• jg1i@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I was born in the US and have switched by myself. My brother thought I was weird until one day we went to the hardware store.

    I needed to buy a 15/64 in drill bit, but they didn’t have it. So then we thought, fine, maybe we can use the next closest size…

    Except WTF is the next size up or down from 15/64??!!! Neither of us could figure it out. Internet wasn’t great. Sales people didn’t know. We left because we weren’t sure what to buy.

    In metric, it’s trivial. 5mm drill bit, 4mm is smaller, 6mm is bigger.

    After this, he stopped thinking I was a weirdo for using metric measurements. But he still uses imperial because murica.

    Also, interesting, I learned that he thinks imperial units were invented by the US. I told him they were British units and I stopped caring about British units in 1776, but he didn’t seem to believe me.

    • cantsurf@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      16/64 is 1/4. Your next size up is a quarter inch. Is it intuitive? Maybe not. Is it really that hard? Only if your educational institutions have also failed you.

    • grandkaiser@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Except WTF is the next size up or down from 15/64??!!!

      There’s lots of great reasons to switch to metric. Inability to do basic fractions isn’t one of them…

      For the record, it would be 16/64, or, 1/4

      • grue@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        For the record, it would be 16/64, or, 1/4

        Nope! It’d be 6mm, then B gauge (6.045mm), then 1/4" (6.350mm). And that’s not including things like over/under reamers and such.

        (Sorry, I’ve been watching too much Blondihacks lately.)

      • explodicle@local106.com
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        1 year ago

        Everyone has trouble with something that’s basic for someone else - we just have different skills. If these fractions are too confusing for a significant minority of people, then that’s a good reason to switch from fractional to decimal.

        • grandkaiser@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Except In this specific case, it’s about measurements for tools. Fractional is far more practical for construction than decimal for tooling.

      • Stuka@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        But somehow the brother is convinced, despite the fact that they left the hardware store without the bit they needed!

      • explodicle@local106.com
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        1 year ago

        To be fair the modern USA is imperialist, we just don’t call it that because imperialism is no longer considered a good thing.

  • Esjee@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We went from posting Twitter screenshots as memes to posting reddit screenshots as memes

  • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s so nice the US and Liberia are the only two countries to share both Ebola AND the imperial system. They’re buddy buddy.

    • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      TBF in practice a lot of countries use the imperial system, from Canada to the UK to Jamaica to the Philippines. They just “use metric” on paper.

      Also, here in the Netherlands we use inches for screen sizes and cups for some cooking recipes. I will insist that my monitor is 55cm and even tech people ask me how much that is with full sincerity.

        • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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          1 year ago

          I noticed some Canadians seem to use metric exclusively, while others very much use imperial systems through and through. Android defaults to imperial systems when it’s set to Canadian English, which confuses me even more but I suppose imperial must be used a lot, then

          • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I find stuff like cups and spoons and pounds and inches are used here more than metric, but we definitely use kilometers only.

            • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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              1 year ago

              Android lied to me

              Maybe it’s a plot by the Australian government because it led me to set all my devices to Australian English; they’re always 100% metric

          • Catweazle@social.vivaldi.net
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            1 year ago

            @lord_ryvan @BonesOfTheMoon, I don’t understand how it can be in the 21st century that a system as idiotic and archaic as the imperial one continues to be used. NASA has already caused millions of dollars in damage by crashing several probes due to miscalculations with these outdated and devoid of any logic measurements, based on parts of the body of a king, dead centuries ago instead of clear physical and mathematical units as in the rest of the world.

            • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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              1 year ago

              I also don’t get it and my country is slowly adapting it too (Netherlands)

              I absolutely hate it and try to counter it actively

    • Lemminary@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      We use 24 h format here where I live but we speak in 12 h format because it’s less awkward. Not all that shines is gold, I guess

      • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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        1 year ago

        I use 24h in speech, it trips up some people a little but they all understand and I’ve gotten a few to switch!

        My native language is Dutch, but I to give an example I say “vijftien uur” for 15:00 / 3pm and “vijtien uur dertig” for 15:30 / 3:30pm. My closest English equivalents would be “fifteen oʼclocm” and “fifteen thirty”, really.

        My point is, make the tiniest possible step, only replace the number of the hour with the 24h variant and drop the am/pm part.

    • PenguinLover@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      If we are doing this, shouldn’t we go straight to Kelvin? So we no longer have to deal with negative temperatures

      • MeshPotato@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Didn’t you see the meme: “There are 2 types of countries, those that ise the metric system and those that landed on the moon.”?

