• WanakaTree@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    I studied engineering in college (in the US) and on exams they’d throw a mix of imperial and metric problems at us.

    Any time it was imperial, a lot of us would convert everything to metric, solve the problem, then convert the answer back to imperial

  • TehBamski@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    You’re not wrong. From a US citizen who is tired of the old ways that don’t work anymore

      • stinerman@midwest.social
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        3 days ago

        I was in Canada and ordered a 20oz beer. The waitress said “ok the pint” and I said “uhh…the 20 oz one” and she said “yeah…ok.”

        Didn’t realize that we had smaller pints (16 oz) than they do everywhere else.

        • marcos@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          The issue with the imperial unities is that every single place has their own derivation of them. You are lucky if they are consistent within an entire city.

          The US had a lot of trouble getting them consistent through the entire country. Most of the world stopped using them instead.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    When I was a child in the 70s, metric was hyped everywhere from my science classroom to PBS. Then Reagan let an advisor talk him into torpedoing the official change. Can’t say when, but over time I woke to the fact the change would never happen.

    I hate measuring stuff in fractions. Trying to replace a part, reading my calipers, “Is that… uh, 7’16”? Fuck it. It’s 11mm, I’ll convert it."

    I do like F for temperature as it applies to human comfort. No it’s not logical, but 0F is cold as hell, 100F is hot as hell. Plus, there’s more “resolution”. Go up 1C and that’s roughly 2F. I often change the thermostat up and down by 1F. 1C would sometimes be too big a change. C for all science use cases, of course.

    • spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      Now hear me out: Kelvingrams. If you can have an absolute coldest, maybe an absolute heaviest!

      I don’t think this is how physics works but it sounded fun…

      • idegenszavak@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        No, hecto and deca are also not capitalized. The rule should be, uppercase if more than 10^3. Or simply the change between upper and lowercase is between 10^3 and 10^6, not at 1.

        It grinds my gears much more, that all the letters are latin, except μ.

        • marcos@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Yeah, Latin prefixes should have Greek letters, and Greek prefixes should have Latin letters.

          Or, maybe we change µ.

          Personally, both are fine to me. But the first one would also solve the similarity between m and M, and also y and Y.

  • mikenurre@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    If you’re doing science, go metric. For EVERYTHING else, Imperial is sooo much better. Imperial measurements are easier to relate. You’re 1.68m tall? Means nothing. You’re 5’ 6", you go short king. Temp is 40C? Hieroglyphics. It’s 105F out, too hot, I’m staying inside.

    • CXORA@aussie.zone
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      3 days ago

      Do you think that maybe people find the measurements they’re more used to easier to picture, rather than it being an intrinsic feature of the system?