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> U.S. customary (the more accurate name for what’s sometimes the called the British Imperial system) For those wondering why there is this distinction, the Br
by cjs_ac 9mo ago
> U.S. customary (the more accurate name for what’s sometimes the called the British Imperial system)
For those wondering why there is this distinction, the British Imperial units were created by the Weights and Measures Act 1824; US customary units follow the Winchester Standard of 1588.
- pjc50 9mo agoAnd in a few places they're different (US measuring "cup" vs UK, US gallon, etc) edit: ref https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zfnjb7h https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zfnjb7h
- beardyw 9mo agoUK doesn't use cups in recipes and fuel is dispensed in litres. Road signs are still in miles.
- ljf 9mo agoIt has been a long time since fuel was sold here in the UK in gallons, but most cars still are spoken of in terms of MPG (miles driven per gallon of fuel). There are steps to move this to L per 100km - but most people here still use MPG. We also use Pints in pubs, which are a different size to US pints.
- beardyw 9mo agoEngines have been in litres since forever it feels.
- bluGill 9mo agoEverywhere. All the car companies in the us switched to metric in the 1980s. You find some inch stuff once ina while - but only when the part hasn't been changed in the last 40 years.
- veltas 9mo agoIt's worth pointing out the convenient imperial units are the ones that are hardest to get rid of. The "pints" in pubs is because a pint is about how much a drink should be, in fact I've often found drinking 500ml to be just slightly too little to drink, probably because I'm used to the pint, but "1 unit" is also just a lot easier to keep than "500 units" or "50 units".
- ljf 9mo agoI would have agreed with you for a long time (especially when I was very aware of how many pints I could drink and still work well the next day), but since homebrewing and having my own beer taps, I now drink any amount I want. I have a few half pint jugs I use, but often I'll pour myself a drink that would be less than this, as that is what I actually fancy drinking at that time. That said, I exclusively drink pints in pubs.
- GJim 9mo ago> We also use Pints in pubs And so we should. A British pint is 568 ml. We will switch to smaller metric 500 ml 'half-litre' beers over my dead body. All other imperial measurements can bugger off to the history books where they rightly belong.
- Symbiote 9mo agoAustralia switched to 570ml, rounding up. Would that be acceptable?
- qingcharles 9mo agoDo they still call them pints?
- robocat 9mo agoApparently everywhere except South Australia: https://manofmany.com/culture/drinks/beer-glass-sizes-in-australia-explained https://manofmany.com/culture/drinks/beer-glass-sizes-in-aus...
- arethuza 9mo agoI'll drive 80 miles to walk 25 km to climb mountains because they are over 3000ft high (Munros) even though I think about the heights on the mountains in metres!
- hellzbellz123 9mo agoThe standard cup is not the same size between us and uk Sumthin sumthin breakfast cup
- vablings 9mo agoFuel is in litres but cars are in miles per gallon, I guess nobody wanted to do miles per litre or some unhinged calculation
- ch_123 9mo agoAs someone who generally uses metric units, but grew up around English Imperial units - if an American says that a person weighs a certain number of pounds, I need to convert to stone and pounds in my head in order to get a meaningful mental model of how much that person weighs.