4 ms·

For instance, while Imperial units aren't without some advantage, they are pretty generally inferior to the Metric system. You say this pretty matter of factly

by ipqk 9y ago

For instance, while Imperial units aren't without some advantage, they are pretty generally inferior to the Metric system. You say this pretty matter of factly, but I actually vehemently disagree. Many imperial measurements are better than their metric counterparts for day-to-day lay usage. - Fahrenheit is a better scale than Celsius - Inches, Feet, & Miles are very practical units. Centimeters, and Meters much less so. - Pounds are smaller and offer better delineation than Kilograms. - Liters are pretty similar to quarts, though I admit the various Imperial sub-units are annoying. Sure, it's easier to convert between metric scales, but the number of times I actually do that?: approximately zero.

laurentoget 9y ago
Inches, Feet, & Miles are very practical units. Centimeters, and Meters much less so. Really? Do you know how much easier it is to compute surfaces and volumes in metric systems compared to imperial? Concrete example. Figure how much soil you need to buy to fill a box knowing L, W and H. In metric it is a 10s process. In imperial i do not even know how you are supposed to do it. Does anybody even know how many quart are in a cubic foot?
- ptaipale 9y ago
  > Does anybody even know how many quart are in a cubic foot? They know it, after they do the conversion, via metric system. (OK, nowadays you can just enter "1 quart to cubic feet" in Google. And the funnier ones you get at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_humorous_units_of_measurement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_humorous_units_of_meas... )
- ipqk 9y ago
  No, I don't know the number of quarts in a cubic foot, but no one does because they're two different measurements for two completely different uses.
  - TuringTest 9y ago
    No wonder that you miss the point of metric units if you don't get why doing such transformations is useful. In the metric system, converting between length, volume and weight is trivial and straightforward. This comes into play neatly whenever you need to pile up a precise amount of batter or liquid from containers measured with a different unit.
ptaipale 9y ago
You don't really give any reason why Fahrenheit is a better scale or why inches, or why feet and miles are particularly practical units. It seems to me that people say this simply because they are used to them. You don't convert to metric units and it feels awkward because you don't use metric units. There is an issue with "kilometer" being a complex word for everyday use (as compared to a mile) in the English language. That's more a linguistic issue that about the unit itself. Other languages have solutions to that with shorter colloquial name for the unit. Of course the imperial units give a good opportunity for being funny, in ways like specifying speeds in furlongs per fortnight. But you can do the same in SI-derived units, like parsecs per picosecond.
- lmm 9y ago
  > There is an issue with "kilometer" being a complex word for everyday use (as compared to a mile) in the English language. That's more a linguistic issue that about the unit itself. Other languages have solutions to that with shorter colloquial name for the unit. Even in English people of a certain age can say "klicks" and be understood.
  - ptaipale 9y ago
    Exactly, it's something that mass usage will solve, even if the folk song will not sound just the same with "a hundred klicks, a hundred klicks, I am five hundred klicks away from home". Other languages often say just letters "k" or "km".
landmark3 9y ago
“In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie1 of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.” Wild Thing by Josh Bazell.
- ipqk 9y ago
  That's great. When is that EVER useful to the layperson?
  - TuringTest 9y ago
    Cooking

by ipqk 9y ago

laurentoget 9y ago

Inches, Feet, & Miles are very practical units. Centimeters, and Meters much less so. Really? Do you know how much easier it is to compute surfaces and volumes in metric systems compared to imperial? Concrete example. Figure how much soil you need to buy to fill a box knowing L, W and H. In metric it is a 10s process. In imperial i do not even know how you are supposed to do it. Does anybody even know how many quart are in a cubic foot?

ptaipale 9y ago
> Does anybody even know how many quart are in a cubic foot? They know it, after they do the conversion, via metric system. (OK, nowadays you can just enter "1 quart to cubic feet" in Google. And the funnier ones you get at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_humorous_units_of_measurement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_humorous_units_of_meas... )
ipqk 9y ago
No, I don't know the number of quarts in a cubic foot, but no one does because they're two different measurements for two completely different uses.
- TuringTest 9y ago
  No wonder that you miss the point of metric units if you don't get why doing such transformations is useful. In the metric system, converting between length, volume and weight is trivial and straightforward. This comes into play neatly whenever you need to pile up a precise amount of batter or liquid from containers measured with a different unit.

ptaipale 9y ago

You don't really give any reason why Fahrenheit is a better scale or why inches, or why feet and miles are particularly practical units. It seems to me that people say this simply because they are used to them. You don't convert to metric units and it feels awkward because you don't use metric units. There is an issue with "kilometer" being a complex word for everyday use (as compared to a mile) in the English language. That's more a linguistic issue that about the unit itself. Other languages have solutions to that with shorter colloquial name for the unit. Of course the imperial units give a good opportunity for being funny, in ways like specifying speeds in furlongs per fortnight. But you can do the same in SI-derived units, like parsecs per picosecond.

lmm 9y ago
> There is an issue with "kilometer" being a complex word for everyday use (as compared to a mile) in the English language. That's more a linguistic issue that about the unit itself. Other languages have solutions to that with shorter colloquial name for the unit. Even in English people of a certain age can say "klicks" and be understood.
- ptaipale 9y ago
  Exactly, it's something that mass usage will solve, even if the folk song will not sound just the same with "a hundred klicks, a hundred klicks, I am five hundred klicks away from home". Other languages often say just letters "k" or "km".

landmark3 9y ago

“In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie1 of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.” Wild Thing by Josh Bazell.

ipqk 9y ago
That's great. When is that EVER useful to the layperson?
- TuringTest 9y ago
  Cooking