It seems like a weird point to bring up. How often do y’all convert your measurements? It’s not even a daily thing. If I’m measuring something, I either do it in inches, or feet, rarely yards. I’ve never once had to convert feet into miles, and I can’t imagine I’m unique in this. When I have needed to, it’s usually converting down (I.e. 1/3 of a foot), which imperial does handle better in more cases.
Like. I don’t care if we switch, I do mostly use metric personally, it just seems like a weird point to be the most common pro-metric argument when it’s also the one I’m least convinced by due to how metric is based off of base 10 numbering, which has so many problems with it.
Edit: After reading/responding a lot in the comments, it does seem like there’s a fundamental difference in how distance is viewed in metric/imperial countries. I can’t quite put my finger on how, but it seems the difference is bigger than 1 mile = 1.6km
Trying to convert your way of thinking by “making it easy.”
Honestly, it’s like a language. You have to use it and feel it through immersion. Experience is how you get people to convert.
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Yeah, for small things metric’s actually great. I tend to use it to make my coffee
I daily switch from cm to meters
Ooh what are the problems with base ten?
BOOOR-IIING!
In order:
- Dividing by 3
- Dividing by 4
- Dividing by 6
- Dividing by 7
- Dividing by 8
- Dividing by 9
It’s really, really bad at handling dividing by anything but 1, 2, 5, or 10. Dividing by 3 is very frequently useful imo
That’s fair, I am pretty jealous of that 12 inches in a foot conversion. That a juicy one.
But then again, we rarely divide 1 or 10 of something. A third of a meter. 0.33333 meters? Wtf is that? Nah, just use centimeters instead. A third of a hundred. 33 cm! There we go. That’s the length of the rulers we had in school. I can even measure that shit using just my eyes.
Need even more precision? 333 millimetres, fuck it’s getting hot in here 🥵
I gotta chill out
If we need precision it’s 333.333 mm xD
Dude, we round that shit. But don’t worry, I got more precision that you can even fathom. Let’s go, 3333 μm… 33333nm… to the moon
Yes I’m high
Dividing my thirds sucks.
Base 12 ftw
I’m pretty sure metric plywood is 120cm by 240cm. You can have twelves in your tens.
Hey! There’s nothing wrong with a little 3,333333333333333333333…∞
3 1/3.
You don’t have to use a decimal point…
They’re just annoyed that we use a different system with no upside when the rest of the world all chose to establish a consistent measurement system.
I mean, it does have the noted benefit of down-converting between units being cleaner. 1/3 of a foot is 4 inches. 1/3 of a meter is 333.333…mm
I mean, you kind of cherry-picked there. A third of an inch is…?
1 barleycorn.
This is mental illness
Its all cherry picking.
Do people struggle that much more to divide dollars compared to feet?
I mean I totally get that base 12 is pretty cool for calculator-less maths (though not as cool for base 60) but ultimately, we still have a base 10 numbering system.
So yea, base 10 units for base 10 numbers. Using the same all the way down makes it easier to learn how to handle the more complicated divisions in all cases, you don’t have to switch logic if you see what I mean.
Of course, to each their own. The best case for metric remains that it’s the system everyone else has agreed on.
I mean, not really, it’s just the lack of factors that comes from having a base 10 numbering system, which is my the single big issue I personally have with metric. I still think it should be adopted, generally, because standards are good, and in the modern world it makes more sense. I just also think we should be doing base 12 instead of base 10 xD
But how do the lack of factors even affect you in your daily life?
Which is fair enough. But now I’m annoyed that they keep complaining about it.
They keep complaining about it because we keep using the worse system for no reason. /shrug
It’s a better system for me, because I already know it.
Metric is very easy to learn, so I’m not sure I’d go around flaunting that reason…
It is easy to learn how to convert between metric units. But that’s not what people mean when they talk about “learning metric”. They mean having an intuitive sense for how much, say, 100 meters or 100 milliliters is. Again, the emphasis on how easy it is to remember the conversion between meters and kilometers is extraneous.
Yea, that’s the really easy part. It just takes exposure on a level that’s more than twice a month and it’s practically by osmosis.
The conversions are the hard part.
500 meters = 0.5 kilometers 🤷♂️
And that’s how I know you’re an American!
