4 ms·

>Perhaps the biggest thing non-metric people miss is easy conversions. A litre of water weighs one kilogram and occupies a 10cm cube. This makes it really easy

>Perhaps the biggest thing non-metric people miss is easy conversions. A litre of water weighs one kilogram and occupies a 10cm cube. This makes it really easy to move amongst volume, weight and dimensions. Indeed. And while that's very useful for scientists and engineers, it's not really useful for the average person. Most people don't do conversions often enough to justify switching their measuring system to metric, and if one doesn't care about doing conversions, the advantages of the metric system become much less clear. And the American government isn't going to switch the country to metric unless it provides clear advantages to most Americans.

rogerbinns 13y ago
I blew a friends mind when he mentioned wanting to have a rainwater tank that contained some number of gallons. I immediately said how much it would weigh and what the dimensions of the tank would be, and consequently how it would be too large for the area he intended. It drives me nuts trying to follow recipes written by Americans as the measurement units are entirely random between weight and volumes. Sometimes it makes sense due to packing - eg flour is more accurate by weight than volume. But often the worst one is used.
- waps 13y ago
  Why not switch to a system that's based on actual physical constants instead of properties of a certain impure water mix ? How about we start measuring distances relative to c, mass in GeV/c2, or maybe in multiples of electron masses, and so on and so forth. Sooner or later (probably much later, granted) we'll do this, so why not get ahead of the game ?
  - nitrogen 13y ago
    The meter is defined in relation to c: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter#Speed_of_light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter#Speed_of_light
    - waps 13y ago
      Well, yes, but read that page. I mean a vaguely reasonable fraction, not 1/299792458 per second (plus if you're going to be pedantic, second still isn't defined in terms of c).
ptaipale 13y ago
IMO conversions between weight, volume and dimensions are very useful for the average person, too. At least when the average person cooks food, builds something, etc. Though obviously this one-to-one conversion of weight/volume only works so great if you're dealing with water or other substances with a a similar density. But even so, also knowing that granite has density that is 2.7 times that of water helps e.g. in estimating how much a rock weighs. I'm in a country that is as metric as it can get, and I'm still infuriated enough about package sizes that are sometimes multiples of imperial units, even if expressed in metric units. "Mix 210 g of couscous to 2.4 dl of boiling water". Absurd. Well, recently they changed it to a more usable "Mix 2 dl of couscous to 2.5 dl of boiling water." That is a lot better. I usually don't want to use a kitchen scale and want to get away with a measuring cup.

rogerbinns 13y ago

I blew a friends mind when he mentioned wanting to have a rainwater tank that contained some number of gallons. I immediately said how much it would weigh and what the dimensions of the tank would be, and consequently how it would be too large for the area he intended. It drives me nuts trying to follow recipes written by Americans as the measurement units are entirely random between weight and volumes. Sometimes it makes sense due to packing - eg flour is more accurate by weight than volume. But often the worst one is used.

waps 13y ago
Why not switch to a system that's based on actual physical constants instead of properties of a certain impure water mix ? How about we start measuring distances relative to c, mass in GeV/c2, or maybe in multiples of electron masses, and so on and so forth. Sooner or later (probably much later, granted) we'll do this, so why not get ahead of the game ?
- nitrogen 13y ago
  The meter is defined in relation to c: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter#Speed_of_light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter#Speed_of_light
  - waps 13y ago
    Well, yes, but read that page. I mean a vaguely reasonable fraction, not 1/299792458 per second (plus if you're going to be pedantic, second still isn't defined in terms of c).

ptaipale 13y ago

IMO conversions between weight, volume and dimensions are very useful for the average person, too. At least when the average person cooks food, builds something, etc. Though obviously this one-to-one conversion of weight/volume only works so great if you're dealing with water or other substances with a a similar density. But even so, also knowing that granite has density that is 2.7 times that of water helps e.g. in estimating how much a rock weighs. I'm in a country that is as metric as it can get, and I'm still infuriated enough about package sizes that are sometimes multiples of imperial units, even if expressed in metric units. "Mix 210 g of couscous to 2.4 dl of boiling water". Absurd. Well, recently they changed it to a more usable "Mix 2 dl of couscous to 2.5 dl of boiling water." That is a lot better. I usually don't want to use a kitchen scale and want to get away with a measuring cup.