5 ms·
It's the same thing with foreign units of measurement (in, ft, F, stones, etc.). Although I know there is a one-to-one mapping between meters and feet, I only
by emilga 13y ago
It's the same thing with foreign units of measurement (in, ft, F, stones, etc.).
Although I know there is a one-to-one mapping between meters and feet, I only grok a measurement given in meters.
There's probably some conditioning behind this: every day you are reminded that a pack of salami is 200g, while a pack of flour is 1kg, and so on ... so that for each measurement you just access your library of memories that relate the number to some previous experience.
Since a similar dictionary does not exist for the foreign units you learned in an artificial setting, and since your brain does not auto-update all your past memories based on the new info that 1m=3+3/8ft, you are left with words that are all understanding and no emotion.
- enra 13y agoComing from the metric systems, I've been starting to learn the US measurements, eg. I have memories and know how much is "a pound of meat". I still don't get cups or the fluid measurements though, except that 12 oz a beer bottle and 16 oz is a medium soda bottle (medium in European terms).
- vacri 13y agoComing from a country that uses litres and millilitres, European centilitre paper cups just look plain weird. It's certainly the most appropriate unit for the task, but I'm just not used to it.
- pandler 13y agoSome imperial measurements are pretty random (1 mile = 1720 yards, 1 yard = 3 feet?), but many of the commonly used ones are just based on fractions or convenient values instead of everything being base 10. Maybe this will help with the fluids. Looking at a table of fluid measurements, it is easy to see it is just a base 2 system. 2^-1 oz = .5 oz = 1 tablespoon 2^0 oz = 1 oz = 1 oz (2 tablespoons) 2^1 oz = 2 oz = 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) 2^2 oz = 4 oz = 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) 2^3 oz = 8 oz = 1 cup (16 tablespoons) 2^4 oz = 16 oz = 1 pint (2 cups) 2^5 oz = 32 oz = 1 quart (4 cups) 2^6 oz = 62 oz = 1/2 gallon (8 cups) 2^7 oz = 128oz = 1 gallon (16 cups) I think it is quite beautiful in a way. That doesn't explain why we have 12 oz beers though.
- clamprecht 13y agoYou have a bit flipped in 2^6, it should be 2^6 oz = 64 oz
- nwhitehead 13y ago1 mile = 1760 yards
- sirkneeland 13y agoReally, ALL imperial measurements are pretty random.
- jmnicolas 13y agoFor me the worst would be temperatures in Fahrenheit !
- lucian1900 13y ago> one-to-one mapping between meters and feet three-to-one I know the feeling.
- cafard 13y agoMy own mapping is between meters and yards, and slightly overstates the metric distance. Since it comes from distances of races--200 m, 400 m, etc., is is only so usable for smaller measures.