Same reason the metric people keep telling me to change. Because if I did, it would be better for them. Difference is, I don’t drone on and on about how superior my forms of measurement are
Well that’s because it isn’t lol.
My guess is, if the USA method was better:
The USA would sanction countries until they adopted it. They would embed it in the national flag and insert it in the national anthem. They would make underwear out of it and put stickers on their 20yard-long cars.
tbh… being in Canada sucks ass because of it.
here’s a fun flowchart for Canadians and living with both
and don’t get me started on date formatting…
wtf is 1/4/2026. is that January, or April. who sent this… where are they located?
The fucking date problem I can get behind with you.
I always use year/month/day now, which pisses off everyone but computers sort it properly every time.
As always, the only correct date format is ISO 8601
Correct! And yet…
wtf is 2026/1/4? is that January, or April. who sent this… where are they located?
Though to be fair the chances of ISO 8601 goes up when year comes first
The date part of ISO 8601 doesn’t have slashes, it has dashes and requires double digits: 2026-01-04
I mean, if it’s normalized to ISO 8601, then you KNOW that’s January 4th even without dashes or slashes. (although preeeetty sure the standard would require zeros before the 1 and 4 in either case)
WHOOOO ISO-8601 FAN CLUB!!!
[Cheers and goes running out the door]
HELL YEAH! This is honestly the worst part of my work. Half of the forms require YYYY-MM-DD, half do DD/MM/YYYY and having to switch is annoying, especially since personally I always use ISO-8601
It seems to also be different between provinces. I was shopping in Ontario (from BC) and the fruit was in ounces, which threw me. And at least in BC schools cooking class uses metric not cups.
Oof. A good while back, I worked in a US-based company with offices globally, and they upgraded to a global ERP system. At launch of the new system, documents (such as purchase orders) printed with dates in MM/DD/YYYY format. Thankfully, my suggestion to change that to DD Mmm YYYY (eg. 31 Jan 2026) was quickly implemented without any pushback, but it totally blows my mind that a company operating globally would default to such an ambiguous date format.
yyyy-mm-dd is superior it is unambiguous and sorts well.
I just toss stuff in a calculator and use both when necessary.
I measure in grams for dry and ounces for wet ingredients when baking.
I’ll include Celsius and Fahrenheit in weather conversations.
Cm or inches depending on what suits the crafting project better. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I tend to use grams for everything in the kitchen, because ounces are usually too big for what I need. Admittedly that’s mostly “Making coffee,” but still the point stands xD
Because the ability to easily convert between meters and kilometers is the only intrinsic benefit that metric has over any other form of measurement.
Some say imperial has some other benefits, like being easy to do math in your head with… but I’m skeptical that this benefit is worth much either - if it even exists at all.
The real benefit to metric is that it is standard across the world. So what the “convert to metric crowd” really wants to say is “it is inconvenient for me to have to keep converting from your units to mine - change your units for my benefit!” But that would feel rather dickish, so they make up a story about how changing your units is really for your benefit.
Not only kilometers and meters. You can also convert easily the following units to meters: gigameter, megameter, hectometer, decameter, decimeter, centimeter, millimeter, micrometer, nanometer, picometer.
Additionally, you can easily convert these units to grams: gigagram, megagram, kilogram, hectogram, decagram, decigram, centigram, milligram, microgram, nanogram, picogram.
Additionally, you can easily convert these units to liters: gigaliter, megaliter, kiloliter, hectoliter, decaliter, deciliter, centiliter, milliliter, microliter, nanoliter, picoliter.
Additionally, you can easily convert these units to areas: gigaarea, megaarea, kiloarea, hectarea, decarea, deciarea, centiarea, milliarea, microarea, nanoarea, picoarea.
Additionally, you can easily convert these units to newtons: Giganewton, meganewton, kilonewton, hectonewton, decanewton, decinewton, centinewton, millinewton, micronewton, nanonewton, piconewton.
Additionally, you can easily convert these units to seconds: Gigasecond, Megasecond, kilosecond, hectosecond, decasecond, decisecond, centisecond, millisecond, microsecond, nanosecond, picosecond.
Additionally you can easily convert these units to hertz: gigahertz, megahertz, kilohertz, hectohertz, decihertz, centihertz, millihertz, microhertz, nanohertz, picohertz.
