Really though, the most ardent defence of USC units is fuelled by great amounts of Copium. The US Customary set of measurements is several independent systems of measurements which often radically different origins and sometimes irrational conversions, all stacked upon each other and dressed in a trench coat. For instance, the mile has Roman origins while the inch and foot were defined separately, much later, and with a lot of regional variation. The French foot was longer than the English foot, which is why Napoleon was listed as 5’2" tall while he was actually closer to 5’9", or 1.71 m, which was pretty average for the time.
Which one of these is more straightforward to calculate:
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You are tasked with installing a rail along a 1 mile long bridge. You know you can use two half inch bolts to affix it every three feet. How many bolts do you need?
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You are tasked with installing a rail along a 1,5 km long bridge. You know you can use two M12 bolts to affix it every metre. How many bolts do you need?
Conversions within dimensions in USC require you to memorise arbitrary conversion numbers. Conversions within dimensions in SI require you to move the comma a few spots.
Besides, if the US Customary system of units is so great, why did most of the world voluntarily switch to SI units?
Good example with the Bridge, it’s exact the point with the USC units, source of fatal errors.
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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!
This is exactly my experience. I’ve worked for four different manufacturing companies in the Midwest. Three of them were multi billion dollar companies. All four of those companies used metric almost exclusively.
Such a stupid misconception that is constantly reposted
Americans are still using monarchy units while the rest of the world is on freedom units.
Metroids itt btfo, malding, fractionally mogged upon.
For anything construction-scale, all supplies sold in the US are based on 4x8’ sheet goods and 16-24" on-center framing. I also concede that king George the 74th’s foot length is more human-scale when dealing with large measurements: 20 feet vs 6096 mm. I still use metric when possible, however - I find it easier and more accurate.
For EVERYTHING else I’ve switched to using metric.
Context: I grew up in the US using imperial units and only pivoted to the metric system in 2020. If I grew up thinking in metric and building supplies/standards used it, it’d be superior in every way.
TL;DR I like my imperial/metric combo tape measure.
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.
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.
What’s so special about the 0 - 100 range? For either system, there’s temperatures that have significance.
-20 C is getting dangerously cold (wear all winter gear available if you must be outside for anything longer than brief durations).
-10 C is very cold (winter coat, gloves, hat).
0 C is freezing (winter coat necessary, gloves and hat optional).
10 C is chilly (winter coat unzipped, or jacket and sweater).
20 C is comfortable (t-shirt and pants).
22 C is about room temperature (shorts become viable above this).
30 C is hot (nude comfortable; minimize clothing).
40 C is getting dangerously hot (depending on humidity and personal heat tolerance) (clothing that protects from heat might be more desirable than minimising clothing).
F has finer whole number resolution for temperatures typically experienced by humans. Obviously C can be represented by decimals, but I tend to think whole numbers are clearer.
Personally I use C and metric for all my scientific work and F for representing outside temperature.
Edit: Phrasing
I responded a few posts higher with more detail about this, but after teaching myself Celsius I actually prefer the lower resolution. A change of degree Celsius has more meaning than a change of degree Fahrenheit. (Also many, though not all, weather sources are using the Celsius values anyway and then converting and rounding them to Fahrenheit, so you don’t really get the benefit of that granularity.)
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.
I used to make this argument, that Fahrenheit made more sense for weather, but I decided to be (somewhat) scientific about it and test the hypothesis (with a sample size of 1).
So I switched everything I own over to Celsius and set about teaching myself.
This was back in 2019, and here I am still using Celsius 5 years later. I like it a lot more than Fahrenheit.
A couple of major reasons: first, you don’t actually need the precision Fahrenheit gives you for weather. The difference between 68°F and 69°F is so small that degrees Fahrenheit have very little meaning. It was startling to me how quickly I came to understand the differences between degrees Celsius because they have a lower resolution. And of course you can always use half degrees if you need to, but honestly it’s fine without.
What I realized is that, very often, the temperatures that you see on weather reports or apps are really just the Celsius degree values converted and rounded. For example, you’re far more likely to see 68°F or 70°F rather than 69°F, since 20°C=68°F and 21°C=69.8°F. This isn’t true for every weather source, but it was still interesting.
But more importantly, 0 is freezing.
This never seemed like it mattered when I was using Fahrenheit. I know 32°F is freezing, if it’s below that it’s gonna be snowing instead of raining. But the first winter I experienced in Celsius was eye-opening.
I realized that temperatures below freezing in Fahrenheit never really meant much to me. This is sort of hard to explain, but while I knew they were progressively colder there wasn’t much specific understanding. That is, 23°F doesn’t really mean anything to me.
But -5°C? That instinctively meant something to me the very first time I experienced it in Celsius. That’s going to be as far below freezing as 5°C is above freezing. No math involved. Simple. Valuable. Obviously you can do the math to figure the same thing out in Fahrenheit, but with Celsius you don’t need to.
Once you get to know the numbers, it’s just as good as an other system of measurement, and I find I like it more for the weather than I like Fahrenheit.
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There are 8000 linguistic systems in use today, about 90 calendars, a few hundred legal systems, a few hundred monetary systems, but Redditors fume at the thought that Planet Earth uses >1 convention for weights and distances
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.
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No, you are not permitted these decisions because you are something.
Its still bias
It’s easier for handling real things.
Try doing woodwork in feet and inches for a day. Try it in metric for a day. You’ll see what I mean.
It was crafted for the human-scale, whereas metric was worked out on paper by French philosophers.
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 doubt it had much to do with kings, as they didn’t do handicrafts or have to measure things like grocers/traders do.
That image is really stupid, too much wrong with it to go thru.
Woodworker in US here, and I prefer metric. Also consider the thickness of plywood is actually in metric now - “3/4” is actually 18 mm but they have to market it as 23/32.
I’ve chosen to join the other 8 billion people on earth.
Woodworking, sure. You have a piece of wood 2’ 5 5/8“ long that you need to cut into quarters. Can you calculate that in your head? Metric is SOOOO much easier.
here’s how i did: 2’/4=6", 5 5/8"/4=1 13/32, so it’s 7 13/32"
smart to pick a prime numerator!
Alternatively, the same measurement is 752.5mm / 4 = 188.1mm, to a practical number of significant figures. No convertions between feet and inches (or ridiculous fractions of inches), and only one calculation.
Yes but my measuring tape actually has 32nds on it. The meter side only has whole divisions, not tenth graduations.
So the sae “ridiculous fraction” is a measurement I can easily make with tools I have on hand to the tools own limit of precision and double check in my head with five seconds of fifth grade level mathematics while the metric one can’t be actually measured without a set of calipers and honestly would merit long division or a calculator to double check and still needs rounding off a vile eighth of millimeter to hit what is in your own words “a practical number of significant figures”.
Imma throw something out there and I hope the earnest admission that I can’t divide 752.5 by four in my head with the level of confidence required to cut materials by is enough to recognize it not as an attack but as a real grasp at understanding:
People who make posts like yours either don’t measure things in any meaningful way (cutting, dividing, scribing lines, etc) or don’t know how to work with fractions.
Like I said: it’s not an attack, I just can’t see how someone would suggest that the metric equivalent to 13/32 is easier to work with unless they didn’t intend to actually measure it or couldn’t do fractions.
