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The three holdouts being the US, Myanmar and Liberia: https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/18300.jpeg https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/no
by danielbln 4y ago
The three holdouts being the US, Myanmar and Liberia: https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/18300.jpeg https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/18300.jpeg
- sgjohnson 4y agoWhy does everyone forget the UK and Canada?
- anonymous_sorry 4y agoThe UK has adopted the metric system for most purposes, except for a few high-profile holdouts (speed limits and beer measures).
- sgjohnson 4y agoAnd area. It's not uncommon to see land sold by the acre or apartments by the square foot.
- midasuni 4y agoRare to see square foot only, but 108 square foot sounds bigger than 10 square meters, 2.7 acres sounds bigger than 1.1 hectares, so obviously salesmen are going to include those numbers.
- digestives 4y agoFilling up on fuel in litres and then using miles per (Imperial) gallon to measure fuel efficiency is wonderfully convoluted.
- gmac 4y agoIndeed. I suspect the driving and oil lobbies are keen to keep it that way, to help obscure the cost per unit distance and thus keep us all driving as far and burning as much gas/petrol/diesel as possible.
- midasuni 4y agoMiles per litre would be fine, even km per litre, but the metric way of measuring flips it over so bigger is worse rather than better, so it doesn’t catch on The numbers don’t work out too, “litres per 100km”. Why not millilitres per km (or litres per gigametre) I drive X miles (or X km), I then fill up with Y litres (or Y gallons) If I put 40 litres in my car and do 16 km per litre that’s 640km of range, simple calculation of 40x16 If I need to travel 260km at 20km/litre I need to but 260/20 litres or about 13 litres. If I put 40 litres in my 3.6 litre per 100 km my range is 40/3.6 = 11 x 100 = 1100km. If I need to do 260km at 3.6l/100km I need to do 260/100 = 2.6, times 3.6 = 9 litres. With the “metric” way you need to do two calculations. if you insist on using volume per length, I’d personally prefer 36ml/km, then I know I need 36x260 ml of fuel to go 260km, or my 40,000ml tank will take me 40000/36 = 1100km.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- doikor 4y ago> The numbers don’t work out too, “litres per 100km”. Why not millilitres per km (or litres per gigametre) > I drive X miles (or X km), I then fill up with Y litres (or Y gallons) This isn't what most use the liters per 100km for though. People just fill up whenever the light on the car tells them to. Mainly the number is used to compare cars when buying a new one. Some keep track of the actual consumption to notice if something is wrong with their car (just write down the current number on the odometer and how many liters you put in on some paper/app/whatever. you can do the actual calculations later) At least this has been my experience here in Finland.
- manholio 4y ago> If I need to travel 260km at 20km/litre I need to but 260/20 litres or about 13 litres. > With the “metric” way you need to do two calculations. That's really an absurd way of looking at it, because one of those calculations is a division or multiplication by 100, and 100km happens to be a typical distance someone might be interested into finding fuel efficiency. So the answer to me is an immediate mental computation, 2.6 x 5l = 13, you never ever need to compute consumption per km, express things in ml etc. Your own "easy" examples look to me very intuitive and convoluted, so I guess the systems are 100% comparable, the only difference is the power of habit.
- donedealomg 4y ago
- williamdclt 4y agoI dont think that's true. I see imperial much more than metric. Measures are much more common in inches, foot and miles than metric. Volumes are much more common in cups, gallons, pints than metric. Weights are more common in pounds and ounces than metric. That's in almost all domains, not just "a few high-profile holdouts" (even cooking, where it kills me that quantities of solids are in "cups" rather than grams...)
- anonymous_sorry 4y ago> Measures are much more common in inches, foot and miles than metric. I think this is partially true, particularly with the older generation. People often talk about their height in feet and inches, and their weight in stone and pounds. > Volumes are much more common in cups, gallons, pints than metric. Weights are more common in pounds and ounces than metric. Your experience seems to be very different to mine. To be honest I have no idea what a gallon even is, and no intuitive concept of an ounce. The only place I have ever seen measurements in "cups" is one chicken biryani recipe I found on an American website. (I agree it's bizarre: half a cup of mint leaves - wtf?!). Any recipe published in the UK in the last couple of decades tends to be in grams and millilitres. Example picked at random: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chocolate-courgette-cake https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chocolate-courgette-cake
- barnabee 4y agoSeems like this must vary a lot as my experience is very different. I rarely see/hear/use imperial outside pints and road signs, or for “sizes” like screen or clothing waist sizes, unless I’m talking to people a generation older than me (I’m 40). Every recipe site I use either has both or is entirely metric, and I only ever use metric. I’d probably look elsewhere if a search turned up a recipe in imperial only. Even distances are in KM outside of driving (because of the road signs). Pretty much everyone I know talks about their weight in KG. Heights do seem pretty split between cm and ft/inches but everyone understands both. Most liquids except beer and cider (including other alcohol like wine and spirits) are in litres and ml. It’s very obvious to me how metric-first life is for me because visiting America involves constant conversion and thinking whereas everything in other European countries (which are generally entirely metric) comes easily.
