you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 25 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (64 children)

Metric is great for scientists in a lab with equipment to measure things.

Imperial was created during a time when peasants in the middle of nowhere needed to measure something "close enough" to trade with others, even without tools or measuring equipment, which was only owned by scribes and other members of the nobility.

This is why all imperial length measurements relate to parts of the body and why all volume and weight measurements relate to containers that were commonly used to store the thing you're measuring (a bushel of grain, for example).

Also, a foot can be divided equally into 2, 3, 4, or 6 equally-sized pieces without resorting to estimation or irrational numbers; a meter cannot.

The US agreed to switch to the metric system centuries ago, but the ship carrying the official units sank on the way over.

  • source
  • hideshow 64 child comments
  • [–] 70 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (31 children)

    Metric is great for scientists in a lab with equipment to measure things.

    Metric is just as great for everyday life as imperial units.

    Also, a foot can be divided equally into 2, 3, 4, or 6 equally-sized pieces without resorting to estimation or irrational numbers; a meter cannot.

    While I agree in principle, I also enjoy the chaos that imperial system causes when you try adding up 1 1/8 inches + 5 27/32 inches + 7 3/16 inches instead of just using decimal numbers.

    Edited for clarity

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 31 child comments
  • [–] 44 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Metric is just as great for everyday life as imperial units.

    This is what the metricians say to feel better about themselves, but they never mean it.

    "Oh yes, I'll have a 236.588 milliliters of tea, thank you for offering"

    "The kids are out playing in the back 0.914 meters"

    "Doctor, I think I broke my left 30.48 centimeters"

    Do you see how silly you would sound if you didn't use imperial?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 8 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    If someone were adding those figures they would switch to decimal. I built furniture for 2 years, 64ths are almost never used over thousands of an inch. If you need to be finer than 32nds you use thou. And that pretty much only for wood. Machine shop I worked in used thou exclusively.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 13 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    thousands of an inch

    Which is called a “mil”, a name that has never caused confusion

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    Is it really? That’s really interesting, and would cause a lot of confusion in metric-English countries where ‘mil’ is pejoratively used in speech to either mean ‘millimetre’ or ‘millilitre’ depending on context.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Wheeeeeeee fractions!

    But after multiplying, 8 + 54 + 3 over 64 is just clean fun, you end up with 14 1/64 inches and wanna die because you accidentally cut the material at 14 inches and now your whole day is ruined.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

    Having done my share of automotive and carpentry work, I've never in my life had to go down to 64ths. 32nds is the smallest fraction I've ever had to use and the amount of times I've had to get that small could probably be counted on one hand.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 13 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    Are you saying adding 8ths, 16ths and 32nds is trivial and having 64th in my example made it unrealistic?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    I'm saying that if you knew what you were talking about you wouldn't be working in 64ths in the first place. You picked 64ths because "hurr sure Americans dumb" and you know it.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    I picked 64 because I don't use imperial and I have no sense of scalw what makes sense as a fraction unit. A bit paranoid, aren't you?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

    1 1/8 inches + 5 27/32 inches + 7 3/16 inches

    1/8 = 4/32
    3/16 = 6/32
    4 + 6 + 27 = 37
    37/32 = 1 5/32
    1 + 5 + 7 + 1 = 14
    Total: 14 5/32
    

    I wouldn't call it chaos, it's a straightforward algorithm:

    1. Identify the largest denominator
    2. Multiply each other fraction by [largest denominator divided by current fraction's denominator] (e.g. 32/8 = 4, so 1/8 * 4/4 = 4/32)
    3. Determine the sum of every numerator
    4. Divide and simplify the number if necessary
    5. Determine the sum of the integers, including any integers added in the previous step

    This works for every measurement because the denominator is always a power of 2.

    With that said I absolutely prefer metric.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    In practice you would just use decimal inches. Doesn't really make it better but you can machine something without ever seeing a fraction if you want to since everything will be in thousandths of an inch.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] 25 points 3 weeks ago

    Metric allows you to convert between length volume and mass in your head. Someone smarter than me could probably take a reasonable estimate of how long a kettle will take to boil just by knowing it's wattage and estimating its volume.

    You're right that "pounds" may have e been a practical measurement back when people didn't have calibrated and everyone's hand weighed a pound. However, that advantage ceased once everyone standardised those measurements.

