10 ms·

> ...everything measured in grams... > Ideas and tech that are unlikely to catch on in the home kitchen Given the posting time I’d guess you were likely not U

> ...everything measured in grams... > Ideas and tech that are unlikely to catch on in the home kitchen Given the posting time I’d guess you were likely not US based so I found this surprising. Even if that is so, then I continue to be surprised every time I rediscover the fact that the US hasn’t moved towards metrification. Edit: rereading this the wording is harsher than intended. So to add: Either way the wording tickled me for some reason. Whether intentional or not, thank you (genuinely) for the smile this morning.

nikanj 6y ago
Metric units are a mouthful. Centiliter <-> ounce. Kilometer <-> mile. Centimeter <-> inch. I think having easy-to-pronounce names for the metric units would help. Kliks are much better than kilometers.
- tomalpha 6y ago
  Completely agreed. And being in the UK, and of a certain age, I still use inches, miles, pounds and stone but I think that’s due to familiarity during childhood. I don’t use Fahrenheit like my parents did though when describing the weather. Oddly, I also tend to use metres instead of feet/miles for distances that aren’t drivable, or human-height related. It’s also interesting that in speech I often hear (and find myself), contracting to the SI prefix itself when the unit can be derived from context. For example: “It’s 25 millis” [long]
  - wahern 6y ago
    The argument for Fahrenheit over Celsius is actually relatively strong: http://lethalletham.com/posts/fahrenheit.html http://lethalletham.com/posts/fahrenheit.html I also have a soft spot for fractional units and different bases (e.g. 12, 60, etc) over decimal, but I can admit the practical case is comparatively weak and inconsequential.
    - stormdennis 6y ago
      The author states that the best system is the one you're used to, in his conclusion. Earlier he says that he doesn't like the other system because it uses negative numbers for temperatures that aren't that cold and that also it's good to be able to avoid using negative numbers. Those seem like very subjective reasons to me.
      - em-bee 6y ago
        very subjective indeed. i find that knowing whether water will feeeze or snow will melt without having to memorize a number for that rather useful.
        em-bee 6y ago
        well, actually memorizing a number is probably not a problem. i realized that the real advantage is to be able to look whether the number is positive or negative without taking a close look at the actual value.
      - buran77 6y ago
        > aren't that cold Something very relative to where the author lived and developed the preference. This changes from person to person, and region to region. "Not that cold" could be -25C in Siberia (well... not with the recent heatwave) or +25C in Quatar. It makes sense for the whole world to use a common measuring system (and not just for temperature), perhaps even one where 1 degree is equal to 1 degree Kelvin since this would fit better with the science crowd. But whatever point of reference is chosen it will definitely fall short of expectation in different parts of the world. The freezing point of water as the 0 is as good as any. Body temperature (~37C) could also be a universal 0 with plenty of advantages and disadvantages that I never considered.
        stormdennis 6y ago
        37C as the universal would put these parts permanently in negative temperatures. Freezing point of water is a good one especially when you think of the effect ice has on so many things
  - stormdennis 6y ago
    When I go to buy wood I buy 2" by 4" in 4.8 metre lengths. Was buying screws the other day and I was asking for 3 and a half inch and he was saying that's 90 or something that. I had only written everything in imperial because another guy there uses that. We seem to be stuck in a half and half place.
    - wahern 6y ago