- DharmaPolice 4y agoMaybe officially but I don't know many people born in the UK who would give (when asked) their height in centimetres. Weight is a little more even split - using kilos is becoming more common but most conversations I have with people still use stone. The NHS's BMI calculator defaults to feet/inches and stones/pounds although you can switch to CM/KG.
- thrwyoilarticle 4y agoThe picture acknowledges both
- sgjohnson 4y agoNot Canada though, which is definitely more imperial than the UK.
- thrwyoilarticle 4y ago>In Canada, Australia, India and some other former Commonwealth countries vital statistics, living and commercial spaces, oven temperatures and recipe measurements might still be imperial.
- Milner08 4y agoBecause they are a weird middle ground. UK uses metric paper, metric weights and measures for _most_ things, metric temperature. Where Imperial starts to slip in is distance when driving (but not when running...), volumes of Beer and Milk (mainly cause we want more beer than 500ml) and body weight (where we use Stones, which is weird). There are probably some other things as well, but metric is the dominant system (for people under 60) for sure.
- sgjohnson 4y agoBut so is the United States. In all industries where it matters (science, technology, military, medicine) metric is virtually the only measurement system that's used, not to mention that a lot of products are sold in round metric quantities, not imperial.
- mcjiggerlog 4y agoThe difference is that in the UK nearly everything you interact with in your daily life is in metric. You won't find anything in a UK household in imperial measurements other than the bottle of milk in the fridge.
- timrichard 4y agoFor supermarket milk at least, I can only remember seeing both units for quite a while. I had a glance at the one in our fridge, and it says "2.272L 4 pints" on the label.
- Symbiote 4y agoThere is a huge difference. Ask an average American to give you the length of their car, size of their kitchen or weight of a brick in metric and they'll have no clue. The average British person can do this, because education has been metric for 50+ years and the least-technical industry (e.g. construction, DIY) is metric. (See e.g. https://www.diy.com/ https://www.diy.com/, the largest consumer-facing DIY shop in Britain. It's 20kg of 10mm gravel, doors in millimetres, paint in litres. I can't even see a button offering an imperial conversion.)
- dr_dshiv 4y agoYou mean minimemerica and America’s hat?
- bearmode 4y agoAll kids in the UK learn metric, and possibly some imperial (but only as a side thing). There are still things colloquially said in imperial, such as weight and height, but if you go to a doctor it will be in cm and kg. We're still a bit of a mishmash, but it's not as bad as it might seem from outside.
- _the_inflator 4y agoUK is also reversing in parts due to BREXIT.
- mickeyp 4y agoHardly. Britain's converting to metric -- one inch at a time.
- azatom 4y agoLike USA will begin in 2023!? I could hardly believe it when I heard it, it is barely three centuries away!
- xnorswap 4y agoIt isn't really. The government proposed a consultation on doing so, mostly as a distraction. I'd eat my hat if anything actually changes, the UK was (partially) metricated over 50 years ago, there's zero appetite for reversing it among people of working age and business concerns will dominate any serious consultation around changing legislation.
- sgjohnson 4y agoThere’s also 0 appetite for completing the metrication process.
- littlestymaar 4y agoInterestingly enough per wikipedia[1], Myanmar and Liberia uses the A4 format while not using the metric system. [1]: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/A4_(format)#/media/Fichier:Prevalent_default_paper_size.svg https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/A4_(format)#/media/Fichier:Pre...
- defrost 4y agoThe irony there being that the US was in fact one of the first early adopters of the metric system, metric being the official weights and measure system within the USofA and the US foot being literally defined in terms of the underlying base metre.
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y agoAll imperial units have now been redefined in terms of metric.
