•  s_s   ( @s_s@lemm.ee ) 
    link
    fedilink
    English
    11
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    Everything in America except building trades has transitioned to metric already.

    Even our imperial units are defined in metric.

    But… PLEASE don’t tell our citizens. It will all be fine as long as we don’t tell them!

  •  BigMoe   ( @BigMoe@lemmy.zip ) 
    link
    fedilink
    English
    46 months ago

    I’m terrified of driving the day they move the US from miles to kilometers. People go well over the speed limit as it is. I can only imagine how many people would read the kilometer per hour speed limit as miles.

  • I really like Farenheit system for temperatures. 0 is really cold and 100 is really hot, but both survivable. It’s a human-centric system.

    0C is the temperature that water freezes, which is good but temperatures more often go negative with that system. 100C is boiling so you’d be dead.

    •  Zerush   ( @Zerush@lemmy.ml ) OP
      link
      fedilink
      20
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Human scale? Not yours or mines, measures of the ffoot, thumbs and random desires of a dead British King in the far past. No problem in metrics, at least if I don’t build a hut in the wood with an axe, then maybe using parts of the body for measures are usefull. Not the first furniture I made, also working in metal. Also in mathematic and physic the metric system is way better (Even NASA now uses the metric system since 2 probes crashed on Marte due to calculation errors in the imperial system)

    • I am willing to bet that you are simply more used to the imperial system.

      I am not convinced that it has any objective advantage over the metric system.

      My foot is about 50% larger than my SO’s, but I can perfectly invision 30cm whenever I want or need to.

        • That is what you’re implying by saying that imperial is more intuitive. But if you’re measuring with normal measurement equipment that argument is moot. At that point using imperial is easier for you just because you’re used to it. When normal people have to use imperial for things, all intuition is out the door and it will be hell.

          You’re failing to externalise your own experience from the situation. Maybe you should practice that a bit more.

    • I like imperial for big things. like you said it’s easier. For small things like 3d printing and such I prefer metric (basically anything with increments smaller than 1/16"). It just depends on what scale you need to work on.

  • I’ve read that it is more easily divisible than metric.

    Divide a meter by 3 or 4 and get ugly numbers but a foot or yard divide by 3 or 4 quite cleanly. And so on.

    Depending on your application this can be very helpful.

    • Divide a metre by 4 and you get 0.25 meters or 25cm

      Dived a foot by 4 you get 3 inches.

      Dived a yard by 4 you get 9inches

      Metric here wins in my opinion.

      Now let’s go by 3

      1m by 3 is yes 33.3r not great but 1m is 100cm and that’s how it is.

      1ft by 3 is 4 inches. Sure looks great now.

      Except size resolution is far greater in metric in simple forms

      Every inch is 2.54 cm obviously they dont round up nicely.

      Once we have to go smaller than an inch we need 15/16s of a inch, smaller then a cm we drop down to mm.

      10mm makes a cm.

      In super practical terms i need a spanner, 16mm is to big, i get the 15 next.

      5/8 is to big what do i get next?

      (I know the answer)

      Also another argument is well whats if you need half a mm etc we just use 0.5m or 0.7mm etc

      Very small sizes for most everyone day to day.

      Sure it’s not great breaking it too 0.whatever, but metric does it so much smaller as imperial made that jump to incorporate a size smaller then an inch.

      1/4 inch is just 0.25 inches

    • Division no is the problem in one unit, inch, feet, etc, because use fraccions instead of decimls, but the problem is the conversion from inch, feet to others (yards, miles), which is the source of a lot of errors, like those from the Mars probes or some catastrophigs breaks of bridges in the past, apart of some problems in physics, because using for weught and mass the same unit. No, imperial are not human measures, never has been since humans count with 10 fingers.

  • There are (huge) costs to retooling production to move from imperial to metric. Even if a company wanted to make that move they’d have to transition in phases and will likely end up with additional equipment to maintain. There’s also significant training for workers (who will likely commit errors in the beginning) which will impact production. And what happens to the old equipment? I’d guess a significant portion of that would end up getting scrapped and landfilled.

  • Perhaps I’m biased, but sometimes it’s easier to work in fractions. Also, setting room temp is objectively better in F. I can tell the difference between 74 and 75. That said, I’m also a scientist so I’m permitted these opinions.