Additionally you can easily convert these units to joules: gigajoule, megajoule, hectojoule, decajoule, decijoule, centijoile, millijoule, microjoule, nanojoule, picojoule.
Additionally, you can easily convert these units to watts: gigawatt, megawatt, hectowatt, decawath, deciwatt, centiwatt, milliwatt, microwatt, nanowatt, picowatt.
Note that those lists are incomplete. You can expand them by “inventing” new ones by adding other prefixed. Like I did because when writing all of those manually on my phone angered the autocorrect. There are also many other units.
And of course, the fun doesn’t end there. You can easily do the same for powers of those units. Like m2, m3, s-1.
And let’s not forget that you can also easily convert between those “base” units and “compound” ones:
(Kilo)gram meter to newton.
1/second to hertz.
square meter to area.
Cubic meter to liter.
(kilo)gram to liter (of water).
Joule second to watt.
If you want to convert 74962 feet to 95 yards or whatever, you do you. I’m going to keep using metric, because it’s not only better for me, but it’s also better for you.
It doesn’t matter if I tell you a distance in meters or kilometers, you only have to remember what that means in feet so you can convert it to whatever imperial distance you want. Just multiply/divide by 1000 afterwards by moving the decimal point. If 53 meters is 863 yards, 53 kilometers is 863000 yards.
However, it does matter what unit you choose to communicate with me. I know that 1 inch is about 25.4mm/2.5cm, but if I’m unlucky and you decide to say it in feet, I’m going to need to Google the conversion.
Read those last 2 paragraphs again, and tell me what is more “dickish” (to use the same word you used).
I’ve never used any of those conversions you listed in imperial units, so your point is irrelevant… which is my point. Americans learn metric in school, and American scientists and engineers almost universally work in metric, where conversion between units is regular and useful.
But it I am going for a hike, I will estimate distance in miles, if I am making a soup, I will measure my broth in cups, and if I am trying to lose weight, I will measure my weight in pounds. These uses continue because there is no reason not to continue using them - they work for their intended purpose, in their intended context.
It doesn’t matter if I tell you a distance in meters or kilometers, you only have to remember what that means in feet so you can convert it to whatever imperial distance you want. Just multiply/divide by 1000 afterwards by moving the decimal point. If 53 meters is 863 yards, 53 kilometers is 863000 yards.
However, it does matter what unit you choose to communicate with me. I know that 1 inch is about 25.4mm/2.5cm, but if I’m unlucky and you decide to say it in feet, I’m going to need to Google the conversion.
There is no dickishness involved on either side in your example, as both people are expressing the measure (presumably) in whatever units they know best. This is no different than two people who speak different languages working together to communicate. No one is being a dick, it is just two people who know two different things, working together towards a common goal of mutual understanding.
What is dickish is telling someone that they should communicate in a different way for your benefit. If, for example, someone started commenting in this thread in spanish or german, I wouldn’t get pissed off about it. I wouldn’t tell them to learn English, or tell them they are stupid for not knowing English, or tell them that their language is dumb and tout the obvious benefits of English due to its lack of confusing conjugations. I would just either translate their comment if I was interested in what they are saying, or shrug and move on without caring.
As I said. You can use whatever units you want for yourself. I don’t care about that.
The problem is when we are communicating with each other. When communicating, it’s more than one party involved. And our goal should be to communicate clearly and easily so both the talker and the listener have an easy time transferring information.
This is not like language. Conversion between one unit and another is as simple as a multiplication. We can both speak in imperial and metric if we have a conversion table and a calculator.
Now, let’s say you communicate in imperial. And I communicate in metric. We are allowed to have a conversion table and a calculator. Here is my cheatsheet:
Inch = 2.5cm Foot = 12inch Yard = 3 feet Mile = 1760 yards Fl oz = 28ml Gallon = 4.5l Oz = 28g Pound = 16 oz Stone = 14 lb Ton = 2240 lbHere is yours:
cm = 1/2.5 inch ml = 1/28 fl oz g = 1/28 oz metric ton = 1000kg k (kilo) = 1000 d (deci) = 1/10 c (centi) = 1/100 m (milli) = 1/1000I only included the most common usages. The full cheatsheets are much larger but I believe we can agree this is a fair representation of common usage.
