Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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A metric tonne (1000 kg) should be called a megagram (1 Mg). (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/showerthoughts

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But I do have the feeling many US people treat imperial units like completely different things and have absolutely no mental concept of a relation between them, especially between length and volume.

There is certainly no shortage of Americans that don't understand the metric system, or hate it for nonsensical reasons. I was once asked to measure a piece of wood and I said it in centimeters because it was exactly x cm long, and they said something to the effect of "not that commie shit". They seriously wanted to work with fractions of an inch instead of touching that evil foreign system.

That’s just a completely arbitrary thing. It’s easier to answer „how tall are you“ with „one eighty“ instead of „five foot eleven“ 🤷‍♀️

Its arbitrary if its not something you care about. Also that's not a great example for height. Usually its just two syllables. 5' 4", 5' 5" etc. You only have to say foot if you are an exact number of feet tall. That way you don't tell anyone "I'm 6". Most people's height in cm will not be a multiple of ten, so it will be longer than 180's three syllables.

It doesn’t seem to be an issue for „metric people“ at all, nobody is missing the foot in Europe.

It's just an inconvenience, it's not worth learning imperial to save a little time. Especially when no one around you would understand what you're talking about.

I still fail to see those advantages.

The units are usually sized intuitively for everyday use. Just look at Fahrenheit vs Celsius. The only thing I use Fahrenheit for is the weather. 0 is too cold, 100 is too hot. That's subjective of course, but it seems more intuitive to me than Celsius. The boiling point of water doesn't matter to me when I'm deciding what clothes to wear for the weather. Celsius works fine but it makes less sense for that application in my opinion.

Yes, because you’re used doing so, not because it’s more practical or convenient.

Or, Europeans only use metric for those things because they don't know imperial. I'm not saying that's a bad thing either, if you don't know imperial then its not worth learning. The advantages are small enough that its not worth the effort, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

[+] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have no issues understanding what 20 °C or 30 °C outside means.

Of course you don't, I'm not saying Celsius is incomprehensible.

100 °F is hot when I go outside, it’s cold when I need to cook, which is also an „everyday activity“.

I'm not arguing Fahrenheit is better for that, use Celsius.

It doesn’t make „more sense“, every point of reference is arbitrary,

I disagree, reference points are extremely important. That's one of the reasons Celsius is so useful. Maybe its a weird example but one thing I use it for is brewing temperatures for coffee. I know the closer it is to 100, the closer it is to boiling. That's very useful information to me. I could do the same thing with Fahrenheit but the number is so weird that I don't even remember what it is.

It also affects how small the units are which is pretty important. Farenheit has smaller units, so it can be more precise without having to use decimals. If I tell someone what temperature it is outside, I will be more exact than you most of the time.

Fahrenheit is not „more intuitive“, you’re just used to it.

Me just being used to it isn't a good argument. I barely remember many aspects of the imperial system because I've replaced it with metric. The aspects of imperial I still use were chosen intentionally.

I could also say that you're "just used to it". I could say the reason you're so resistant to any advantages of imperial is just because you learned how to do things with metric even when it wasn't optimal. The reason I'm not saying that, is because I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you are here to have a real conversation. Do me the same favor.

[+] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have said multiple times at this point that its not worth learning imperial for whatever advantages it may have. Its obviously not good to create new units for every application. But that's not what I said is it? I said there are aspects of imperial I would miss if I switched entirely.

Or, here’s a wild idea, you could use some indicator that shifts the unit’s scale, some kind of „prefix“ you slap in front of it.

Show me the indicator for Celsius that makes it a proper size for that application.

I would if you were able to have a real conversation, but all you deliver is a 47/53 grasping for straws per freedom eagle.

I guess that's how you would see it if you just ignore all of my arguments and assume metric is better at everything all the time. Do you think I'm doing this because I'm patriotic? You think I started this argument where I openly admit imperial's faults, just to defend America's pride? You have ignored nearly all of my arguments because you are unable to accept the fact that metric isn't better at literally everything. Nothing is perfect, and I'm not sucking america's dick by telling you that. The one thing I got wrong was assuming you wanted a real conversation.