• MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
    5·
    2 days ago

    There was something I read once upon a time that was like:

    F is how hot/cold people are C is how hot/cold water is K is how hot/cold matter is

    I feel like that’s pretty accurate.

  • voldage@lemmy.world
    13·
    2 days ago

    0 C being the temperature water freezes is useful for knowing if there is ice outside, which has practical use. If we keep going the way we are, soon 100 will be an indicator that there is no water outside. Practical if you’re a hydrophobe or hydrophile.

  • Smoogs@lemmy.worldEnglish
    241·
    3 days ago

    Soon it won’t matter anyways. Isn’t AmericaUS like…done now? We can move on with our normal shit and chuckle at it like a museum piece.

  • prodaccess@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 days ago

    I got used to Celsius while living abroad in Europe and Japan and prefer it to Fahrenheit. The extra granularity of the latter scale doesn’t really add much more utility.

    However, while 32 F and 212 F are pretty arbitrary, so is calibrating to the freezing and boiling temperatures of water. I’d rather have a scale that’s calibrated to humans rather than H2O.

    • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
      481·
      3 days ago

      I had an American explain “well you just know that 68 is long sleeve warm, 80 is shorts” or something, as if people cannot memorize that 18 is chilly and 21/22 is usual room temperature, 26 is shorts.

      The only thing I dislike like about Celsius is that my thermostat supports both, but doesn’t allow half degrees Celsius, so it provides less granular control in Celsius than if you set it to Fahrenheit.

      • otter@lemmy.zipEnglish
        316·
        3 days ago

        As you approach 0°F it is getting dangerously cold. As you approach 100°F it’s getting dangerously hot. Celsius is obviously better scientifically, but fahrenheit is pretty reasonable for everyday use (unlike other imperial measurements).

        • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
          162·
          3 days ago

          Really my point is you can memorize new numbers when you look at the weather report.

          When I go (went ) to the US it was not obvious to me looking at the weather in Fahrenheit what it would feel like.

          • otter@lemmy.zipEnglish
            152·
            3 days ago

            Of course. I’m just adding that there is some logic to fahrenheit in day to day use.

        • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
          1·
          2 days ago

          0°F is way colder than 100°F is hot.

          There are hardly any population centers that reach the lower temperature while there’s a shitton of them that reach the hotter one. That should say enough about how dangerous and inhospitable each is.

          • SystemDisc@piefed.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            That’s not true. NYC frequently reaches 0°F and is home to 15 million people. All of northern US, and all of Canada frequently reach 0°F. It’s a fact than anything below 0°F is actively dangerous and anything above 100°F is actively dangerous.

    • GalacticSushi@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      13·
      3 days ago

      Most metric units are designed around water in some way. Very easy to convert to different units because of this. 1mL of water is equal to 1g of water which is equal to 1 cubic cm of water, for example.

      • j5906@feddit.org
        5·
        3 days ago

        and it takes 1 calorie to heat 1g of water by 1°C, so with your daily recommended food intake of 2000kcal you could heat 2000l of water by 1°C or raise 20l of water from 0°C to 100°C.

        Also a normal person can rides the bike between 0W and 100W comfortably, while trained people peak at around 1000W for short sprints.

    • imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      3 days ago

      And weight also revolves around water. 1L of water is 1KG which is 1000cm3 whereas 1cm3 is 1g. Super easy to calculate things.

      Edit: correction

    • Soggy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      *at sea level, assuming pure water

      It’s intuitive with respect to water. Applying it to anything else is exactly the same as the Fahrenheit scale: you associate various things with numbers.

  • Melllvar@startrek.websiteEnglish
    22·
    3 days ago

    The one thing that bothers me about the metric system is how much of it is never actually used. No one says “1 megameter”, for example. They say “1,000 kilometers”. When you think about it, most metric prefixes are never used with most metric units.

      • la508@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 days ago

        We use decimetres in chemistry a fair bit. 1 mole of any gas will occupy 24 dm³ at rtp

      • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 days ago

        “deci” is very popular. Just not in the “correct” form “decimeter”.