      Fasteners are categorized using a higher-level system because there are multiple, independent dimensions--thread pitch, thread width, shank width, unthread shank length, threaded shank length, head type, tip type, etc--at play, and the relationships are relatively arbitrary (AFAIU--maybe there's some sophisticated, deliberate geometry at play I'm not aware of). There's no such thing as a 3 1/2" screw--there are many different types of screws that are 3 1/2" long, and they each have a particular label. So you can't really directly compare the qualities of metric or American standard fastener sizing systems.
      - stormdennis 6y ago
        I must put you on to my carpenter friend then, seems he's wrong. Not in America btw.
        wahern 6y ago
        If you do a particular type of work, such as building decks, then 3 1/2" will mean a very specific type of screw. But if you go into a good hardware store (Ace, a smaller, neighborhood chain, is often better than big-box Home Depot or Lowes in terms of variety) and tell the clerk you want a 3 1/2" long screw, things can get frustrating rather quickly unless you can provide some context. When you're working with wood, it's easier to fudge things, but when you're working with machine screws, details like pitch and shank profile often cannot be ignored.
      - jabl 6y ago
        > AFAIU--maybe there's some sophisticated, deliberate geometry at play I'm not aware of Some earlier fastener standards were somewhat arbitrary, but mechanical engineers have calculated "optimal" values for these parameters, and e.g. the ISO metric screw thread parameters are based on such calculations.
- gorgoiler 6y ago
  In my experience kilometre is pronounced “k”, centimetre is pronounced “ten mil”, and centilitre is “hundred mil”.
  - martyvis 6y ago
    Yup, I'm an Aussie, born when inches and miles ruled and I live ninety two "k" from my office and I drink beer from three seventy "mil" stubbies (glass bottles). Not hard at all
  - Steltek 6y ago
    In more worldly/sciencey/engineering parts of the US, I tried shortening metric like that and then I ran into this fucking abomination of a measurement, which is also abbreviated to "mil" in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousandth_of_an_inch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousandth_of_an_inch I'm 100% American and I despise the imperial system so much. Maybe our plummeting stature in world politics and power will force us to convert. Not exactly the way I wanted it to go but a silver lining is still a silver lining.
- dx034 6y ago
  I've never heard anyone say Centiliter. It's milliliters or liters. You find cl or dl on bottles but I've never encountered it in spoken language. Which is nice because having fewer units make it easier to compare, even if converting in metric system is easy.
  - andrewshadura 6y ago
    In some countries like Slovakia, they say deci for decilitre.
  - ralls_ebfe 6y ago
    Shot glasses are 2cl around here.
    - dx034 6y ago
      I believe they're 2cl in all of Europe, never heard anyone use it outside of refering to it.
  - BrandoElFollito 6y ago
    This is rather common in France. We use centiliters quite often when speaking.
aequitas 6y ago
Aren't all imperial units standardized on metric values nowadays? So technically Americans are using metric, they just use a different notation?
- why_only_15 6y ago
  I mean in theory a foot is defined as xyz centimeters but i don't think that matters for any practical purpose.
  - p1mrx 6y ago
    1 foot is exactly 30.48 cm, thanks to Carl Edvard Johansson.
- m463 6y ago
  Yes, I think you're right. Product specs are often in inches like 3.9 inches (which is ~ 100mm) Although sometimes it's the opposite - computer pins are commonly 2.54 mm apart (0.1 inches)
rascul 6y ago
> the US hasn’t moved towards metrification. I couldn't care less about which system is used, i just want there to be only one. I'm not a fan of owning two sets of tools, and I'm not a fan of working on a car and coming across something I need my second tool set for because people can't figure out what system to use.

