Ask Lemmy

I daily switch from cm to meters

You wouldn't believe how often I have to convert measurements because one big backwards country still clings to nonsensical imperial units.

And it's not only length, it's even worse in the kitchen where they seem to measure about everything in cups. Like "add one cup of spinach".

I use metric for distance. It's more functional and easier to use.

Meter. Cm. Mm. (But not km that much.)

Recently I was wondering how much my pool weights when its filled with water and I could easily calculate it in my head: 4m x 2m x 1m=8m³ -> 8000dm³ -> 8000l -> 8000kg or 8t

https://sopuli.xyz/post/40410172

Besides the popularity, decimal conversions are the only factor, really. Otherwise they're both arbitrary.

it does seem like there’s a fundamental difference in how distance is viewed in metric/imperial countries

I'd like to point out that it's literally just Liberia, Myanmar and the US. I have no idea what the difference could be, since it's a concept that predates any system of measure and is biologically hardwired into us.

I haven't really been trying to convince people to switch, but I have been telling people I've switched to metric for at least temperature (so far).

And that's less to conversation about how it's just objectively better than fahrenheit in literally every single way, except familiarity. Which given that any switch in life would have that problem, I see that as a non-issue.

Scales should never be based on arbitrary things, or creatively-decided things. They should have a concrete, absolute, and objective thing they're based on, and keeping it based on a certain number for scales of units is better than 12in to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, etc.

It doesn't necessarily have to be base 10, but given that's what it society uses, that's probably best for us, but any base will do, as long as it's consistent.

I put this as part of a response to another user. But since it also answers the main question of this post I'll repeat it here:

Because it's not only better for me, but it's also better for you.

It doesn't matter if I tell you a distance in meters or kilometers, you only have to remember what that means in feet so you can convert it to whatever imperial distance you want. Just multiply/divide by 1000 afterwards by moving the decimal point. If 53 meters is 863 yards, 53 kilometers is 863000 yards.

However, it does matter what unit you choose to communicate with me. I know that 1 inch is about 25.4mm/2.5cm, but if I'm unlucky and you decide to say it in feet, I'm going to need to Google the conversion.

I don't care what units you used for yourself, as you shouldn't care what units I use for myself. However, if we have to communicate, we should both be as helpful as we can so we can communicate as easily and effectively as possible. Communicating with someone using imperial is a pain in the ass, while communicating with someone using metric is as easy as it gets. The only thing easier than metric is scientific notation, since with that you don't even need to remember what the metric prefixes mean. However scientific notation is only easily written, not spoken. Speaking in scientific notation is a pain in the ass.

Because we are used to it and doing extra mental acrobatics for any conversions seems unnecessary.

You use money right? $1 = 100 cent, thousand is 1000 dollars or 100 000 cents. Imagine if somebody suddenly tried to tell you their money is just as easy to use when in their system $1 = 187 cents and thousand means 987 dollars, or by conversion 184 569 cents. Would you not see that as ridicilulous?

I'm honestly surprised you've never had to do that, because it happens to me all the time.

Like when I'm approaching a junction on the road and the satnav suddenly changes from saying 0.5 miles to like 500 yards, that's jarring and breaks my mental countdown. (In Britain, the roads are imperial, yes it's a pain.)

Or if I'm cooking an old recipe and it needs 12oz of something, but I'm doubling the quantity, suddenly I need to know what that is in lb and oz because my scale doesn't just tell me 24oz.

Or if someone says they're 5' 8" tall, I have to know how many " in a ' to conceptualise how close that is to 6'.

Meanwhile, I know when I'm out hiking what my pacing is for 100m, and if I've got 2.5km to go, that's 25 lots of pacing.

Or when I'm sewing, and fabric is sold by the metre but all the pattern pieces are measured in cm or mm.

And not strictly related, but it's handy being able to measure out water in an unmarked container using a weighing scale and the fact that 1l=1kg.

You've never had to add measurements with mixed units?

Ie. 1lb 2oz + 4lb 15oz?

Or heights, 5ft 10in + 6ft 5in?

I used it a few times with measurements around the house but sure, it’s not a daily occurrence.

What most annoys me about imperial are the recipes. Why the fuck do you not weigh your ingredients? Instead you have to put everything in these measuring cups, shake it or even press it in so it sits flat. How many carrots is 1 cup of diced carrots? With experience you will know but if it said grams, you could weigh the whole thing in the store and be done with it. It doesn’t need to be very precise with cooking but you get the idea.

But don’t get me started on baking recipes…

They're just annoyed that we use a different system with no upside when the rest of the world all chose to establish a consistent measurement system.

How often do y'all convert your measurements?

It's second nature in metric. All the time.

Judging by your post, it sounds like that's not the case in imperial. But you need to understand that especially converting between mm, cm, m, and km, for example, is not just extremely common, it's just normal. If you add up 10 times a 1000 meters, you don't call that 10000 meters, that would be awkward. You say it's 10 km.

We convert all the time, so that's why we assume the same must be the case in imperial and thus the easy conversions must be focused on because clearly they would get you to understand why metric is superior.

I think the best 'conversion' thing in metric is nothe the mm/cm/m/km type ones but the volumetric type ones: a cubic metre of water/ 1 tonne / 1000 litres

What's the equivalent un US units? 1 cubic yard / 1684.8 pound / 807.8961039 qt / 25852.675325 oz ?

It's not my measurements I need to convert, it's other people's. Don't forget, American content is pretty overrepresented on the internet, so I actually need to do conversions pretty regularly.

Beyond the day to day, a spacecraft has burned up in the Martian atmosphere and an aircraft has run out of fuel mid-flight because of unit conversions not being done. These happenings aren't very common, but the repercussions can be pretty big when they do, and the fact that this is a completely self-inflicted problem just makes it worse. Also, the shipping industry spends a good amount of money on unit conversions.

As for the problems with base-10, certainly a system based on base-12 would in principle be better (mind you, imperial isn't one either). The problem is our numerals are base-10 and so our intuitions around numbers are based on that. 12 can still be dealt with, but once you get to 144 or 1728, it gets a lot harder. I can certainly name more integer divisors of 100 and 1000 off the top of my head despite having fewer of them.