5 ms·

It should lose both, saves them from stupid conversion mistakes...

• orthoxerox 6y ago
  Beaten me to it. But I guess conversions to millimetres will now at least be straightforward. 304.8mm per foot.
  • Gibbon1 6y ago
    Better one inch is 2.54 cm.
• tasogare 6y ago
  And also using a rational date format (yyyy/MM/dd or dd/MM/yyyy) would be nice.
  • ericmay 6y ago
    We do mm/dd/yyyy because that's how we say it. In Europe if you ask someone the date do they say 2020, August, 18th? or 18th, August, 2020? Stuff like this really isn't a big deal. I don't get why people get so hung up on it.
    • electricviolet 6y ago
      In many (most?) European languages the day is spoken before the month. e.g. le dix-huit août, deux mille vingt
    • vereis 6y ago
      In the UK we say 18th of August, 2020
    • chownie 6y ago
      Except for cases like the 4th of July, in which case it's suddenly DD/MM again. Much like the UK's relationship with metric/imperial, the problem with US dating is that it's not consistent. In the UK we'd say "18th [of] August, 2020"
      • ericmay 6y ago
        Because when we say "4th of July" it's not being said in the context of a date, it's an event. It's used in the same context that Christmas or Thanksgiving would be used. You don't say that we're inconsistent because we call Christmas "Christmas" instead of December 25th. We also call the 4th of July Independence Day. It's just colloquial usage. If you ask someone what date Independence Day is they'll say July 4th, 1776. Not 4th of July, 1776. Test it. > In the UK we'd say "18th [of] August, 2020" Cool. In the US we say August 18th, 2020. So that's why we do MM/DD/YYYY. If you have any American colleagues or friends you can text this by asking them what the date is. They'll say August 18th (maybe with the 2020 part depending on how specific they want to be). I really don't understand why people are so hell bent on changing our culture. We do it this way and like it. It's not a big deal.
        • spacedcowboy 6y ago
          I just asked 4 people “what date Independence day is”, got 3 weird looks and 4 answers of “4th July”, no year specified. Non-US people don’t like it because it’s (a) different, and (b) illogical. If it were different and logical (ie: the numbers were in some hierarchical sequence), there’d be a lot less criticism of it, IMHO.
          • ericmay 6y ago
            Well, I don't really know what to tell you. People are probably just thinking of it in the holiday context. If they aren't specifying the year, then that's probably why. Maybe try "what's the exact date including year of US independence". They'll most likely say "July 4th, 1776'. > Non-US people don’t like it because it’s (a) different K. Well, respect different cultures. In the US we like to do it this way because that's how we say it. > and (b) illogical Who cares besides Europeans with nothing better to do with their vacation time? Humans aren't computers.
          • daveslash 6y ago
            If you asked US people, it makes sense that you'd get weird looks -- they think that you're asking because you don't know the date (and they expect that you would), whereas you're actually asking just to see how they say it. Also, as other's have pointed out, Independence day is an anomoly in how the US says dates -- we actually call this one "The 4th of July" A less conspicuous date might work better. "When's Valentine's Day?" or "When's St. Patrick's Day?" (Feb 14th and Mar 17th, respectively).
  • stolenmerch 6y ago
    yyyy/MM/dd or dd/MM/yyyy are not more rational, they are just a different convention. There is nothing inherent to those structures that convey the order of month and day.