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The old system is useful for very common things like cooking, because it's a Duodecimal system and you can more easily do fractions in your head. I get it it's

The old system is useful for very common things like cooking, because it's a Duodecimal system and you can more easily do fractions in your head. I get it it's funny "the Americans don't like science", but it's actually pretty far from the truth. I have a habit of measuring ground distance in meters, for example, because I was in the (US) Army and yes we measured those things in meters/kilometers. But other things are not measured like that. Measuring systems are only useful if they are, well, easy. And some systems are more easy in certain circumstances than others. Which is to say, it's easy to get used to a meter being a pace (tie a meter long string to your ankles).

blendo 3y ago
“A pint’s a pound the world around”
- wolverine876 3y ago
  The metric system is pretty good at that: 1 ml H2O = 1 cm^3 = 1 g, and 1 calorie will increase its temperature 1 deg C (assuming 1 atmosphere pressure, and a certain water temperature). Anyone have a rhyme for it?
  - trimethylpurine 3y ago
    Sounds great, until you add pretty much anything to the water.
    - snovv_crash 3y ago
      Same with pints and pounds.
  - remarkEon 3y ago
    My favorite part about the metric system is that the weight of 1 kilo is the same as 1 liter of H2O. This was extremely useful for me in a past life.
  - simne 3y ago
    You hit! From my experience, metric system is best for pharmaceutical calculations, like "how many water need to got 40% alcohol", and it's also extremely important for taste, as in many cases better 38%.
arcticbull 3y ago
> The old system is useful for very common things like cooking, because it's a Duodecimal system and you can more easily do fractions in your head. I get it it's funny "the Americans don't like science", but it's actually pretty far from the truth. It's really not. Most of the time, I just convert to grams and use a scale so I can get an actually accurate input quantity. I don't want to think about "heaping" and "leveled" and "packed" and different densities, humidity or uneven distribution within a measuring implement. If I'm going to be putting it on a scale I'm definitely not setting it to ounces.
- remarkEon 3y ago
  I think the difference it that I don't have to use a scale. I'm not in a chemistry lab, I'm in my kitchen. Though, I suppose, those are one in the same aren't they.
  - arcticbull 3y ago
    Unless you're baking, in which case a scale really makes a world of difference! When was the last time you really looked and said, geez, thank the lord I can divide 1lb 14oz into eights really easily in my head?
    - remarkEon 3y ago
      I'm very very particular about measuring out the exact amount a recipe calls for and putting it all in little dishes before we actually start cooking. But I don't actually have a scale, maybe I'll get one and try it. My wife will probably stop me, because once I get into the details on a particular topic I tend to go overboard. On the math thing, probably during Christmas when we were trying to stretch a baked French Toast recipe to feed 9 people in stead of 6. Worked great.
      - arcticbull 3y ago
        Haha, honestly I don't have much of a real opinion on this topic. I do suggest the scale, though. I find I get much more consistent results. Even if it's set to ounces ;) The error bars on "one cup of flour" IME are enormous.

blendo 3y ago

“A pint’s a pound the world around”

wolverine876 3y ago
The metric system is pretty good at that: 1 ml H2O = 1 cm^3 = 1 g, and 1 calorie will increase its temperature 1 deg C (assuming 1 atmosphere pressure, and a certain water temperature). Anyone have a rhyme for it?
- trimethylpurine 3y ago
  Sounds great, until you add pretty much anything to the water.
  - snovv_crash 3y ago
    Same with pints and pounds.
- remarkEon 3y ago
  My favorite part about the metric system is that the weight of 1 kilo is the same as 1 liter of H2O. This was extremely useful for me in a past life.
- simne 3y ago
  You hit! From my experience, metric system is best for pharmaceutical calculations, like "how many water need to got 40% alcohol", and it's also extremely important for taste, as in many cases better 38%.

arcticbull 3y ago

> The old system is useful for very common things like cooking, because it's a Duodecimal system and you can more easily do fractions in your head. I get it it's funny "the Americans don't like science", but it's actually pretty far from the truth. It's really not. Most of the time, I just convert to grams and use a scale so I can get an actually accurate input quantity. I don't want to think about "heaping" and "leveled" and "packed" and different densities, humidity or uneven distribution within a measuring implement. If I'm going to be putting it on a scale I'm definitely not setting it to ounces.

remarkEon 3y ago
I think the difference it that I don't have to use a scale. I'm not in a chemistry lab, I'm in my kitchen. Though, I suppose, those are one in the same aren't they.
- arcticbull 3y ago
  Unless you're baking, in which case a scale really makes a world of difference! When was the last time you really looked and said, geez, thank the lord I can divide 1lb 14oz into eights really easily in my head?
  - remarkEon 3y ago
    I'm very very particular about measuring out the exact amount a recipe calls for and putting it all in little dishes before we actually start cooking. But I don't actually have a scale, maybe I'll get one and try it. My wife will probably stop me, because once I get into the details on a particular topic I tend to go overboard. On the math thing, probably during Christmas when we were trying to stretch a baked French Toast recipe to feed 9 people in stead of 6. Worked great.
    - arcticbull 3y ago
      Haha, honestly I don't have much of a real opinion on this topic. I do suggest the scale, though. I find I get much more consistent results. Even if it's set to ounces ;) The error bars on "one cup of flour" IME are enormous.