• ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 month ago

    Metric haters when they realize their electricity is measured in Volts (metric unit), not in “relatable” units like Sparks:

    • mumblerfish@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 month ago

      Hecto used to be popular in sweden until like 2000 or so, when it came to food. Especially candy and charcuterie were priced and ordered in “hekto” (the “gram” dropped in speech).

    • Axolotl.cpp@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 month ago

      Hecto is very used in Italy with food “I’d like 3 hectos of ham, sir”

      Deka is too small to be useful tbh, maybe it’s used with medicines or drugs?

    • 🌸𝓯𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻🌸@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      A mile is a 1000 paces walked, counting only one foot in most places. Different countries take different steps so a mile is different in each country. Somewhere between 1.5 and 2 kilometer is the most common.

      A yard is almost one meter, so I’ll allow it.

      It makes sense for a system where you want to easily divide quantities and only can work with the fingers on one hand.

  • SpinItBetter@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    1 month ago

    Put this on the Ronald Reagan did it pile. Jimmy Carter started us on the path to metric and then Reagan halted it.

  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 month ago

    Wait, no, please convince my countryfolk to metricate. I’m an engineer and desperately want to be able to design things in metric. It’s so much better but the average American doesn’t know a meter from a hole in their ass

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 month ago

      But they do know litres, because the big soft drink bottles are sold in litres. They know grams if they do drugs or bake. They know prefixes like Mega, Giga and Tera if they are into computers, and they know about “kilo” if they pay an electrical bill. If they’re into military stuff, they know about “clicks”, which are actually… kilometers.

      I think it’s slowly creeping in.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 month ago

        So weird phenomenon actually, because our military is fully metricated, you wind up with some of the most die hard American exceptionalist/American nationalist types fully using metric and 24 hour time. A friend was raised in a household like that where they just didn’t use US customary at home because the military doesn’t.

        We’re all taught a lot of the basics in school. And yeah we have an instinctive idea of what 2L looks like. Drug users know grams, as do some bakers (a lot of baking is still done by volume here). And other than that I’d say maybe a quarter of Americans know that a meter is kinda close to a yard. Maybe 5% (may be overestimating tbh) know that a liter of water is a kilogram.

        Slowly but surely though more things are being roundish numbers in metric here (like 325 mL/12.9 fluid ounces) and I think that’s a vital component of the move to metric. We are actually headed there, we’re just slower than the UK and Canada.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          Yeah, that’s funny because the hoo-rah American Exceptionalist types are otherwise very conservative and dislike anything foreign, but they also adore the military, and the military has to be practical, and traditional units are so not practical.

          I would guess that in time the US will adopt metric – it will happen much faster if the American Century ends and other countries become more powerful. Since almost everywhere else is mostly metric, the US won’t be able to go it alone anymore.

    • josephc@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Normalize it. Use meters and kilograms on your own even before legislation. Convince others to use it. Push back the storm. If a handful of people in your town use it then it goes from something that nobody uses to a thing that a few people (and the rest of the world) use. Be the change you want to see.

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 month ago

    While we’re on the subject, can we please kill off “kilowatt hours”. Fuckers, those are Joules, 3.6 Megajoules specifically.

    • minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 month ago

      Nah it’s more relatable to humans regarding electricity consumption, the consumer would be confused and scared seeing 3.6 megajoules on a bill and not actually understand how power usage of watts of appliances would convert into Joule energy units. That’s why electric cars motor powers are still rated in Watts and the bill shows a relatable term.

      To add to that, that’s why so many metric countries (not USA) still use imperial units colloquially because they are more relatable in real life like lbs and inches and feet. But then would use Km and grams in other contexts quite normally. And knots still always make more sense to pilots and sailors.

      • Jiral@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        Sorry you totally lost me on the second paragraph. What you describe there is basically a British thing. On the continent people use m, kg and such for daily life things.

        Knots are used because of historic influences and inertia. Imperial units in some special cases are exclusively used because of the influence of the US and again inertia.

        • minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 month ago

          Oh ok just a British thing so the ENTIRE BRITISH EMPIRE. Cool. Oh knots are used for historic influences like… Places that use imperial units colloquially but are official metric? Ohhh cool as well. Thanks for repeating just what I said and agreeing.

          • Jiral@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 month ago

            If you head actually read what I wrote instead of just making stuff up, you’d know that I was talking about the European contintent, on which, the tiny peninsula of Gibraltar aside, the British Empire had zero possessions after metrication. People there don’t use “inches” or “pounds” colloqually. Where I life they also don’t use some local old customary units for that, they simply use SI units for weight and dimensions. You are 176 cm tall and weigh 73kg …

            And that does contradict your claim that generally people prefer those old customary units in daily life. They only do if they were raised that way.

            The reason why customary units are still more widely used in daily life in regions formerly part of the British Empire is because there metrication was much more delayed, ie happened for real a lot later. The old ways take time to wither away, like they have in regions that had it all a lot earlier. It is ridiculous to suggest that those customary units are more useful to people in daily life but only if transition to metric for real wasn’t too long ago.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        People are just used to kWh. There’s nothing about it that’s more intuitive, it’s just more familiar. But measuring things in hogsheads and barleycorns used to be familiar too. Sometimes being familiar isn’t as important as following standards. Eventually the standard units will become familiar, and since they’re standard units, they’re much easier to work with.

        not actually understand how power usage of watts of appliances would convert into Joule energy units

        1 joule per watt each second. It’s dead easy. That’s why Joules should be used.

        That’s why electric cars motor powers are still rated in Watts

        Yes, power should be measured in Watts, that’s the standard unit for power, just like Joules are the standard unit for energy.

        To add to that, that’s why so many metric countries (not USA) still use imperial units colloquially because they are more relatable in real life like

        No they’re not, it’s just that people are used to them. The people whose minds are the hardest to change are the old people who have used some random unit for all their lives and don’t want to have to get used to some newfangled standard (a standard that’s actually hundreds of years old at this point). Because the old people refuse to change, the country gets stuck using that old unit, even if it’s informally, and so that’s what the kids learn, then they become old people and are also inflexible.

        There’s nothing about an inch or a pound that’s naturally more intuitive than a centimetre or a kilogram. It’s just what you’re used to. Go somewhere where people grew up with metric and for them using anything other than metric feels strange and awkward. Pilots and sailors are used to knots, they never had to switch, but when they do complex calculations they mostly avoid using knots because doing conversions with non-SI units is such a massive pain in the ass.

  • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 month ago

    Trans girl I use to know called herself femto. I assumed it was because of her foot fetish but maybe it was related to the metric system.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 month ago

    usa kicked the Brits out of the usa back in the day but they stole and kept their system of measurements (and of course adapted them over time, like americans do). They avoid the metric system by a country kilometer.