Your cheatsheet contains 8 entries. Meanwhile mine contains 10. Therefore, metric is objectively easier to convert in a ratio of 8/10. Furthermore, subjectively, the case is worse. Since metric ton, kilo, deci, centi and milli have an obvious pattern that is easy to remember and use. Meanwhile the only subjective “advantage” of imperial is that fl oz and oz is the same, but that goes both ways, since g is also the same as ml, so it would be 7/9, which is better for metric than 8/10. So i don’t think there’s any subjective advantage for imperial.
So yes, using a less efficient method of communication because “I’m more used to it” is dickish. Especially if the entire rest of the world uses the more efficient one. Especially if you already know the more efficient method. As you said, it is taught in American schools.
Do you know what is even more dickish? Defending its usage for communication.
If we go back to the language analogy: If 95% percent of the world understands only English, and English is objectively easier than Spanish and you also speak English, and you approach someone in spanish, and you keep speaking Spanish even though they are speaking in English, you are a dick.
Of course this analogy is not perfect. Since English is not objectively easier than Spanish (in fact, I subjectively believe Spanish is easier).
see my post[s] above
How much does 1 cubic yard of honey weigh is it’s density is 11.5lb/gal. In metric it ia 1.4 tonne to the m^3 even if I only know the weight of 1 L of honey.
Fuck trying to do that i US or imperial units
I will switch to metric for all my daily needs as soon as I find a cubic yard of honey I need to know the weight of
Honestly, metric does have some benefits over imperial, it’s just I so often hear the one place it really doesn’t. It being a standard is useful! Rockets have exploded because of the US’s stuff being imperial, because they didn’t convert it to metric before sending it off. I don’t remember the exact story, admittedly
That probe died because of a lack of oversight. If they didn’t have a proper system verifications in place for something that obvious and simple, wtf else is NASA cowboyin’ up, Shuttle Solid Rocket Seals? Oh, yea, they did that one already. Or pure oxygen crew cabin and a door that takes minutes to open with no emergency release? Oh, yea, did that already.
If I pulled a boner like not having multiple external validations of some math I need to do, my team would laugh me out of the room when shit broke. I’d probably get a nickname for such an amateur thing.
Yeah, that was definitely a multi-leveled failure
I think the best ‘conversion’ thing in metric is not the mm/cm/m/km type ones but the volumetric type ones: a cubic metre of water/ 1 tonne / 1000 litres
What’s the equivalent un US units? 1 cubic yard / 1684.8 pound / 807.8961039 qt / 25852.675325 oz ?
Even then I don’t find the weight particularly useful, because it only applies to liquids with the same density of water.
Also 1 gallon is 231 cubic inches. Idk why, but it is, and I’ve already looked into all of the weird imperial measurements previously xD
231=3711, just in case you wanted to buy enough to give each of your three children 11 cubic inches of orange juice every day for a week.
Ahh, yes, the classic two and a half eggs of daily OJ
ok, so i have a liquid (honey) with density of about 1.4 g/ml that is 1.4 tonne for the m^3
You had the same density of ~11.5lb/gal what is the above calculation?
just look at all that maths https://measuringstuff.com/how-much-does-a-gallon-of-honey-weigh/
[edit, shit my spelling is bad this morning]
Most liquids are similar to water. I will fairly often see a liquid and can do a quick estimation of weight based on volume. 40L water canister? That’s about 40kg. It takes no effort to calculate.
Fair point, it is usually things like syrup that end up having a massively different weight
Water is the most abundant liquid on our planet. And most liquids we interact with have a density very similar to water.
What’s your argument? “Oh. The ratio of volume and mass units don’t work for all the densities? Then it’s useless.”. What benefit would any other ratio that is worth to give up the 1L=1Kg water ratio?
They’re just jealous we don’t have to use decimals on our thermostats
Really?! The comfort difference of 1°C sounds like a first world problem to me.
You’ve never had to add measurements with mixed units?
Ie. 1lb 2oz + 4lb 15oz?
Or heights, 5ft 10in + 6ft 5in?
Rarely outside of a school setting
There are plenty of people though who do these kinds of calculations daily. Like engineers and scientists.
There are! Most people are not engineers, or scientists, and rarely encounter these types of situations. Also from an admittedly cursory search, it seems to be that most professionals use metric for most jobs, anyway, or a mix that causes problems.
