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To be honest it sounds like your schooling set you up for failure for living in the US. Are your speed limit signs not in MPH? Do you not buy your milk in gallo

by nwsm 4y ago

To be honest it sounds like your schooling set you up for failure for living in the US. Are your speed limit signs not in MPH? Do you not buy your milk in gallons and commonly weigh things in pounds? What volume measuring spoons do you have? This is not an argument against the metric system; I just cannot imagine foregoing imperial unit education and not having constant conversion pains in adulthood.

sidewndr46 4y ago
You're confusing learning the system and using the unit. Anyone can use MPH on the road. If it's 60, you go 60. That is using the unit. It's not like the vehicles here sometimes display fathoms per fortnight. I still have no idea how much distance a mile is. Anyone can go buy a gallon of milk. It's one gallon. There are no stores randomly offering to sell you a cubic yard of milk. On the other hand, I know how many meters are in a kilometer, how many mm in a meter, etc. How to convert from cubic meters into liters, etc. That is a result of having learned the system.
- whimsicalism 4y ago
  > I still have no idea how much distance a mile is. By "know how much distance", you mean "able to decompose it into smaller subunit"? This is different from what I mean when I say knowing a distance. You seriously were raised in the US and use celsius?
  - sidewndr46 4y ago
    I don't have a perception for how long a mile is nor any knowledge that would decompose it into a smaller subunit. It was not taught or discussed at any point in public school. There was exactly one question I recall on a class exam about converting to Fahrenheit from Celsius. It's some formula with a constant & an offset to account for the differing scale and the freezing point. I've long since forgotten it.
    - aendruk 4y ago
      Not sure why people are giving you such a hard time about this. My experience matches yours; born and raised in the US but I’m hopeless at talking about the weather in Fahrenheit, estimating hiked distances in miles, or converting tablespoons and quarts. My public school education prioritized metric and it’s trivial to choose units in maps, weather apps, etc.
- nwsm 4y ago
  I'm not confusing them, I'm saying that your schooling failed you as someone who would in all likelihood spend the rest of their life in a society that predominantly uses the imperial system. I am having a hard time believing that a public school had this curriculum.

by nwsm 4y ago

sidewndr46 4y ago

You're confusing learning the system and using the unit. Anyone can use MPH on the road. If it's 60, you go 60. That is using the unit. It's not like the vehicles here sometimes display fathoms per fortnight. I still have no idea how much distance a mile is. Anyone can go buy a gallon of milk. It's one gallon. There are no stores randomly offering to sell you a cubic yard of milk. On the other hand, I know how many meters are in a kilometer, how many mm in a meter, etc. How to convert from cubic meters into liters, etc. That is a result of having learned the system.

whimsicalism 4y ago
> I still have no idea how much distance a mile is. By "know how much distance", you mean "able to decompose it into smaller subunit"? This is different from what I mean when I say knowing a distance. You seriously were raised in the US and use celsius?
- sidewndr46 4y ago
  I don't have a perception for how long a mile is nor any knowledge that would decompose it into a smaller subunit. It was not taught or discussed at any point in public school. There was exactly one question I recall on a class exam about converting to Fahrenheit from Celsius. It's some formula with a constant & an offset to account for the differing scale and the freezing point. I've long since forgotten it.
  - aendruk 4y ago
    Not sure why people are giving you such a hard time about this. My experience matches yours; born and raised in the US but I’m hopeless at talking about the weather in Fahrenheit, estimating hiked distances in miles, or converting tablespoons and quarts. My public school education prioritized metric and it’s trivial to choose units in maps, weather apps, etc.
nwsm 4y ago
I'm not confusing them, I'm saying that your schooling failed you as someone who would in all likelihood spend the rest of their life in a society that predominantly uses the imperial system. I am having a hard time believing that a public school had this curriculum.