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I definitely acknowledge I don't live there so I can't truly know, but I feel like I'd just prefer to live in a region where everything is consistent instead of

I definitely acknowledge I don't live there so I can't truly know, but I feel like I'd just prefer to live in a region where everything is consistent instead of constantly changing units all the time. We want to talk meters? Sure, We want to talk miles? That's fine. But something like "Ipswitch is 90km from Cambridge, you're going 40 miles per hour, how long till you get there?" just seems annoying to me, more annoying than just saying its like 55 miles and you're going 40 miles an hour so it'll be just under 50 minutes or so. Or like a recipe calls for 1 pint of something that you've got 500mL containers of. Do you bother opening another 500mL container for that last 68mL?

KMag 3y ago
Shameless plug for a friend-of-a-friend's product: https://makeitperfectly.com/bake https://makeitperfectly.com/bake smart scale that weighs your ingredients and scales the recipe for you if you're a little low/little high. (He's also one of the co-inventors of the Nintendo PowerGlove.)
saaaaaam 3y ago
British recipes use ml. You’d rarely see a pint in a British recipe unless ir was quite old. American recipes use pints and - even more insane - cups. British distance is measured in miles unless it’s a short distance under half a mile in which it’s metres or unless it’s someone old in which case it will be yards or feet. Of a horse race, in which case it’s yards and furlongs. Land is measured in acres but industrial land in hectares. Rooms are measured in feet and inches unless it’s for official purposes in which case it’s metres. Liquid is measured in ml and litres unless it’s beer - which is measured in pints - or petrol which is measured in litres but talked about in gallons. If you buy a fish you will weight it in grams and kilos. If you catch a fish you’ll measure it in pounds and ounces. Buy suits and shirts and you measure in inches. Buy the cloth to make it yourself and it’s measured in linear metres.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  > American recipes use pints and - even more insane - cups. How are cups even more insane than pints?
  - saaaaaam 3y ago
    Because a pint is a defined measure, but a cup is just… random. Should I use a big cup or a little cup? A teacup? A coffee cup? What about that giant mug from can measure butter in cups but also flour, and oil and water. I can pour 50ml of liquid by eye and be accurate to a ml. I can cut 50g of butter from a block and be accurate to a couple of grams. A cup though? God help me. I do not understand cups!
    - dragonwriter 3y ago
      > Because a pint is a defined measure, but a cup is just… random. A cup is a defined measure equal to 1/2 pint. (Or, equivalently, 8 fluid ounces.) Or, since you can pour by eye to within 1ml, more useful to you might be ~236.6ml
      - saaaaaam 3y ago
        See, I had no idea about that because we just don’t use cups here. But as I pointed out elsewhere it’s not about liquids - the thing that confuses me with cups is solids because 50g of butter = 50g of flour but 1 cup of butter does not equal one cup of flour.
    - vel0city 3y ago
      Well your butter example is pretty easy for lots of butter sold in the US. They're sold as a box of sticks each stick wrapped in thin wax paper. The wrapper has marks for every tablespoon of butter. Each stick is half a cup. A box is four sticks so it's two cups aka a pint. So if you need a cup of butter, it's just two sticks. Which is an example of how I'd rather things just be consistent instead of mixing units. If things are sold in pints, I'd prefer everything else I work with to be in tablespoons/cups/pints. If things are sold in liters and kilograms, I'll want things sold in reasonable divisions of those as well for the given application. When you just know half a cup is one stick or you need two tablespoons aka two ticks on the wrapper, its easy. When cream comes in pint bottles and you need a cup, you know its just half the bottle. I do agree though, things start falling apart when recipes ask for like 2/3 a cup and you've got a pint, but if you're the kind of person who can figure out pouring something to +-1mL one could also learn how to pour just about 2/3 a cup every time.

KMag 3y ago

Shameless plug for a friend-of-a-friend's product: https://makeitperfectly.com/bake https://makeitperfectly.com/bake smart scale that weighs your ingredients and scales the recipe for you if you're a little low/little high. (He's also one of the co-inventors of the Nintendo PowerGlove.)

saaaaaam 3y ago

British recipes use ml. You’d rarely see a pint in a British recipe unless ir was quite old. American recipes use pints and - even more insane - cups. British distance is measured in miles unless it’s a short distance under half a mile in which it’s metres or unless it’s someone old in which case it will be yards or feet. Of a horse race, in which case it’s yards and furlongs. Land is measured in acres but industrial land in hectares. Rooms are measured in feet and inches unless it’s for official purposes in which case it’s metres. Liquid is measured in ml and litres unless it’s beer - which is measured in pints - or petrol which is measured in litres but talked about in gallons. If you buy a fish you will weight it in grams and kilos. If you catch a fish you’ll measure it in pounds and ounces. Buy suits and shirts and you measure in inches. Buy the cloth to make it yourself and it’s measured in linear metres.

dragonwriter 3y ago
> American recipes use pints and - even more insane - cups. How are cups even more insane than pints?
- saaaaaam 3y ago
  Because a pint is a defined measure, but a cup is just… random. Should I use a big cup or a little cup? A teacup? A coffee cup? What about that giant mug from can measure butter in cups but also flour, and oil and water. I can pour 50ml of liquid by eye and be accurate to a ml. I can cut 50g of butter from a block and be accurate to a couple of grams. A cup though? God help me. I do not understand cups!
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    > Because a pint is a defined measure, but a cup is just… random. A cup is a defined measure equal to 1/2 pint. (Or, equivalently, 8 fluid ounces.) Or, since you can pour by eye to within 1ml, more useful to you might be ~236.6ml
    - saaaaaam 3y ago
      See, I had no idea about that because we just don’t use cups here. But as I pointed out elsewhere it’s not about liquids - the thing that confuses me with cups is solids because 50g of butter = 50g of flour but 1 cup of butter does not equal one cup of flour.
  - vel0city 3y ago
    Well your butter example is pretty easy for lots of butter sold in the US. They're sold as a box of sticks each stick wrapped in thin wax paper. The wrapper has marks for every tablespoon of butter. Each stick is half a cup. A box is four sticks so it's two cups aka a pint. So if you need a cup of butter, it's just two sticks. Which is an example of how I'd rather things just be consistent instead of mixing units. If things are sold in pints, I'd prefer everything else I work with to be in tablespoons/cups/pints. If things are sold in liters and kilograms, I'll want things sold in reasonable divisions of those as well for the given application. When you just know half a cup is one stick or you need two tablespoons aka two ticks on the wrapper, its easy. When cream comes in pint bottles and you need a cup, you know its just half the bottle. I do agree though, things start falling apart when recipes ask for like 2/3 a cup and you've got a pint, but if you're the kind of person who can figure out pouring something to +-1mL one could also learn how to pour just about 2/3 a cup every time.