Per the search, it seems like a lot of engineers use metric, except for government jobs, which require imperial, and sometimes specific clients demand imperial instead of metric.
Pharmacist friend uses mostly metric at work, except for creams, which come labeled in metric but measured in imperial (1 ounce but labeled as 28.5g), but they’ll sometimes come as a rounder 28 or 30g which causes the problems. There’s also one med that’s measured in grains (~64mg, not a commonly used measurement in most settinfs) for some very strange reasons.
So now you just admitted that metric is better at least for some use cases and then the conversion to imperial causes problems. So wouldn’t it be better if everyone was just using metric? Or what is the advantage of imperial?
Admittedly I do like how imperial feels on a personal scale. Like I said in the OP, I’m not anti-metric, and in a few other replies I’ve said I’m definitely more pro-switching than anti. It’s just the conversion argument always seemed like a weird one to me, given how infrequently conversions happen here. Seems like y’all do just convert more often than we do.
This wall is 3 metres wide, how many 80 cm shelves can I put up on it?
Is this supposed to be an argument for metric? or for imperial? Or just a question?
If it’s the first or second one, I don’t see the point. If it’s the third one, 3 with some extra space.
It was meant to be an example for a fairly common situation where you’d need to convert between cm and m.
This wall is 9 feet wide, how many 2’8" shelves can I hang on it?
I cam guarantee you’re likely to do the same thing I did, which is just “That’s really close to 1m shelves, so it’s 3 with gaps.”
I grew up with US customary units and I still took a long time to get that compared to metric instantly
I don’t know how many 's and "s go in a foot so ¯\(°_o)/¯
And no, I’d go 8 16 24 32, ah, too much, so 3.
I’ve never once had to convert feet into miles, and I can’t imagine I’m unique in this.
100% this. Look, imperial may be silly, but some of the arguments for changing to metric are also very silly. Things are usually at a mile scale or a foot scale, and I don’t really need to go between the two.
And sure, converting between different units is convenient in metric, but how often do you have to do that? So you can easily tell me how many liters of water would be needed to fill a giant, square kilometer fish tank, but who needs to do that? What grade school math problem are you living in?
If things are usually at a mile scale or a foot scale. Why do yards exist?
I do stuff like this all the time. Like if i bought a pool i wanted to estimates how much water it needes to estimate all the follow up costs, if i am cooking something i often switch between kg and g, if am measuring things i switch between cm, m and mm depending on what i am currently measuring all the time. E.g. i needed a new working plate in my kitchen, i wanted it precut to fit exactly in after moving some cabinets while still aligning the sink. The whole space was measured in meters, but the individual cuts were all measured in milimeters. I was able to do all of that in 5 minutes with one piece of paper for sketching and my head. (And it fitted down to the milimeter in the end).
Or e.g. in my last appartment we had an weird electrical water heater that didn’t work that well. I was able to easily estimate the extra cost it procured by estimating water volume, temperature difference and electrical price, most annoying par was converting from joule to calories because it is not base 10. (would have taken >3years so not worth it for me)
There is one conversion that I use every now and then: liter to kilo: A liter of water weighs about a kilo.
Helpful to compare groceries when some products use weight and others volume. For example, I can buy 1kg buckets of yoghurt. I then know that those buckets hold about 1 liter. Handy when re-using the buckets.
For evidence of the mile scale vs foot scale bit:
We have 2 measurements between that we don’t really use anymore. Chains, and furlongs most notably (8 furlongs to a mile, 10 chains to a furlong, 100 links to a chain, 4 inches to a link). The middle distance is just yards now. 50 yards, etc.
Actually, because a chain is 66’, a link is 0.66’ or 7.92".
A furlong is then 660’, so 220 yards, which is 201.17m.
A mile, being 8 furlongs is then roughly 1.6km
Ahh, right, mixed up the measurement between hand and link. I was tired, and neither units get thought of much xD I also keep forgetting it’s one of the only units that isn’t a flat number.
You wouldn’t believe how often I have to convert measurements because one big backwards country still clings to nonsensical imperial units.
And it’s not only length, it’s even worse in the kitchen where they seem to measure about everything in cups. Like “add one cup of spinach”.
I use metric for distance. It’s more functional and easier to use.
Meter. Cm. Mm. (But not km that much.)