        In Spanish it’s normal to say “8 décimas”, which means 8 tenths. It is context dependent though. For example if speaking in a context where millimeters are used, it will be 8 tenths of a milimiter. That is, 0,8mm.

        But yeah, it is very uncommon to use deci and deca. Because they’re just not very useful. We are used to 2 digit numbers, or numbers with 2 decimal places. So 87m is not harder to use than 8,7dam.

        It’s probably also the reason there is no prefix between kilo and mega, or milli and micro. (They are x1000 increments instead of x10).

        For the same reason, when in a context of millimeters, it’s preferred to say “87mm” instead of “8,7cm”.

    • Bilb!@lemmy.mlEnglish
      7·
      3 days ago

      I’ve thought that was weird too. Decimeter’s seems like a good unit for measuring a person’s height, for instance.

    • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
      626·
      3 days ago

      It’s because metric sucks at anything on a human scale and most people deal with things on a human scale. Imperial was developed over hundreds of years to be extremely narrow and scope in a specific two things at a human scale.

      It’s a big reason why imperial makes far more sense. If you actually need to talk about anything on a human scale, everything no matter how nonsensical makes sense the moment, it’s explained because it’s all extremely intuitive.

      While metric is basically a tiny fraction of a technically Superior system that basically makes no f****** sense in 99% of cases for a day-to-day life.

      Try metric is the measurement of science, engineering and other fields of study because they actually do with things outside of day-to-day human scope

      As the saying goes, use the right tool for the right job and only a dumb f*** uses the wrong tool for the wrong job

      • Deme@sopuli.xyz
        13·
        3 days ago

        Could you give an example of a situation where metric makes less sense than imperial? I will then explain to you that it only appears to you like that, because those are the units you’ve lived your whole life using. Without that baggage, the adaptability and easy conversions make SI-units objectively superior in every situation.

      • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
        7·
        2 days ago

        I have no idea what you’re talking about… humans are around 1-2m tall, weigh about 40-80kg, have a body temperature of about 37 C, and need to drink a couple litres of water per day. How are these units not the proper order of magnitude for measuring things “on a human scale”?

    • Tiger_Man_@szmer.infoEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      should be french flag because the metric system originates from france and now its used everhwhere except myanmar, us and liberia

      • ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 days ago

        Except 5km is not 3 miles… it’s 3.1069 miles so off by a considerable factor. 1 mile = 1.6km is a much more accurate approximation that’s easy to remember.

        • Knightfox@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 days ago

          That’s 4%, that’s not a significant amount for functional purposes and it’s a whole number to whole number conversion. Most of the time, if I’m converting, it’s from metric to imperial so 1 km is 0.62 miles. If you tell me the speed limit is 70 km/h it’s way easier for me to calculate 70 ÷ 5 x 3 = 42 mph than to calculate either 0.62 x 70 or 70 ÷ 1.6 = 43.49.

  • folekaule@lemmy.world
    53·
    3 days ago

    As a European living in the US now for many years the temperature scale is the least of my annoyances. It’s easy enough to memorize be ranges for what to wear. Fahrenheit is more granular, which is nice sometimes but really doesn’t matter.

    No, let’s convert all the ridiculous weight/volume measures first. Having two kinds of ounces makes no sense. Measuring solids by volume (mostly) doesn’t make sense. Having different units for different magnitudes doesn’t make sense.

    Fortunately things are often labeled in both metric and customary units so I can convert way easier.

    Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to have my 12 fluid ounces of coffee and a 1/3 cup of oatmeal.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      14·
      3 days ago

      I very much prefer to cook/bake/prep in metric grams.

      2c white flour, sifted.
      1c brown sugar, packed.
      1c room temperature water.
      2tsp active dry yeast.
      2tbsp vegetable oil.
      1/2tsp baking powder.
      2 egg yolks.
      5 egg whites.
      Pinch of cinnamon.

      Fuck you. Tell me how many grams that is. I don’t need five different tools to measure out my ingredients. I need a wet bowl, a dry bowl, and a scale.

      Also this isn’t a real recipe I just started naming shit at random.

      • folekaule@lemmy.world
        10·
        3 days ago

        I’ve had to translate recipes from Norwegian to American and this struggle is real. Never thought I’d need to look up material density tables for cooking.