nikanj 6y ago

Metric units are a mouthful. Centiliter <-> ounce. Kilometer <-> mile. Centimeter <-> inch. I think having easy-to-pronounce names for the metric units would help. Kliks are much better than kilometers.

tomalpha 6y ago
Completely agreed. And being in the UK, and of a certain age, I still use inches, miles, pounds and stone but I think that’s due to familiarity during childhood. I don’t use Fahrenheit like my parents did though when describing the weather. Oddly, I also tend to use metres instead of feet/miles for distances that aren’t drivable, or human-height related. It’s also interesting that in speech I often hear (and find myself), contracting to the SI prefix itself when the unit can be derived from context. For example: “It’s 25 millis” [long]
- wahern 6y ago
  The argument for Fahrenheit over Celsius is actually relatively strong: http://lethalletham.com/posts/fahrenheit.html http://lethalletham.com/posts/fahrenheit.html I also have a soft spot for fractional units and different bases (e.g. 12, 60, etc) over decimal, but I can admit the practical case is comparatively weak and inconsequential.
  - stormdennis 6y ago
    The author states that the best system is the one you're used to, in his conclusion. Earlier he says that he doesn't like the other system because it uses negative numbers for temperatures that aren't that cold and that also it's good to be able to avoid using negative numbers. Those seem like very subjective reasons to me.
    - em-bee 6y ago
      very subjective indeed. i find that knowing whether water will feeeze or snow will melt without having to memorize a number for that rather useful.
      - em-bee 6y ago
        well, actually memorizing a number is probably not a problem. i realized that the real advantage is to be able to look whether the number is positive or negative without taking a close look at the actual value.
    - buran77 6y ago
      > aren't that cold Something very relative to where the author lived and developed the preference. This changes from person to person, and region to region. "Not that cold" could be -25C in Siberia (well... not with the recent heatwave) or +25C in Quatar. It makes sense for the whole world to use a common measuring system (and not just for temperature), perhaps even one where 1 degree is equal to 1 degree Kelvin since this would fit better with the science crowd. But whatever point of reference is chosen it will definitely fall short of expectation in different parts of the world. The freezing point of water as the 0 is as good as any. Body temperature (~37C) could also be a universal 0 with plenty of advantages and disadvantages that I never considered.
      - stormdennis 6y ago
        37C as the universal would put these parts permanently in negative temperatures. Freezing point of water is a good one especially when you think of the effect ice has on so many things
- stormdennis 6y ago
  When I go to buy wood I buy 2" by 4" in 4.8 metre lengths. Was buying screws the other day and I was asking for 3 and a half inch and he was saying that's 90 or something that. I had only written everything in imperial because another guy there uses that. We seem to be stuck in a half and half place.
  - wahern 6y ago
    Fasteners are categorized using a higher-level system because there are multiple, independent dimensions--thread pitch, thread width, shank width, unthread shank length, threaded shank length, head type, tip type, etc--at play, and the relationships are relatively arbitrary (AFAIU--maybe there's some sophisticated, deliberate geometry at play I'm not aware of). There's no such thing as a 3 1/2" screw--there are many different types of screws that are 3 1/2" long, and they each have a particular label. So you can't really directly compare the qualities of metric or American standard fastener sizing systems.
    - stormdennis 6y ago
      I must put you on to my carpenter friend then, seems he's wrong. Not in America btw.
      - wahern 6y ago
        If you do a particular type of work, such as building decks, then 3 1/2" will mean a very specific type of screw. But if you go into a good hardware store (Ace, a smaller, neighborhood chain, is often better than big-box Home Depot or Lowes in terms of variety) and tell the clerk you want a 3 1/2" long screw, things can get frustrating rather quickly unless you can provide some context. When you're working with wood, it's easier to fudge things, but when you're working with machine screws, details like pitch and shank profile often cannot be ignored.
    - jabl 6y ago
      > AFAIU--maybe there's some sophisticated, deliberate geometry at play I'm not aware of Some earlier fastener standards were somewhat arbitrary, but mechanical engineers have calculated "optimal" values for these parameters, and e.g. the ISO metric screw thread parameters are based on such calculations.
gorgoiler 6y ago
In my experience kilometre is pronounced “k”, centimetre is pronounced “ten mil”, and centilitre is “hundred mil”.
- martyvis 6y ago
  Yup, I'm an Aussie, born when inches and miles ruled and I live ninety two "k" from my office and I drink beer from three seventy "mil" stubbies (glass bottles). Not hard at all
- Steltek 6y ago
  In more worldly/sciencey/engineering parts of the US, I tried shortening metric like that and then I ran into this fucking abomination of a measurement, which is also abbreviated to "mil" in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousandth_of_an_inch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousandth_of_an_inch I'm 100% American and I despise the imperial system so much. Maybe our plummeting stature in world politics and power will force us to convert. Not exactly the way I wanted it to go but a silver lining is still a silver lining.
dx034 6y ago
I've never heard anyone say Centiliter. It's milliliters or liters. You find cl or dl on bottles but I've never encountered it in spoken language. Which is nice because having fewer units make it easier to compare, even if converting in metric system is easy.
- andrewshadura 6y ago
  In some countries like Slovakia, they say deci for decilitre.
- ralls_ebfe 6y ago
  Shot glasses are 2cl around here.
  - dx034 6y ago
    I believe they're 2cl in all of Europe, never heard anyone use it outside of refering to it.
- BrandoElFollito 6y ago
  This is rather common in France. We use centiliters quite often when speaking.

aequitas 6y ago

Aren't all imperial units standardized on metric values nowadays? So technically Americans are using metric, they just use a different notation?

why_only_15 6y ago
I mean in theory a foot is defined as xyz centimeters but i don't think that matters for any practical purpose.
- p1mrx 6y ago
  1 foot is exactly 30.48 cm, thanks to Carl Edvard Johansson.
m463 6y ago
Yes, I think you're right. Product specs are often in inches like 3.9 inches (which is ~ 100mm) Although sometimes it's the opposite - computer pins are commonly 2.54 mm apart (0.1 inches)

rascul 6y ago

> the US hasn’t moved towards metrification. I couldn't care less about which system is used, i just want there to be only one. I'm not a fan of owning two sets of tools, and I'm not a fan of working on a car and coming across something I need my second tool set for because people can't figure out what system to use.