The slug is the unambiguous unit of mass in the imperial system. It is rarely heard of, and not fun to use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug_(mass) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug_(mass)
- fencepost 10y agoIt's also teaching Americans to go ride bikes again, or it will be eventually. I say this because I currently have 35km worth of eggs "stacked up" beyond the 2 that I'm gradually working on, and I'm sure that I'll accumulate more before I manage to get rid of all of those. On the upside, it's provided some gamification to the increased walking that I was starting to do anyway, but it's also making me think about getting my bike down from the garage ceiling where it's been hanging for a couple years. Perhaps I'll start riding for quick trips out instead of driving......
- nikmobi 10y agosomeone at work tried to hatch their kids eggs during the bike rides to work and said biking was too fast for it to work...
- Tehnix 10y agoI heard something about you have to go less than 24 km/h. During a leisure bike ride, I at least managed to hatch some eggs and get the tracker to count the distance. A safety tip is just to open the app and then put it in your pocket with the touchscreen facing outwards. If inwards the heat and sweat from your thigh can actually interact with the screen.
- fencepost 10y agoIf you're going to do this, also turn on power saver option, and put it in your pocket top-down - that mostly turns off the screen and should save quite a bit of power on AMOLED screens, though maybe not so much on LCD.
- fpgaminer 10y agoIt isn't talked about much, but riding a bicycle is actually really dangerous. I say that as someone who loves riding and has done quite a bit of it through my years. It's the most dangerous mode of transportation between driving, biking, and walking. That's based on my rough estimations of micromorts/hour from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort; 0.26 micromorts/hr, 1.25 micromorts/hr, and 0.18 micromorts/hr respectively. That makes walking the safest by a good margin, and biking is almost 5 times more dangerous than driving. In fact, biking just 80 miles is roughly equivalent to one hang gliding or skydiving session. I don't really want to dissuade people from riding bikes; it can be a lot of fun and healthy. But it's quite dangerous, and I gave up riding a few years ago because of that and because everyone on the road hates you; cars, cops, and peds alike. They all pretty much want you dead. (I've ridden mostly suburbs, both in bike friendly cities and not)
- fpgaminer 10y agoI switched to using primarily Celsius a year or two ago. It's been tremendously useful for me, moreso than switching to metres (which I've been doing as well, though not as aggressively). Like most tech companies we have to frequently interact internationally, and everyone uses metric outside of the U.S. Knowing Celsius has made even basic conversations easier. I mean, "How's the weather where you are?" is such a common conversation starter, and it's one I can actually meaningfully have with people outside the U.S. now. No more "oh, pretty hot", instead I can just say "It's over 35 here!" And as an engineer I obviously need to deal with metric for most everything (except those damned PCBs; thou, really!?), so it's very useful to have an intuitive understanding of what temperature my chip is at, or how thick 3mm is without grabbing a ruler. Switching to Celsius is also a lot easier than switching to metres. You can get through a day using only Celsius, but you'll have a lot of trouble traveling around in a car using metres.
- aylons 10y agoIf it is of any consolation for you, metric is becoming increasingly common in PCB design. New ICs packages are all metric and even the traditional resistors are being measured in metric (damned be the 0603).
- ap22213 10y agoShopping for groceries outside of the U.S. is so straight-forward, the U.S. food industry should worry about loss of profits in moving to metric. Imperial: $4.49 / lb 0.67 lbs ≈ ??? Metric: $9.89 / kg $0.3 kg ≈ $3.00
- i_are_smart 10y agoThis example doesn't very well, it's rather awkwardly contrived. In the US you would just buy 1/2 or 3/4 of a pound, not 1/3. Similarly, I wouldn't expect you to buy 0.67 kg of food priced by weight outside of the US.
- thaumasiotes 10y agoWhatever point you're trying to make is beyond me. Why is multiplying by 0.3 easier than multiplying by 2/3?
- ap22213 10y agoYeah, my comment didn't make sense. Terrible example. Was running out the door. I meant to say that in the U.S. things are marked in ounces. So, it's like calculating (10 oz / 16 oz.) * price. Whereas, elsewhere it's usually 100 grams.
- SmokyBorbon 10y agoAmericans use the metric system. We just prefer having two systems over one. US customary units are easier to estimate and remember and are used for things such as carpentry, navigating, or cooking where precise measurements are unhelpful. For precise measurements in science, business, and engineering, we use the metric system. Why do people have such a hard time understanding this?
- mhartl 10y agoNext thing you know we'll be buying soda in two-liter bottles and measuring our pills in milligrams.
- fma 10y agoMore importantly people, Americans are now walking 5km...maybe there will be a small dip in obesity rate while the all is trending.
- ars 10y agoIt's unlikely. Unless you carefully control your eating more exercise leads to weight gain, not loss. Exercise is great for general health, but it's useless for weight loss unless you are also on a carefully controlled diet. (i.e. if you exercise you will want to eat more. Unless you force yourself not to, you eat up gaining weight.)
- beefield 10y agoI think the world would be a much better place if we compromised so that US moves to SI and rest of the world gets rid of the decimal comma and starts to use the decimal point. And as an icing to the cake, everyone could switch to ISO 8601 date formatting everywhere.
- jazoom 10y agoThis is how it's been in Australia for many decades. I guess the world truly is a better place here.