Hold on, that’s not fair, we also use it to measure how much Coca Cola is in the bottle…hmm never mind that’s not helping… let me start over…we also use it for drugs! Wait, shit…
Drugs too!
Metric was too confusing for bullets, so we use both, and but neither of them are actually the diameter of the bullet, most of the time.
.223" is the same diameter as 5.56mm (which is 5.7mm across), but if you use 5.56 in a 223, it might kill you.
223 in 556 is fine, might fail to cycle.
Even the “metric” measurements for firearms ain’t necessarily true measurements either. Lots of them get rounded off or simply depend on just how they made the measurement to start with, (land to land or groove to groove). In any case a bullet diameter is almost always going to be just a tiny bit larger than actual bore size for modern cartridge bullets.
I recently converted all my recipes to metric and now I dump everything in a bowl on a scale. Total game changer.
I usually use grams to measure things into equal portions, easy maths I can often do in my head.
You must think us Americans are just really stupid because we still use imperial, and violent because we’ll only modernize our units for weapons, but you’re wrong.
We also use metric units for dispensing soda, and measuring engine displacement.
So we’re fat and we’re obsessed with cars too!
We also using when weighing drugs!
dispensing soda
Only the 2 liter bottles. We still generally use 12 ounce cans and 20 ounce bottles. Our gas station/fast food fountain drinks are also measured in fluid ounces.
We’ve got 1 litre bottles as well.
The 1 liter bottles aren’t common throughout the US, and from what I’ve seen, seem to mainly show up in the northern states near Canada.
20 ounce bottle? that sounds British, aren’t they usually 16 ounce pints in the states?
Our vending machines usually dispense sodas in 20-ounce bottles, or 12-ounce cans.
16-ounce pints are a very common size for beers (and even coffee), but not for sodas.
That’s not true. We also use it in medicine. To measure, in mm, our progress to universal healthcare.
Medicine, you say? Well explain THIS. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the “French” scale of measurement, used to denote the diameter of catheters. WHERE:
1 Fr = 1/3 mm
Sickening.
The values are all negatives aren’t they?
Also drugs. You just try buying meth in imperial.
Americans use the metric system… to define the true values of the entirety of our customary measurements!
If the dollar is the reserve currency of the world, metric is the reserve system of measurement.
That’s not fair. We also use it to weigh drugs
And only some of the bullets.
Some of them we disguise the metric cause it’s anathema to us, 30 aught 6 for instance.
Look at what we’ve done just to not have to refer to millimeters!
30-06 is a 30 cal bullet which should be 300 thou but is really 308 thousandths of an inch and is commonly designated a 7.62 mm NATO which it isn’t because that’s measured at the inside of the lands, so its actually 7.82mm.
Simple.
7.62 NATO isn’t the same thing as 30-06. 7.62 NATO refers to a specific cartridge, not the bullet projectile itself. It’s the same as .308 Winchester. 7.62x51mm.
30-06 is 7.62x63mm
Damn, you’re right.
I did not expect that response when I saw a notification. I’m so used to the old place where dropping insightfull info is met with arguments.
😀
I’ll try to be more combative in the future.
Let me get my AR10, brb.
That’s the spirit.
Now I’m thinking about that copy-pasta about the military guy.
Which one?
Not too get to off topic, but the wildest shit to me is that with a 308 I can buy 7.62 ammunition that was made by Greece during WW2 and recently discovered in a sealed bunker and just straight up shoot with it like no time has passed.
I think it started for the same reason we have metric tools; foreign imports.
Chad rest of the world: We only use imperial system to measure pizza, height, body waist and dicks.
What part of the rest of the world does that?
I’m from the rest of the world that would measure all those things in centimeters. I think only screen sizes and some tools would be in inches
screen sizes
Where I’m from, even that has a cm rating right next to it.
Canada is one of those “rest of the world places”. Officially uses metric but the general population here (unless they are recent immigrants or work in the medical field) will tell you their height in feet and inches, their weight in lbs, they will tell you a recipe using Fahrenheit. Pizza is measured in inches. If you buy food, like deli meat, it is displayed in grams on the scale but a lot of people will ask for a half lb or whatever still. We use km for speed but we still use square footage if you are selling a house. Unless they are boomers or older, we will use Celsius for the weather though. I remember growing up learning metric and it was fine, everything made sense, then when I hit college was forced to learn American imperial for my job field cuz that’s what the American standard was. I hate that I think in inches and feet for a lot of crap now. It’s irritating switching back and forth depending on what you are doing.
There’s ton of weird niche stuff. Mostly cycling related here but you get the point…
Bicycle pedal axle thread size
Bicycle wheel and tire sizing (actually metric standard but inches in common language)
Also wheel size on cars
Bicycle steerer tube diameter
10mm qr axle diameter on hubs (3/8" actually)
25.4mm handlebar clamp diameter sounds oddly familiar…Most proper denim pants are sized in inches, even from non-US countries.
But of course vanity sizing is a thing so a size 36 is closer to 38in unless explicitly specified, and most online retailers provide true sizing in cm anyway, so there’s that.
In Australia it’s fairly common to see pizza sizes in inches. The body stuff not as much, but sometimes.
Hey we also use it in medicine to treat all those bullet wounds!
We also use it for engine displacement.
Basically all cars are all metric (for fasteners, etc.) these days. Even my '90s Ford is metric.
You will never regret buying a lot of extra 10mm sockets and wrenches. Bonus points if you have some spare 12s as well.
Bonus points if you have some spare 12s as well.
Nah, it’s 13mm that’s the other common size. (Why? Because it’s secretly 1/2" in disguise, LOL.)
GM past about 1978 is almost entirely metric too, depending on the engine combination and specific plant. I took an 1984 Cadillac apart a few weeks back and the entire drivetrain is Metric while most of the body stuff are SAE/inch. Very confusing amalgamation.
3.8l was almost all metric except for the intake bolts for some reason.
The lugnuts are the only place you will find SAE on a modern passenger vehicle.
Don’t you just love how tire width is measured in millimeters, but diameter is measured in inches?
Tire treads are measured in 32nds of an inch, brake pads are measured in millimeters, brake rotor thickness is usually inches but sometimes millimeters, brake rotor diameters and offset are usually millimeters but sometimes inches, alignment measurements are usually degrees or minutes of angle sometimes also inches, pressures of coolant or tires are psi or bar…
It’s also used in measuring soft drinks like the 2 liter bottle
I often see posts where people say that they weight like 260 liter bottles and lost 7 liter bottles over a week or something. Americans are crazy.
Also, bullet holes.
Nah, we just use it to define inches and pounds and the like.