• bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    How long is that thing?

    A foot.

    How long is that?

    About as long as a foot.

    Oh cool, I have two of those to compare right here. Thanks for telling me how long stuff is in an easy to understand way.

    What about that thing?

    30 centimeters.

    How long is a centimeter?

    A hundredth as long as a meter.

    How long is a meter?

    As long as the distance light can travel in a vacuum in 1/299752458 of a second.

    Please throw yourself off a bridge for using bizarre measurements developed by frenchmen.

    • daqqad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Whose foot? Chances are yours isn’t even a good approximation.

      Jokes aside, there isn’t even such a thing as foot anymore. All these idiotic measurement units like feet and elbows have thankfully been deprecated and are now simply a name for a certain amount of civilized units. Foot is exactly 0.3048 meters since 1959.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(unit)

      • AeonFelis@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Whose foot?

        Let’s go with Ariana Grande’s foot. The whole Ariana Grande is already used as a unit of measurement, so this will make the conversions easier.

      • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        +/- 20% is good enough for e6 and covers the overwhelming majority of men’s foot lengths.

        For making a measurement without a tool +/-20% should be fine.

        It’s all fun and games, but I take issue with calling metric “civilized units”. Human civilization developed all kinds of units appropriate to the work being done and calling the ones defined almost in defiance of everyday use the civilized ones is absurd.

        • daqqad@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Being able to easily convert between various units makes the metric system the only one worth considering civilized.

          Every time I see a wrench labeled with some insane fraction like 18/32 my eye starts twitching. I honestly cannot tell which size is bigger without dividing and converting to decimal.

          Human civilization developed all kinds of dumb shit we’ve since discarded. Please let’s discard the idiotic units in my lifetime.

          • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            I think you mean a 9/16. It’s be pretty crazy to see one labeled 18/32.

            When you wanna make fun of sae use an odd number on top so no one can make fun of you for not reducing your fractions like a fourth grader. Or so you whip out 9/12 and get elementary school math mogged anyway.

            How is it easier to convert between units under metric? I don’t have any use for a kilogram length of lumber or a meter of gasoline. What unit conversions are you doing?

            • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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              1 year ago

              Nah, my ruler has cm on one side and inches on the other. The side with inches actually, unironically, lists 1/8 through 7/8 in each inch, including 2/8, 4/8 and 6/8!

              It’s not @dagad@lemmy.world who is being dumb, the Imperial system is.

              • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                I can’t see what you described the sae side as because of a word filter, but I can guarantee a worse pejorative was used for people who chose that ruler on a job or worse, were assigned it in shop class. I think there’s a not for dumb people use for the unreduced scale but for the life of me I just can’t think of it.

                Is that really the complaint, that people don’t wanna do fractions?

                • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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                  1 year ago

                  I called it dumb with stronger wording, but that was unnecessary and I’ve updated my comment to be more clear.

                  And yes, among many other reasons. The main complaint is that the systems uses many different conversions internally; 12 inch in a foot, 72 points in an inch, 3 feet in a yard, an arbitrary amount of yards in a landmile, and slightly more at sea… I understand this wasn’t designed deliberately, that imperial is really just 3 measurement systems in a trench coat. But that’s exactly the problem.

                  But also yes, I’d rather do 9 mm or1 cm, than 3/8 inch

        • daqqad@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          TY. I refuse to use idiotic units to such degree, my brain didn’t even flinch at completely wrong number I copy/pasted.

    • Bruno Finger@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Actually that’s a modern measurement concept based on the original meter. By using this concept, the size of a meter is tied to absolute terms in physics that “anyone” could measure with the right tools, while the original concept was based on a physical object called the meter, which is subject to many things such as heat dilation for example making it not accurate, and if the original object was lost we would not have a way to tell what is a meter (conceptually speaking of course).

      The foot on the other hand (lol) is traditionally based on the king’s foot size. This of course depends on which country (or realm?), and to make matters worst, who’s the king at the time, because yes the official measure would change based on that too.

      Of course that’s not how it is today, but we can say the original foot was lost long ago.

      • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Ditto for the original meter. We sure are lucky that an approximation of the measurement is built into the name of the foot. It’s frighteningly European to have a measurement name that roughly translates to “measure”

        Hey, how many measures is that?

  • visiblink@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    I’m a Canadian who started school when the change happened. Grade two, 1977: new rulers!

    I think it’s fair to say that we all ended up hybridized. Some things I measure intuitively in metric, others in imperial.

    People’s height? feet and inches.

    Grocery weights? pounds. If it’s in Kilograms, I quickly convert it.

    Grocery volumes (Milk, dairy products, shampoo, basically anything purchased in a container)? litres.

    Gasoline? Gallons or litres. Either is fine. But fuel economy is mpg.

    Temperature? Celsius outdoors, Fahrenheit indoors. We had an old thermostat when I was growing up.

    Carpentry measurements? Inches.

    Wrenches? whatever fits!

    Distances? It took a long time, probably fifteen years, but at some point, I stopped converting kilometres to miles. Now I just think in kilometres.

    • grue@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Grocery volumes (Milk, dairy products, shampoo, basically anything purchased in a container)? litres.

      Meanwhile, here in the US, we’ve got soda in liters but milk in gallons. Udder madness!

      Carpentry measurements? Inches.

      It amuses me that in metric countries, construction materials like plywood are often standardized to strange non-rounded measurements like 1220 x 2440 x 13mm because it’s actually just 4’ x 8’ x 1/2" in disguise.

      Wrenches? whatever fits!

      Interestingly, I can’t remember the last time I needed SAE wrenches. Even my old '96 Ford Ranger is metric, I think.

      • bpm@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Cars have been all metric since the mid-80s IIRC, to better standardise them for international sales. The Ranger was really a Mazda B-series, so it’s definitely metric.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    tespoons? That’s what tsp means?

    Yeah what’d you think it meant, Eugene?

    …ten square pounds?

    Calzone explodes

    Jazz music intensifies

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I personally fucking hate ounces. Recipes could mean volume or weight.

      • MeshPotato@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Didn’t you see the meme: “There are 2 types of countries, those that ise the metric system and those that landed on the moon.”?

        It’s also usually shared by the same idiots that don’t realise that barley corn is an actual measurement in their beloved imperial system.

        Ask any of these smart arses how barley corns are in a foot or how many feet are in a mile and suddenly you hear excuses. Not to forget that the inch defined by the meter.

        • Lizardking27@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m not sure what your point is? Some people not knowing a certain obscure unit of measurement doesn’t discount an entire system of measurements. Also your mile example doesn’t make sense because most people do know how many feet are in a mile.

          • MeshPotato@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You’re proving my point exactly. The imperial system is so convoluted that even people that INSIST that EVERYONE should use it, don’t understand its units.

            Just because most people don’t have to deal with a certain conversion, doesn’t mean that none do. There are enough engineers that design stuff which is related to problems on these variations in scale. They waste hours in productivity in needlessly complicated conversions (because fractions). Not to mention the mistakes that get introduced like the famous Mars lander that crashed because of imperial unit conversions.

            Not only are the units incredibly inconsistent, you also have the issue that Brits and boat people use variation of some of the same units. US Gallons vs British Gallons, mile vs nautical mile. MPH, vs knots. That barley corn that Holzkohlen mentioned defines shoe sizes, unless of course, you don’t wear shoes.

            • Lizardking27@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              You have no point to prove! You’re just ranting like a crazy person about stuff no one’s heard of that doesn’t even matter!

  • jg1i@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I was born in the US and have switched by myself. My brother thought I was weird until one day we went to the hardware store.

    I needed to buy a 15/64 in drill bit, but they didn’t have it. So then we thought, fine, maybe we can use the next closest size…

    Except WTF is the next size up or down from 15/64??!!! Neither of us could figure it out. Internet wasn’t great. Sales people didn’t know. We left because we weren’t sure what to buy.

    In metric, it’s trivial. 5mm drill bit, 4mm is smaller, 6mm is bigger.

    After this, he stopped thinking I was a weirdo for using metric measurements. But he still uses imperial because murica.