    A metre is equally divisible by 50, 25, 20, 10, 5, and 2. There arr numerous advantages to a base 10 system.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 14 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    What do you mean you can not divide a meter without estimations or irrational numbers? Do you mean fractions or decimal? 1m/3=3.33… dm ( repeating, which means it is a rational fraction)

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    Anyone who thinks you can divide one number by another and get an irrational number... doesn't know what irrational means.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    irrational numbers are numbers which are not a ratio of integers

    complex numbers, often called "imaginary" numbers, are ones with components of unit i =√-1

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

    complex numbers, often called "imaginary" numbers,

    Aside: mostly, but complex numbers are an addition of both a real number and an imaginary number: a + bi. It just happens that a can be 0, making it a strictly irrational number when b ≠ 0.

    Thus, the imaginary numbers are a strict subset of the complex numbers.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (2 replies)
  • [–] 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Every country used a system based off body parts or similarly easy-to-measure parts. When the metric system was invented, most of them switched because it was the logic thing to do. Some just decided that the dumb system was better who knows why.

    Spain adopted the metric system in 1852 and by the time, they weren't the most advanced country.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (9 children)

    "Decimalized currency is great for all those labcoats, but for us regular ol' normal folk, it's much easier to use real, easily divisible livres, which can be divided into 20 sous and subsequently into 12 deniers."

    "In fact, imperial is so great because duodecimal invites so much divisibility! What's that? You're saying it goes 12 –> 3 –> 1760 for length, 16 –> 2000 for units of mass, that units of volume are a bastardized base-2 system where there isn't even a consistent multiple between units, and that pounds and short tons aren't cleanly divisible by 3? And that not a single unit of volume is divisible by 3 unless you bring it down to the level of teaspoons?"

    "'Why not just switch to a fully duodecimal system if divisibility is so important to you', you ask? Well fuck you, a foot is about as long specifically as my forearm, and there's no way my poor, emaciated monkey brain would ever have found something similar to latch onto with SI units. Those people living in most of the rest of the world probably just carry meter sticks around up their asses. 'How many square inches is a 30 x 30-foot room?', you ask? Well fuck you again."

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    Jesse, what the fuck are you talking about?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

    I thought I was clowning on a tired Gish gallop of flimsy, ad hoc justifications for imperial/US customary.

    Any concerns over anything I said in particular?

    Edit: He can't keep getting away with it!

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    I hate imperial. But I do think it would be neat if we had also changed our common numeral system to base 12 when making metric. Dividing by 3 and 4 is WAY more common than dividing by 5.

    But no way that would happen unless we had a massive linguistic shift occur as well. Base 10 is too rooted in our culture.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Also, US Customary units share many of the same terms as Imperial, but the actual quantities differ.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Even more fun is that US customary units are explicitly defined by their metric equivalents. So the US is using metric whether they like it or not, they just slap pointless conversion factors on top.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 22 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

    The last bit of rationalizing is hilarious. It's like you don't even understand numbers or math, well what am I saying, you're an American

    We can figure out what 70% of a meter is.

    Good luck with your peasant system

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 7 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    It's not anti-American sentiment, it's anti-anti-intellectualism.

    Stay in school.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago* (1 child)

    I got it, it hurts to have to reflect on how completely scientifically illterate Americans are as a whole. Almost joyful in their vapid arrogance

    It's a completely fair dunk. Person shows up to lecture and act like measuring things with thumbs and arms is somehow sane, and expect to receive no mockery? Lol

    Anti-intellectual people do not deserve much respect and I'm not sorry.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

    Dehumanizing an entire populace because of an opinion you have about a measuring system doesn't make you better than them, it makes you a bigoted asshole.

    Are you going to say the same about your ancestors who also measured things with cubits, spans, and paces? How up your own ass do you have to be to judge individuals for a culture of measuring things? It literally doesn't effect you at all if I grew up measuring things in yards and feet, as if I had a choice in the matter.

    The United States of America is metric where it counts. All military, all scientific, all medical fields measure in metric. We are all taught how to use metric in school, and then we are introduced to the actual physical world where 200 years of infrastructure was built in Imperial. The system works, we don't need to change it, it would be nothing more than vanity to do so. "Arrogance" is not fitting here unless you apply it to your own argument.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (2 replies)