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Never give up your feet and inches. They're intuitive in a way that metric somehow is not. Can't explain it but it is true.
by observation 9y ago
Never give up your feet and inches. They're intuitive in a way that metric somehow is not. Can't explain it but it is true.
- mkempe 9y agoI grew up with the metric system, hence have the opposite feeling of what is "intuitive". Same thing with Celsius vs Fahrenheit.
- pound 9y agointuitive as in got used to?
- luis_espinoza 9y agoI disagree, I think you are just used to it. I grew inside a metric system country and is difficult for me to think in imperial system. So, if the US embrace the metric system, I guess the shock will be on the current generation, future kids will never notice it.
- osullivj 9y agoForgive the nitpicking, but the US measures are slightly different than Imperial [1]. They're both based on ancient English weights and measures. However, a US pint is 16oz, and an imperial pint in 20oz. An important distinction if you drink beer! Also if you're figuring your car's MPG as both US & Imperial gallons are eight pints. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_and_US_customary_measurement_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_and_US_customary_meas...
- dozzie 9y ago> They're intuitive in a way that metric somehow is not. Can't explain it but it is true. Oh yes, like one millimile is about five feet long. Very intuitive indeed. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Metric_system http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Metric_system The quote at the very top of the article explains how US system is intuitive compared to metric, even if it was meant as satire.
- killaken2000 9y agoI have yard stick that I divided into groups of 10 it works pretty well. for example my foot is 25 centiyards.
- altern8tif 9y agoIt's fine if you're jumping from one unit to another (ie. inches to feet, feet to yards). But conversion from smaller to larger units require much more (unnecessary) effort. Eg. For a 1-acre square plot of land, what is the length of its sides in feet?
- Fjolsvith 9y ago208.7 by 208.7 feet. Its not hard. Found it on Google: https://www.infoplease.com/askeds/dimensions-acre https://www.infoplease.com/askeds/dimensions-acre "The acre, by the way, was originally an English unit of measurement that described the area that a yoke of oxen could plow in a day."
- altern8tif 9y agoThat's exactly my point. You shouldn't need Google to help you answer that.
- Doxin 9y agoOkay so quickly, without google, how many gallons are there in a cubic yard? Now for the people who know metric it's fairly trivial to calculate how many liters there are in a cubic meter. A liter is defined as being one cubic decimeter. A decimeter being one step down from a meter means for cubic measurements it's a factor 1000. one cubic meter multiplied by a thousand is 1000 cubic decimeters or, equivalently, 1000 liters. Note how in both examples you start with nice round numbers. I havent cherry picked a starting point that ends up nicely in metric.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- cylinder 9y agoThe only one that's intuitive is Fahrenheit for casual discussion of weather.
- Fjolsvith 9y agoYeah, and 2x4 boards aren't as intuitive as 50x100cm boards.
- Doxin 9y agoa 2 by 4 would be a 5 by 10 in metric wouldn't it? you're not calling it a "2 by four inches" just the same as you wouldn't call it a "5 by 10 centimeters". In fact I find in practice I hardly ever mention units. Being off by a factor 10 is usually obvious enough that people know what unit you're using.
- BJanecke 9y agoIn the same way it's hard to explain why you are most comfortable with your first language ;)