4 ms·

> Such as dry weights, including 2 pints to a quart, 2 quarts to a...pottle? 2 pottles to a gallon, 2 gallons to a peck, 4 pecks to a bushel, 2 bushels to a str

> Such as dry weights, including 2 pints to a quart, 2 quarts to a...pottle? 2 pottles to a gallon, 2 gallons to a peck, 4 pecks to a bushel, 2 bushels to a strike, 2 strikes to a coom, 2 cooms to a quarter, 5 quarters to a wey, and 2 weys to a last. English customary units for mass, length and volume. I went to American public schools and I was never taught any of these, except I think a single quiz about them in the cooking portion of my home economics class (which was also cut from the curriculum a few years ago.) All the science classes were taught with metric, and no other classes taught units for these things at all. The only customary units I have an intuitive understanding of are pounds, miles, and Fahrenheit. Off the top of my head I can't even tell you how many feet are in a mile, and to me a yard is 'about a meter.' I estimate small distances in meters and multiply by 3 to give other Americans an estimate in feet.

dv_dt 4y ago
This gives me hope that someday the US will more fully move to the metric system.
- Kye 4y ago
  US schools taught metric back when I was in them in the 90s. Then I got out into the world-as-experienced where almost nothing uses it and promptly forgot along with basic French and Spanish and most math, and only retained stuff I personally took interest in. It's not enough to teach things in school without support outside the school.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    Virtually all products in America have volumes and weights listed in metric, alongside the customary units. Even those packaged specifically for America. Many beverages specifically are packaged in whole number liters, with oddball fluid ounces listed next to that. e.g. a 1 liter / 33.8 floz bottle of coke. Where customary units seem strongest is in civil/mechanical engineering and adjacent trades, road signs (all in miles), and weather reports in Fahrenheit.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
suprjami 4y ago
This is how everyone outside the US thinks as well. We do the same sort of rough maths for Fahrenheit (double and add 32) and pounds (about 500g).
magic_hamster 4y ago
I'm not from the US but I do spend a lot of time there and every time the units are absolutely painful. Nothing can be easily inferred whether lengths, volumes or mass (weight). It's all memorization. So actually "how many strikes in a coon" is not different at all from "how many inches in a foot". I guess there are historical reasons for this but the imperial system is basically just nonsense that everyone agreed on.

dv_dt 4y ago

This gives me hope that someday the US will more fully move to the metric system.

Kye 4y ago
US schools taught metric back when I was in them in the 90s. Then I got out into the world-as-experienced where almost nothing uses it and promptly forgot along with basic French and Spanish and most math, and only retained stuff I personally took interest in. It's not enough to teach things in school without support outside the school.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  Virtually all products in America have volumes and weights listed in metric, alongside the customary units. Even those packaged specifically for America. Many beverages specifically are packaged in whole number liters, with oddball fluid ounces listed next to that. e.g. a 1 liter / 33.8 floz bottle of coke. Where customary units seem strongest is in civil/mechanical engineering and adjacent trades, road signs (all in miles), and weather reports in Fahrenheit.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

suprjami 4y ago

This is how everyone outside the US thinks as well. We do the same sort of rough maths for Fahrenheit (double and add 32) and pounds (about 500g).

magic_hamster 4y ago

I'm not from the US but I do spend a lot of time there and every time the units are absolutely painful. Nothing can be easily inferred whether lengths, volumes or mass (weight). It's all memorization. So actually "how many strikes in a coon" is not different at all from "how many inches in a foot". I guess there are historical reasons for this but the imperial system is basically just nonsense that everyone agreed on.