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Americans will measure with anything except the metric system.
by yosito 4y ago
Americans will measure with anything except the metric system.
- backtoyoujim 4y agothe legalized cannabis industry is doing all it can, man.
- arbuge 4y agoFor sure... https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/36593/20220314/asteroid-half-size-giraffe-hits-iceland-2-hours-astronomers-spotted.htm https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/36593/20220314/asteroi...
- Koshkin 4y ago1/40,000,000 of the Earth’s circumference does not make sense to me, but the foot does. (As does the school bus.)
- lamontcg 4y agoThe foot is just a light nanosecond, it makes perfect sense.
- nemo44x 4y agoAgreed. There’s this weird idea we should have the same UX for everything. In practicality we need different scales. I don’t describe the distance between myself and my neighbor in light years.
- coutego 4y agoExactly! In fact, it would be wonderful if you had some standard way of producing different units at different scales for a given magnitude, upwards or downwards, so you could use the best in a given context. Perhaps you could even randomly chose a fixed easy multiplier to automatically produce these derived units from the fundamental unit, and then use the same factor for every magnitude. You only need to chose some base unit for every magnitude and then, boom, you get a full family of units at different scales to chose from depending on your context. How cool would that be? I'd suggest to use a factor that is the easiest to multiply by, in order to simplify operations. I guess the optimal factor would be 10. What is easier to multiply or divide by than 10, right? I think I need to patent this bright idea. It's amazing nobody has thought about it before.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- yosito 4y agoSure, the definition of a meter may be a little bit arbitrary. But the advantage of metric for measuring distances is that the units are all factors of 10. 10 mm = 1 cm 10 cm = 1 dm 10 dm = 1 m 1000 m = 1 km Makes math and scaling up and down a lot easier than having to remember that 12 in = 1 ft 3 ft = 1 yd 5280 ft = 1 mi 1760 yd = 1 mi
- 13of40 4y agoFunny story: I was in Spain several years ago and was talking to a guy I met about sailboats. I mentioned I had a boat, and he asked how big. I thought for a second and said "7 meters" so as not to be an ignorant American. He thought for a second and said "huh, 21 feet".
- alex_young 4y agoExcept it’s closer to 23 feet right?
- 13of40 4y agoIf you carry a calculator in your pocket, but if you're just casually converting, 3 feet per meter is pretty good. 100 square meters is about 1000 square feet as well. Not legal for tax purposes, but good enough to understand how big a place is.
- cardiffspaceman 4y ago40 inches per meter is easy to remember and pretty accurate
- slim 4y agohow many inches per feet ?
- nicoburns 4y ago12
- damiankennedy 4y ago12 inches per foot 3 feet per yard 1760 yards per mile
- hanche 4y agoOr ten feet per three meters, since longer distances are rarely measured in inches anyhow.. The proverbial ten foot pole is 3048 mm long.
- sockaddr 4y agoI read somewhere that it was traveling at about three football fields per Abraham Lincoln fart.
- sfink 4y agobaked beans or cauliflower?
- smegger001 4y agobroccoli cheddar, it was a fast balloon
- sph 4y agoAs a European I still don't know how their football fields compare to our football fields. I mentally assume they are the same to have a frame of comparison.
- jaclaz 4y agoThey are pretty much similar, though an actual football (soccer pitch) field is not fixed measures, 90-120 m in length and 45-90 m in width. In this the american football field seems more "reliable" as a unit of measure, seemingly fixed to 91.44 x 48.8 m or 100 yards x 160 feet + the borders that may vary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_pitch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_pitch Personally I "convert" a "football field" to half an hectare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hectare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hectare or 100 x 50 m.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jjtheblunt 4y agoit's ironic because as a little kid in the US in the late 1970s we all learned the metric system, but we see the "imperial" system everywhere still....like the conversion just never got around to happening. it's confusing.
- smegger001 4y agolook at the stupidest congressman of your choice (party doens't matter) that who you have to convince to convert the US over to the metric system. that is why we still use imperial
- refurb 4y agoI think it just comes down to preference since the government never mandated it. Science and engineering all use metric in the US. Automative all moved to metric voluntarily. I know construction is still imperial. Its mostly consumer facing things that still imperial. And if you go to Canada its pretty common to see $/lb printed along side $/kg. People often talk about height in feet and inches, weight in pounds. Its really not that different.
- userbinator 4y agoScience and engineering all use metric in the US Machinists still do a lot of work in inches.
- mulmen 4y agoYes but in base 10. Machines last for decades and can’t practically support multiple standards. There’s an enormous amount of inertia in such a system. Similarly aviation uses feet for altitude in most countries.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- teawrecks 4y agoWon't touch the metric system with a 10ft pole.
- mulmen 4y agoThis is such a tired cliche. The actual history is far more interesting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_St... The US was an original signatory of the Meter Convention. Our customary units have been based on metric units since 1893. Our food packaging features metric units. Our scientists use metric units. Our school children learn the metric system. Our military uses the metric system. Our cars are built with metric fasteners. Changing informal habits takes decades and has questionable benefit. Canada tried it in the 70s and is going to take another generation at least to fully convert for informal use.
- joenot443 4y agoSpeaking as a Canadian, I’d be surprised if we ever fully culturally metrify, specifically when it comes to height and weight. We just consume too much American media which uses convenient imperial bars like 6’ or 200lbs to ever change, I think. I actually think we’re somewhat lucky in that most of us can immediately grok a measurement in either system when we see one online.
- mulmen 4y agoI don't think you can blame American media. Canada can trace its usage of Imperial units to the British Empire. The United States of America as an independent nation has never at any point in its history used Imperial units. US Customary units share some of the names but it is a different system. This refinement of units continued globally and with international collaboration became the metric (si) system. The US historically had closer ties to France than Britain so the systems diverged literally centuries ago. Canadian metrication follows the rest of the British empire which was centuries behind the rest of the world (including the US) in metrication.