4 ms·

I have no idea how big a hectare or an acre is. Now I know the 100m by 100m bit. But why don't I know? No skin in the game. If I owned land then I suspect tha

I have no idea how big a hectare or an acre is. Now I know the 100m by 100m bit. But why don't I know? No skin in the game. If I owned land then I suspect that I would know exactly how big a hectare or an acre was. If acres were the discussed measurement unit then those would be the units I would use for my understanding, much like how that in the fairly metric UK we still use feet and inches for comparing height. In the UK people know their height in feet and inches. If you are a guy that is all to do with 6 ft. If you are 5ft something tall you are not 'tall', if you are over 6 foot tall then you are 'tall'. Nobody has the foggiest what that means in centimetres or metres. There are also practicalities. I am okay measuring things in the garden with a stick. Then measuring that against paving slabs which are two foot or 60cm across. For me the paving slab is the unit. None of this metre nonsense. Miles are also variable. Due to weather, traffic and foliage you can walk one mile between markers and it be different each time. But that doesn't make the measurement any less useful. With all these legacy measurements they work great for casual use. Horses height? That will be hands, please. Building height? Storeys. Mountain height? Feet. 100 metres? Well that is 100 yards. None of it is logical, we are not comparing apples and oranges with these vernacular units, the trick is to use them up to the point where proper SI units are needed. See them as like the words we use for temperature. It is going to be hot/cold/warm/freezing today is fine, 'today could get to 23.2 degrees!' is just confusing even if well meaning.

fyfy18 6y ago
> which are two foot or 60cm across That's not exact though. 1ft = 30.48cm. If you are working in your own garden that's probably close enough, but for anything else the errors will quickly add up. Tiles are often made to have sides that are 30cm or 60cm, if you try and tile a bathroom that is 12ft across assuming tiles are 1ft each, you'll get to the other side and end up with an odd piece. I was born and raised in the UK, and honestly I think we have it worse than the US. At least the US consistently uses the same units (although the wet vs dry weights are confusing). When I learnt to drive I suddendly had to learn what feet mean, even though I'd never used them before in my life.
- jaclaz 6y ago
  To be fair (I know you were only making a theoretical example) if you have a bathroom exactly 3.60 meters across, you won't anyway fit in it 12 x 30 cm tiles, nor 6 x 60 cm ones without cutting one because of joints between tiles and thickness of the tiles. As a matter of fact in a 12 feet scenario 12 x 30.48 cm = 365.76 cm it is actually likely that you will be able to fit 12 x 30 cm tiles without cuts (but not 6 x 60 cm ones, unless you put them with very wide joints).
- dirktheman 6y ago
  Let alone the measuring in stone when discussing people's weight...
- throw0101a 6y ago
  > I was born and raised in the UK, and honestly I think we have it worse than the US. Try being in Canada. Your weight and height are in feet-inches and pounds. When driving though you use kilometres and litres to fill up a tank, but often use miles-per-gallon for measuring car efficiency (though L/100km is popular too). Most construction is done with US as well (1x6', 2x4'--with the dimensions usually being 'nominal' and not actually those lengths): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumber#North_American_softwoods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumber#North_American_softwood... Of course no one in the US has a kitchen scale, so most cooking recipes are done via volumetric cups, but baking is done by weight/mass. Of course there are two types of ounces: fluid and non-fluid as well. Preheat your oven to 350F or 400F....
  - kps 6y ago
    > so most cooking recipes are done via volumetric cups Which ones? An imperial cup is 1.20095 US cups. (Of course it doesn't matter if everything is in cups; you just get end up with 20% more food.)
  - hansthehorse 6y ago
    Most people in the US who bake have a kitchen scale. Baking bread and cakes is where I use the metric system, for general cooking I don't weigh ingredients. I scale everything in grams. I don't see how you can use the bakers percent system for bread without using the metric system.

fyfy18 6y ago

> which are two foot or 60cm across That's not exact though. 1ft = 30.48cm. If you are working in your own garden that's probably close enough, but for anything else the errors will quickly add up. Tiles are often made to have sides that are 30cm or 60cm, if you try and tile a bathroom that is 12ft across assuming tiles are 1ft each, you'll get to the other side and end up with an odd piece. I was born and raised in the UK, and honestly I think we have it worse than the US. At least the US consistently uses the same units (although the wet vs dry weights are confusing). When I learnt to drive I suddendly had to learn what feet mean, even though I'd never used them before in my life.

jaclaz 6y ago
To be fair (I know you were only making a theoretical example) if you have a bathroom exactly 3.60 meters across, you won't anyway fit in it 12 x 30 cm tiles, nor 6 x 60 cm ones without cutting one because of joints between tiles and thickness of the tiles. As a matter of fact in a 12 feet scenario 12 x 30.48 cm = 365.76 cm it is actually likely that you will be able to fit 12 x 30 cm tiles without cuts (but not 6 x 60 cm ones, unless you put them with very wide joints).
dirktheman 6y ago
Let alone the measuring in stone when discussing people's weight...
throw0101a 6y ago
> I was born and raised in the UK, and honestly I think we have it worse than the US. Try being in Canada. Your weight and height are in feet-inches and pounds. When driving though you use kilometres and litres to fill up a tank, but often use miles-per-gallon for measuring car efficiency (though L/100km is popular too). Most construction is done with US as well (1x6', 2x4'--with the dimensions usually being 'nominal' and not actually those lengths): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumber#North_American_softwoods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumber#North_American_softwood... Of course no one in the US has a kitchen scale, so most cooking recipes are done via volumetric cups, but baking is done by weight/mass. Of course there are two types of ounces: fluid and non-fluid as well. Preheat your oven to 350F or 400F....
- kps 6y ago
  > so most cooking recipes are done via volumetric cups Which ones? An imperial cup is 1.20095 US cups. (Of course it doesn't matter if everything is in cups; you just get end up with 20% more food.)
- hansthehorse 6y ago
  Most people in the US who bake have a kitchen scale. Baking bread and cakes is where I use the metric system, for general cooking I don't weigh ingredients. I scale everything in grams. I don't see how you can use the bakers percent system for bread without using the metric system.