    Also, interesting, I learned that he thinks imperial units were invented by the US. I told him they were British units and I stopped caring about British units in 1776, but he didn’t seem to believe me.

    • grandkaiser@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Except WTF is the next size up or down from 15/64??!!!

      There’s lots of great reasons to switch to metric. Inability to do basic fractions isn’t one of them…

      For the record, it would be 16/64, or, 1/4

      • grue@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        For the record, it would be 16/64, or, 1/4

        Nope! It’d be 6mm, then B gauge (6.045mm), then 1/4" (6.350mm). And that’s not including things like over/under reamers and such.

        (Sorry, I’ve been watching too much Blondihacks lately.)

      • explodicle@local106.com
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        1 year ago

        Everyone has trouble with something that’s basic for someone else - we just have different skills. If these fractions are too confusing for a significant minority of people, then that’s a good reason to switch from fractional to decimal.

        • grandkaiser@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Except In this specific case, it’s about measurements for tools. Fractional is far more practical for construction than decimal for tooling.

      • explodicle@local106.com
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        1 year ago

        To be fair the modern USA is imperialist, we just don’t call it that because imperialism is no longer considered a good thing.

    • cantsurf@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      16/64 is 1/4. Your next size up is a quarter inch. Is it intuitive? Maybe not. Is it really that hard? Only if your educational institutions have also failed you.

  • Esjee@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We went from posting Twitter screenshots as memes to posting reddit screenshots as memes

  • nanook@friendica.eskimo.com
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    1 year ago

    Chinas largest to smallest unit makes sense to me since it’s the same as Arabic numbers, largest to smallest, and so sorting order would also be same.

    • tavu@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago
      • US: 77⁄256 cubic inches vs 0.50 US fl oz (~4.929ml vs ~14.787ml)
      • Australia: 5ml vs 20ml
      • Rest of World: 5ml vs 15ml
  • notacat@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I do find cooking easier in grams. Just put the bowl on the scale and add ingredients until it hits the number. No measuring cups to wash. But it would life changing if woodworking switched to metric. Doing any sort of exact math is annoying as hell. What is 12’7” divided by 4? How many 1/8” is 0.55 inches?? It is my own personal hell.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s also a lot easier to multiply and divide recipes if you switch it over to metric. This is particularly useful if you don’t have enough of one ingredient and need to reduce the others by that ratio.

      Then there’s the ability to measure the ingredient directly out of the container, using any scoop you can find, rather than needing multiple sets of measuring spoons.

        • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          A metric egg is a little over 50 grams. You typically get a bit over 30 grams of white, 20 grams of yolk and 5-ish grams of shell.

          • gordon@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Ummm… It’s 2/3 cup, and that is a standard measurement. But maybe that wasn’t the best example. Let’s say 2/3 of 1/4 cup. Well that’s 2/12 or 1/6 cup which is far from common. However a cup is 48 tsp, so 1/6 cup is 8 tsp.

            I mean it’s dumb as hell but it does work.

            The Metric system is easier though.

            • Lemon1095@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              It’s like when the crazy guy says it’s easy and then pulls out a pinboard with pictures and string connecting them and proceeds to explain how it makes sense in his head and you have to admit that you sort of follow but also can’t believe what you’re hearing is reality.

              • gordon@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                The thing that drives me bonkers is that ounces is both a volume and mass measurement, and they aren’t the same for water.

        • RoquetteQueen@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          Sometimes I buy liquid eggs in a carton if I need a lot of eggs for one recipe and don’t feel like cracking a dozen eggs. One large egg is about 50g, so 0.8 metric eggs is about 40g.

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
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      1 year ago

      I do find cooking easier in grams. Just put the bowl on the scale and add ingredients until it hits the number. No measuring cups to wash.

      Uh, you know metric has volume measurements as well, and Imperial has weight measurements? Measuring VIP vs scales is not really a difference in metric and imperial.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Directions and nutrition information and other stuff like that tend to use mass for metric and volume for imperial. Yeah, you can convert stuff, but it’s annoying.