• didnt_readit@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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…

  • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • bluewing@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      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.

    • tpihkal@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I usually use grams to measure things into equal portions, easy maths I can often do in my head.

  • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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!

  • gum_dragon@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    That’s not true. We also use it in medicine. To measure, in mm, our progress to universal healthcare.

    • capital@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      If the dollar is the reserve currency of the world, metric is the reserve system of measurement.

    • AWistfulNihilist@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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!

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        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.

        • w2tpmf@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          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

        • AWistfulNihilist@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          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.

    • LaVacaMariposa@mander.xyz
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      8 months ago

      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

      • strawberrysocial@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        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.

      • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        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…

      • WFH@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        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.

      • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        In Australia it’s fairly common to see pizza sizes in inches. The body stuff not as much, but sometimes.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Basically all cars are all metric (for fasteners, etc.) these days. Even my '90s Ford is metric.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          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.)

      • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        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.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Don’t you just love how tire width is measured in millimeters, but diameter is measured in inches?

          • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            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…

    • summerof69@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      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.