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The US system's main strength is that there are a bunch of human-scale subunits (gallon, pint, cup, etc.). However, the issue is that there's a lot of those sub

The US system's main strength is that there are a bunch of human-scale subunits (gallon, pint, cup, etc.). However, the issue is that there's a lot of those subunits (some useful, some not). Converting between the units is a pain: not because the conversion is hard (the conversion ratios are usually whole numbers), but rather because there's a lot of units and it's difficult to remember how they relate to each other (e.g. what's the relation between a pint and a gallon?).

oblio 6y ago
Why is the gallon a "human sized unit"? What does it even represent? A hat size?
- DanBC 6y ago
  And it's weird to call a unit "human sized" when there are different versions of it. A US gallon is 3.785 litres. A UK gallon is 4.546 litres. Which if these is more human-sized?
  - Bayart 6y ago
    >Which if these is more human-sized? The US gallon since they've got more people per capita.
- kevindong 6y ago
  It's a useful quantity because the variety of units allow for the speaker to drop the numerical portion of a quantity of a substance. Meaning, the phrase "gallon of milk" is ever so slightly easier to say/verbalize than "four liters of milk." Or alternatively, "half gallon of milk" vs "two liters of milk." Likewise: "pint of beer" vs. "<half liter/5 deciliters> of beer", "1 cup of flour" vs. "<quarter liter/250 mL/25 centiliters/120 grams> of flour".
  - eythian 6y ago
    But you're not saying "four litres of milk" that often. You're saying "a carton of milk" and typically the people understand that that is a litre or 1.5l or whatever it is you usually buy. As for beer, again, where I drink it's typically either unspecified or a "small", being 25cl and 15cl respectively (this being a nerdy craft beer bar where smaller sizes are preferred.) If you do want to say the size, you can just say 25 or 15, no one is going to think you want 15 litres because that'd be weird.

oblio 6y ago

Why is the gallon a "human sized unit"? What does it even represent? A hat size?

DanBC 6y ago
And it's weird to call a unit "human sized" when there are different versions of it. A US gallon is 3.785 litres. A UK gallon is 4.546 litres. Which if these is more human-sized?
- Bayart 6y ago
  >Which if these is more human-sized? The US gallon since they've got more people per capita.
kevindong 6y ago
It's a useful quantity because the variety of units allow for the speaker to drop the numerical portion of a quantity of a substance. Meaning, the phrase "gallon of milk" is ever so slightly easier to say/verbalize than "four liters of milk." Or alternatively, "half gallon of milk" vs "two liters of milk." Likewise: "pint of beer" vs. "<half liter/5 deciliters> of beer", "1 cup of flour" vs. "<quarter liter/250 mL/25 centiliters/120 grams> of flour".
- eythian 6y ago
  But you're not saying "four litres of milk" that often. You're saying "a carton of milk" and typically the people understand that that is a litre or 1.5l or whatever it is you usually buy. As for beer, again, where I drink it's typically either unspecified or a "small", being 25cl and 15cl respectively (this being a nerdy craft beer bar where smaller sizes are preferred.) If you do want to say the size, you can just say 25 or 15, no one is going to think you want 15 litres because that'd be weird.