        • prettybunnys@piefed.socialEnglish
          31·
          3 days ago

          “To American” … what?

          We have kitchen scales, we know how to weigh ingredients.

          Old recipes in English often use volume measurements, across the pond too.

          Modern recipes use weights when possible.

          Idk why you’d convert to ye olde style.

          • folekaule@lemmy.world
            6·
            3 days ago

            I accidentally a word. Converting recipes from Norwegian and metric to American and US customary units.

            I’m aware. I have a scale, too. But most people didn’t weigh dry ingredients. So when I translate for someone else I have to use the “normal” measures they’re used to. For myself, I speak the language and just use metric, my scale, and a measuring cup with both markings.

    • jaybone@lemmy.zipEnglish
      7·
      3 days ago

      Having the more granular temperature seems more practical. I often find myself adjusting my thermostat by just a single degree F. Do heating/ac thermostats in Europe use half degrees as increments? Even then I don’t think it’s as granular. But just integer values would be super annoying.

      • allan@lemmy.world
        6·
        3 days ago

        Half a C is actually quite close to a whole F in delta. I don’t have a thermostat though.

      • folekaule@lemmy.world
        5·
        3 days ago

        I have not seen any thermostats in Europe with decimal degrees. But I also don’t think a thermostat is necessarily accurate to that level anyway.

        • Sualtam@lemmus.orgEnglish
          2·
          16 hours ago

          I have always wondered why electronic thermostats use 0.5°C increments and the answer seems to be Fahrenheit compatibility.

        • jaybone@lemmy.zipEnglish
          24·
          3 days ago

          lol you don’t think it’s accurate to a degree Fahrenheit? Why wouldn’t it be?

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
            12·
            3 days ago

            Because it’s mass produced consumer goods operating on a “below x temperature turn on heat/turn off AC” and “above y temperature turn off heat/turn on AC”. Old ones are just bimetallic strips where you change the trigger position with a slider, and modern ones use commodity grade temperature sensors, and neither is guaranteed to be placed particularly far from the vent.

            • jaybone@lemmy.zipEnglish
              4·
              3 days ago

              The sensor is typically on the thermostat. Not at the vents. You would typically place the sensor in a central location in the house. A high quality multi speed motor AC is designed to keep a decently consistent temperature which is a bit more complex than just turn on / turn off. If you’re dropping $15k to $30k on central AC, they aren’t going to cheap out on a poor quality temp sensor.

          • folekaule@lemmy.world
            2·
            3 days ago

            It’s just not that fine tuned of an instrument. The furnace also runs on intervals so it’s just going to naturally fluctuate a bit. Like with anything “it depends”, but I doubt it’s possible to keep the room within a tenth of a centigrade just with a consumer level thermostat. Maybe in a small room with resistive heating? I’d love to see actual measurements of this.

          • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
            1·
            3 days ago

            Thermostats are not exactly calibrated machines unless you spend for a high end model. Put a few next to each other and they might differ 1°C, 2°F. Worse if you take the really cheap stuff.

    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
      3·
      3 days ago

      If they’d just standardized on one unit per measurement and apply si prefixes it’s still an imperial unit but easier to work with. Say a quart for volume, and a yard for distance, because they’re close to liter and meter. But I guess a kiloyard and a deciquart is taking it too far.

      • folekaule@lemmy.world
        4·
        3 days ago

        Yeah I think at that point it would be easier to just go metric.

        Most Americans actually seem to be five with metric and probably would not mind it too much if we just switched. The objections are basically: 1) it’s too expensive to switch now (okay), or 2) it’s part of our identity (doubt). I swear to God everything is a culture war with some people.

        More rational people, especially in STEM where it’s already the standard, prefer it.

        In general though, I would argue that Americans know metric better then Europeans know US customary, for what that’s worth

        It’s mostly about what you’re used to. Americans buy soda in liters, run 5km and do drugs by the gram. But we buy gasoline and milk in gallons and our recipes call for flour by volume. It’s mostly inertia. At the end of the day you have to communicate with people around you so you use units they understand.

        • applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          3·
          3 days ago

          Saying its too expensive to change is bullshit. Metric is common enough that most people who care about units at all end up having one set of tools for each system so they can use both as needed. This includes industry and machinists. It wouldn’t actually cost anything to change at this point we could just stop designing new things in imperial units and in a couple decades we would barely need imperial tools anymore, except to work on old stuff. Some engineers are just as pig headed as anyone though, so they just keep using imperial even though they know both, use both, and still run into problems with imperial.

        • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
          1·
          3 days ago

          But you don’t switch in one go, so costs can be spread out over years. First you would do double labeling, roll that out slowly, and with time the customary units slowly fades out.

          • folekaule@lemmy.world
            2·
            3 days ago

            Sure, I get that, and we already have dual labeling on a lot of stuff, maybe even most of the stuff. The problem there is that nobody actually reads the other labeling, so they are also not learning.

            They need to go back to what they were doing before: First decide that we’re moving over so that mandates can be enforced.

            Second, do what you were saying, and do dual labeling during the transition–but make metric most the prominent.

            Third, educate kids in schools to use it (this already happens to a degree).

            Fourth, launch massive informational campaigns to teach people how and why to use metric.

            Fifth, step down the dual labeling gradually as more people are comfortable with the new units.

            I expect there to be a long tail of non-metric units in use (see UK), but if we can switch more things over that is still an improvement. Heck, I’ll even take them just decimalizing and removing some smaller units (like lbs/oz).

            The history of metrication in the US is as frustrating as it is an interesting read. It can certainly be done and many countries have shown it can be done, but it takes commitment and support from the highest levels.

    • FrChazzz@lemmus.orgEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      I know it’s all based on what’s familiar, but I imagine I’d have a hard time converting to Celsius for a weather report. I’ve lived in tropical climates in the US for over half my life so when people say things like “it’s a hot 30 degrees out there!” it just short-circuits my brain.

      • folekaule@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 days ago

        If accuracy is not critical you can use some simple tricks to convert between them.

        30C is roughly…2 x 30 + 32 = 92F which is only 6 degrees off the actual value which is 86F.

    • GraniteM@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 days ago

      Measuring solids by volume (mostly) doesn’t make sense.

      This could be apocryphal, but I seem to recall hearing that a lot of American recipes got established during times of westward expansion, and that it made more sense for people moving out to the frontier to carry a measuring cup and a set of spoons that it did for them to carry a carefully-calibrated scale.

      • folekaule@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 days ago

        Yeah that makes sense. And in a pinch (no pun intended), measuring your solids by volume or even just eyeballing it is good enough for a lot of cooking (baking is a different matter).

        But let’s not forget that Europe was not always metric, either. They went through the same process. They had the same units (or similar units) as US has now, with a lot of the same quirks. That was the entire point of the metric system: have one consistent set of units. United States was onboard early for metrication, but backed out before it completed it, so here we are.

    • GirthBrooksPLO@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 days ago

      It’s funny because all of the imperial units are mathematically based on metric anyway.

      I’m an American, so I started with imperial units, but I am making the very slow progression of converting to metric. I already use metric for work, and it’s already the scientific standard here and has been since the 70s. It’s just turbo annoying to try and get used to a new measuring system that I use reflexively especially when surrounded by imperial units. Makes it too easy to trip up and fall back.

    • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
      1·
      3 days ago

      different units for different magnitudes

      I’m not sure I get what you mean? Are you saying how we use ounces for tiny weights, pounds for “human”-ish weights, and tons for huge weights?

      • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        4·
        3 days ago

        I think they mean ounces, cups, quarts, gallons, with no intuitive sense of conversion between them. I personally use ounces for almost everything (cocktail recipes are in 0.25 ounce increments, big cups are 40 ounces, big ol buckets can be 256 ounces). I might mess with gallons for very large amounts, but anything that can be expressed in cups or pints I’m usually just talking ounces anyway.

        • folekaule@lemmy.world
          2·
          3 days ago

          Your assumption is correct. I meant using cups, ounces, etc separately or in combination. Especially annoying when trying to figure out portions. Serving size: 8oz, package size: 1lb 4 oz. You have to do math every time.