6 ms·

What I've come to realize, also from living in the US, is that most Americans just don't convert between units. Unless they really have to. That way the issue d

What I've come to realize, also from living in the US, is that most Americans just don't convert between units. Unless they really have to. That way the issue does't really come up much. I notice it most when things here by chance are done in metric, but the units still aren't converted. E.g. I might see something listed at 1000mL, instead of just writing 1L. Or 3500g instead of 3.5kg. Sometimes a European might say "This way is 600m, but that way is 1.2km", an American would never say "This way is 800 yards, but that way is a mile". A European might say "I had to carry 4L of water, so my bag got 4kg heavier". An American might say "My bottle is 24 (fluid) oz, so it's about 24 (weight) oz", but if it's a gallon, they probably just say it weights around a gallon. All I'm saying is that the conversion problem has turned out to be less of an issue than I imagined. Simple because Americans don't run around converting their units every sentence.

thiht 3y ago
It seems like many Americans are really confused about weights and volumes, because of this unit system. Like if you say to use 300g of flour, the response will automatically be « How many cups is that ? ». And the answer is that you can’t measure flour correctly by volume.
- progbits 3y ago
  Measuring dry ingredients by volume is like a recipe brown M&M, at that point you know the recipe is bad and you should look for another one.
saiya-jin 3y ago
... which is a natural result of such an obscure system that is needlessly complex for everybody involved. If you can't do conversions on spot as a population, you simply over time don't do it and this state becomes natural. Just like for us literally everywhere else in the world we convert and literally everybody with even very subpar intelligence can be discussed with in such units. Suffice to say, we had tons if very similar obscure systems in medieval Europe, even my tiny eastern country had at least 6 with various absurd conversion schemes for lengths, volumes and weights. These days we go to museums or medieval wiki pages if we want to see that. The thing is, we moved to modern era and absolutely nobody looks back. I suspect with US its more an ego thing and swallowing pride that somebody else can he it simply better, rather than anything else. I mean whenever US actually needs to do some proper science and achieve great stuff, it turns quietly to metric/liters/kilograms. We have 10 fingers 100% of the time right in front of our face and everybody learns to count on them first, there is really nothing more natural.
josefx 3y ago
> I notice it most when things here by chance are done in metric, but the units still aren't converted. E.g. I might see something listed at 1000mL, instead of just writing 1L. Or 3500g instead of 3.5kg. I see things like this constantly in shops in Europe. I think it is part of a dark pattern to make price comparisons less intuitive and even misleading if you just skip over the prices trying to find the cheapest. What is cheaper, the product advertised as $X per liter or the one priced $Y per 100ml? There usually isn't a significant difference in packaging volume or usage that would otherwise explain why anyone would use different units for each.
- allarm 3y ago
  > I see things like this constantly in shops in Europe. I think it is part of a dark pattern to make price comparisons less intuitive In Germany they put the price of a unit on the price tag. So that you can clearly see that 0.33 bottle of Coke is more expensive (per liter) than the 1l.
  - Glawen 3y ago
    Germany is a big user of the trick "lemme change the unit from €/kg to €/100g in this part of the shop", for example at the cheese counter, which is what the parent is saying. It was the same trick used in the UK. I believe it comes from a european rules which allows such labeling if the packaging is small. In France it is always labelled in €/kg or €/L consistently through the shop.
    - Iulioh 3y ago
      >€/kg to €/100g Knowing the price of saffron for 1kg would be a really impractical information
- gield 3y ago
  In almost every European country, stores must show the price per liter or kg.
  - 3y ago

thiht 3y ago

It seems like many Americans are really confused about weights and volumes, because of this unit system. Like if you say to use 300g of flour, the response will automatically be « How many cups is that ? ». And the answer is that you can’t measure flour correctly by volume.

progbits 3y ago
Measuring dry ingredients by volume is like a recipe brown M&M, at that point you know the recipe is bad and you should look for another one.

saiya-jin 3y ago

... which is a natural result of such an obscure system that is needlessly complex for everybody involved. If you can't do conversions on spot as a population, you simply over time don't do it and this state becomes natural. Just like for us literally everywhere else in the world we convert and literally everybody with even very subpar intelligence can be discussed with in such units. Suffice to say, we had tons if very similar obscure systems in medieval Europe, even my tiny eastern country had at least 6 with various absurd conversion schemes for lengths, volumes and weights. These days we go to museums or medieval wiki pages if we want to see that. The thing is, we moved to modern era and absolutely nobody looks back. I suspect with US its more an ego thing and swallowing pride that somebody else can he it simply better, rather than anything else. I mean whenever US actually needs to do some proper science and achieve great stuff, it turns quietly to metric/liters/kilograms. We have 10 fingers 100% of the time right in front of our face and everybody learns to count on them first, there is really nothing more natural.

josefx 3y ago

> I notice it most when things here by chance are done in metric, but the units still aren't converted. E.g. I might see something listed at 1000mL, instead of just writing 1L. Or 3500g instead of 3.5kg. I see things like this constantly in shops in Europe. I think it is part of a dark pattern to make price comparisons less intuitive and even misleading if you just skip over the prices trying to find the cheapest. What is cheaper, the product advertised as $X per liter or the one priced $Y per 100ml? There usually isn't a significant difference in packaging volume or usage that would otherwise explain why anyone would use different units for each.

allarm 3y ago
> I see things like this constantly in shops in Europe. I think it is part of a dark pattern to make price comparisons less intuitive In Germany they put the price of a unit on the price tag. So that you can clearly see that 0.33 bottle of Coke is more expensive (per liter) than the 1l.
- Glawen 3y ago
  Germany is a big user of the trick "lemme change the unit from €/kg to €/100g in this part of the shop", for example at the cheese counter, which is what the parent is saying. It was the same trick used in the UK. I believe it comes from a european rules which allows such labeling if the packaging is small. In France it is always labelled in €/kg or €/L consistently through the shop.
  - Iulioh 3y ago
    >€/kg to €/100g Knowing the price of saffron for 1kg would be a really impractical information
gield 3y ago
In almost every European country, stores must show the price per liter or kg.
- 3y ago