- vidarh 4y agoNot just adopter: The US was one of the original 17 signatories of the Metre Convention in 1875.
- Nokinside 4y agoAccording to US law SI has been the preferred system of weights and measures for US trade and commerce". The transition was not mandatory, so nothing happened.
- Semaphor 4y agoIt’s like how they made yyyy-MM-dd the law in Germany for official communications. No one cared, so they changed it to make it optional when used within Germany or when there is no ambiguity a few years later :D
- ygra 4y agoDIN 5008 should be required reading for anyone ;-) I do care, though, and use ISO 8601 almost exclusively in writing. And I do know a few others. Perhaps things will change eventually.
- Semaphor 4y agoBy "no one", I meant those that were supposed to use it: Government officials ;) I personally use it as well, and so does my workplace, surprisingly.
- Ma8ee 4y agoWe have been using it in Sweden as long as I can remember.
- WastingMyTime89 4y agoNothing happened because the US decided to elect Reagan and the plan was effectively shelved.
- nikanj 4y agoDon’t pretend UK and Canada are metric.
- tankenmate 4y agoThe UK is far closer to metric and will be even more so shortly, for anyone unaware most kids in the UK aren't even taught imperial units at school any more. There really are only vestigial units left; feet / inches for human height (but not for buildings for example), pints for liquids that are drunk (but not for hot water tanks for example), stone for human weight (but not for boxed items), etc. And for places like N. Ireland it's even less so, milk is sold in litres, etc because of the proximity to (Ro) Ireland (which now has its speed limits in km/h for example).
- Gordonjcp 4y agoMilk is sold in litres in the UK, it's really only beer that's sold in pints.
- avvt4avaw 4y agoThe most common sizes for milk to be sold in are 1.136 litres and 2.272 litres (i.e. 2 pints and 4 pints)
- Gordonjcp 4y agoWhere is that sold? I've never seen anything other than 500ml, 1l, and 2l.
- Symbiote 4y agoNormal supermarkets. If you only buy milk in multiples of 500mL, you're buying a luxury brand or from a corner shop -- both situations use the slightly smaller (vs 568mL) size to make the price seem lower. You can see at Tesco [1] that Yeo Valley, Arla, Cravendale, Finest, Tesco Filtered are all 1 or 2 litres. "Normal" milk is 2 or 4 pints. (The EU used to have regulations around this sort of thing, but I think they've unfortunately been repealed for most products. It's why bread was only sold in multiples of 400g -- it meant the merchant couldn't discreetly reduce the size of some/all products.) [1] https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/fresh-food/milk-butter-and-eggs/milk?shelf=Whole%20Milk&viewAll=shelf https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/fresh-food/milk-b...
- odiroot 4y agoUnfortunately UK still regularly mixes both systems. Plus pints and stone.
- geowwy 4y agoAlmost everywhere on earth mixes metric with some other system. Some places even mix metric, imperial, and some traditional pre-imperial system.
- ktzar 4y agoThat's not the case in the European and Southamerican countries I've visited or have acquaintances in. What countries do you have in mind? I'm quite interested.
- FreeFull 4y agoThe only thing I can think of is that screen diagonals are still measured in inches. Ignoring that, a lot of countries are definitely fully metric with regards to the basic length/weight/time measures
- Symbiote 4y agoYou can find occasional uses in many countries. TV screens are advertised in inches here in Denmark, although I noticed the last one I bought was "34 inch, 86.00cm" in the detailed specification -- the inches were just marketing. Old water pipes have some sort of pre-metric size. Several countries (e.g. France) use the word pound (livre) to mean 500g, which could confuse visitors into thinking something non-metric is being used. I noticed that in south America.
- Svip 4y agoNo one really does it any more, but "half-pound" (halvt pund) in Danish means 250g, which was the common way of ordering butter before the supermarkets took over (and why butter used[0] to come in packages of 250g). Similarly, in Sweden, one mile is 10 km. [0] These days, and selling butter in 200g packages to keep the prices seemingly low.
- donedealomg 4y ago
- tsm 4y agoI used letter-sized paper when I was a kid in Honduras, and if memory serves a number of people use US units.
- smcl 4y agoIt’s worth remembering that the UK can almost be counted in that group to some extent - road distance and speed as well as human height and weight are normally defined in imperial measurements. Additionally the Conservatives have proposed return to imperial measurements (though just as a pretty transparent appeal to the “back in my day…” crowd)