        It’s also usually shared by the same idiots that don’t realise that barley corn is an actual measurement in their beloved imperial system.

        Ask any of these smart arses how barley corns are in a foot or how many feet are in a mile and suddenly you hear excuses. Not to forget that the inch defined by the meter.

        • Lizardking27@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m not sure what your point is? Some people not knowing a certain obscure unit of measurement doesn’t discount an entire system of measurements. Also your mile example doesn’t make sense because most people do know how many feet are in a mile.

          • MeshPotato@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You’re proving my point exactly. The imperial system is so convoluted that even people that INSIST that EVERYONE should use it, don’t understand its units.

            Just because most people don’t have to deal with a certain conversion, doesn’t mean that none do. There are enough engineers that design stuff which is related to problems on these variations in scale. They waste hours in productivity in needlessly complicated conversions (because fractions). Not to mention the mistakes that get introduced like the famous Mars lander that crashed because of imperial unit conversions.

            Not only are the units incredibly inconsistent, you also have the issue that Brits and boat people use variation of some of the same units. US Gallons vs British Gallons, mile vs nautical mile. MPH, vs knots. That barley corn that Holzkohlen mentioned defines shoe sizes, unless of course, you don’t wear shoes.

            • Lizardking27@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              You have no point to prove! You’re just ranting like a crazy person about stuff no one’s heard of that doesn’t even matter!

    • TheKingBee@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’d heard of that before so after a quick google America passed the Metric Conversion Act in 1975 then in 1982 the Metric Board was abolished by President Ronald Reagan…

      So like the harbinger of doom for American progress he was Regan killed it…

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          We actually got rid of that in Denmark recently, but in a pretty foolish way: our time is now locked in on daylight savings time rather than the original unmodified time.

          Probably gonna mean some dark mornings when the times come and we don’t switch back, which’ll suck for those of us who have a hard time getting out of bed before the sun’s up…

    • mondoman712@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      And everything is measured by volume. Just tell me the amount of salt I need in grams and I don’t have to worry about if it’s kosher or not.

      • Unseeliefae@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        You technically only need kosher salt if the recipe involves some of kind of fermentation or yeast rise, because the iodine in non-kosher salt will kill the yeast before it can rise.

        • mondoman712@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          But every recipe from the US uses kosher salt, which means their measurements don’t match for other salts, but if they gave the weight it wouldn’t be an issue. 5g of salt is 5g of salt no matter the size of the crystals, but one teaspoon can be totally different.

        • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s why making a preferment like poolish is a superior method for any bread recipe. You only add salt once the poolish has finished the leavening process.

      • grue@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        inconsistent flour hydration and packing density has entered the chat

    • Saneless@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Sure it is

      You can teaspoon the shit out of everything. 3tsp to a table. 5ml to 15ml. Cut recipes by turning everything into a tablespoon. Need to make 1/2 of something that is already 1/4 cup? That’s 16 tbsp to a cup, so you were at 4, now half a 1/4 cup is simply 2 tbsp

      For dry shit, get a gram scale and welcome to consistency city

        • Saneless@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Google assistant has gotten worse and worse but “Hey Google, how many tablespoons are in x” is pretty helpful

            • Saneless@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Does that plug into assistant speakers?

              I’m not a massive fan of it but hands free cooking questions are nice. I use DDG for my browser search

              • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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                1 year ago

                I’m sure some open hardware hacker could get DuckDuckGo or qalc to work through their home-soldered voice-controlled assistant.

                But other than that, no. For what it’s worth, I spend 2 to 3 seconds for each conversion through the terminal when preparing a recipe, or about 15 seconds unlocking my phone and looking it up in DDG on the spot

    • nomadjoanne@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Right? Cooking is the single area where the American system makes sense. Much more intuitive and you don’t need a kitchen scale.

      • atyaz@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        Using volume is imprecise no matter what units you’re using. Not a big deal for cooking, but for baking, you definitely should use a scale.

        • Saneless@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Cooking is an art. Baking is a science

          I was with someone who eyeballed it. Worked out for a skillet. Then she tried to make bread one night. I warned her but it did not go well

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    tespoons? That’s what tsp means?

    Yeah what’d you think it meant, Eugene?

    …ten square pounds?

    Calzone explodes

    Jazz music intensifies

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I personally fucking hate ounces. Recipes could mean volume or weight.