I mean, not really, it’s just the lack of factors that comes from having a base 10 numbering system, which is my the single big issue I personally have with metric. I still think it should be adopted, generally, because standards are good, and in the modern world it makes more sense. I just also think we should be doing base 12 instead of base 10 xD
No, actually, I heard about the Brits decimalizing their currency, and thought it was an unfortunate choice. It was 20 shillings to a pound, 12 pence to a shilling, and I do actually, genuinely, unironicqlly think having 240 cents to a dollar is better than 100. 144 would be better, but 240 is still better than 100 imo
I think a lot of that is tradition, since imperial almost certainly predates scales being an everyday item. Annoys the shit out of me, too, though, so I use metric in the kitchen, because I have a scale xD It does depend on the recipe, though. For pancakes I just use a jug, put the egg/butter/salt/etc in, then fill up to the 2 cup mark, then add in half cups of flour until it looks right, but at that point it’s not really measuring anything beyond the total liquid content. Easy recipe, though, and good pancakes.
I think part of it is being used to it (I do just kiiiinda know that 5’8" is 4" shy of 6’, but I blame the same nerdiness that lead me to knowing what links, chains, and furlongs even are for that one), and the other part is I use metric in the kitchen, and don’t follow recipes directly a lot of the time. I have some master recipes memorized that get used.
My GPS doesn’t do a 500ft callout (kinda wish it did), it’s usually 200, which my brain translates “Slow down now or you will miss the turn” because the announcement is often a little behind, so it’s jarring for other reasons. Also your GPS says yards?? Mine only does feet/miles, and mine’s weird and verbally calls out “Five tenths of a mile” when I’m walking to the store.
Ahh, yes, the classic two and a half eggs of daily OJ
I own one wrench, and it’s adjustable :P
My own heathenism aside, that speed limit would likely end up being 65; speed limits that end in 0 are kinda rare here? It’s usually 25, 35, 45, etc unless it’s a speed trap. It’s something I noticed a while ago, and can’t quite figure out why, so it’s stuck with me. Might actually have to look into that at some point.
Ahh, right, mixed up the measurement between hand and link. I was tired, and neither units get thought of much xD I also keep forgetting it’s one of the only units that isn’t a flat number.
Tl;dr: I think the different imperial units represent a shift of scale that just doesn’t happen in day to day life, given how different most of the common ones are.
Yeah, we largely… Don’t? We’re much more likely to 10x10 feet is 100 feet instead of 33 yard+1 foot. Even if we do go with something that ends on 99 feet I don’t know anyone who would convert that to yards, even the GPS just says “In 200 feet turn right.”
Anything above about 600 feet gets talked about in fractions of a mile. 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, etc, but if we’re talking feet and go into that most would just stick with feet. 200+460 feet is 660 feet, not an eight of a mile, despite being an eighth of a mile.
If we’re talking the “equivalent” to 10x1000 meters, we’d start talking about miles, not feet/yards xD I think it’s because going from one unit to the other represents a shift in scale that just doesn’t get run into frequently in day to day life? Because a yard is about a meter, 1 meter is about 7.5cm shorter, which is negligible for this discussion. A mile is 1,760 of those. I know that conversion because I’m a nerd, I doubt most people do, because it’s not common enough in day to day life to need it. Land surveyors might, I’d assume they’re more likely to know a lot of weirder ones, like feet to chains (66 feet), and maybe furlongs (10 chains) over the direct yard/miles conversion, since chains/furlongs were made for that profession, but I’m not, and don’t know a surveyor so I can’t say for sure.
Rarely outside of a school setting
Yeah, that was definitely a multi-leveled failure
Honestly it always has felt a little weird that they go from the rough equivalent to inches, right to the rough equivalent to yards. Like. Decimeters makes sense to me. Idk why it doesn’t get used
Yeah, I used to do more WM stuff, but GNOME is like… Halfway there, anyway, and I just haven’t felt like customizing the look of my PC in a while, which is where WMs really shine for me in comparison to GNOME
Oh, absolutely. And all of those are better arguments than “It’s easy to go from meters to km! Just shift a few decimals!” despite the latter being the more common argument I see.
And yeah, imperial isn’t base 12 either. I do think base 12 numbers would be better, and I would have exactly 0 reservations about metric if we did, though it’s not like I’m exactly anti-metric now. I use it probably about as much as I use imperial day-to-day
Yeah, for small things metric’s actually great. I tend to use it to make my coffee
For evidence of the mile scale vs foot scale bit:
We have 2 measurements between that we don’t really use anymore. Chains, and furlongs most notably (8 furlongs to a mile, 10 chains to a furlong, 100 links to a chain, 4 inches to a link). The middle distance is just yards now. 50 yards, etc.
This wall is 9 feet wide, how many 2’8" shelves can I hang on it?
I cam guarantee you’re likely to do the same thing I did, which is just “That’s really close to 1m shelves, so it’s 3 with gaps.”
If we need precision it’s 333.333 mm xD
I tend to use grams for everything in the kitchen, because ounces are usually too big for what I need. Admittedly that’s mostly “Making coffee,” but still the point stands xD
Yes, in base 10 it does make the conversions easier, and we do use base 10. I don’t think we should, but we do, but also the money conversion is something that is a relatively daily occurrence, not something that doesn’t frequently happen like most distance conversions. While, yes, being 5 foot 8 inches is how we usually say people’s heights, we do regularly just… Not convert. TVs are sold as 55 inch, not as 1 yard, 1 foot, and 7 inches, same as the average female height isn’t 1 meter, 6 decimeters, 7 centimeters, and 5 millimeters in the US. It’s 167.5cm.