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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…
I love how soda comes in 12 oz cans and 2 liter bottles. Mix and match!
And don’t forget the 20oz bottles too!
My favorite is the 16.9 ounce. It’s such a weird and awkward number that makes no sense until you realize it’s the nicely round 500 milliliter bottle.
But people still call it the 16.9 ounce bottle. -_-
Nice
I wish the US had made the switch to metric back in the 70’s. I remember having to learn it in grade school, and there seemed to be a push for it, but never went anywhere. I now work as a chemist where everything is done in metric, but then go back to US measures once I punch out for the day. Would be nice to have a single system instead.
In fairness… Most of the “behind the scenes” are done in metric so we kind of did convert to metric. It’s mostly just the public that is imperial still.
back in the '70s*
Right? OP paid attention in math class but not in English.
I recently converted all my recipes to metric and now I dump everything in a bowl on a scale. Total game changer.
Welcome to the modern times!
That is because weight is more accurate than volume.
Volume was previously used because the measuring tools were cheaper and easier to use than a scale.
It’s more accurate, it dirties fewer dishes, it’s easier to scale recipes for larger or smaller batches, and it’s much easier to fine tune portions. Plus, I make a very consistent coffee. I found something I like a lot, and I want it to be extremely repeatable.
I do, as a metric person, feel like doing things by volume is way more fun though. And I mean visual volume, no measurements. I’m radical like that.
I feel that you are the type of person that is responsible for recipes with instructions like “knead until it feels right” or “make in the usual way” 😜
My favourite recipes are 100 years or older. They usually aren’t very instructive.
That’s not fair. We also use it to weigh drugs
Only below 3ish grams or above 1000 grams though.
It’s also used in measuring soft drinks like the 2 liter bottle
Drugs too!
Let’s not forget liquor!
But liquor comes in shots, cups, pints, fifths, and handles?
It also comes in my dad :(
Hi it’s me, Liquor.
Saw a great joke on TikTok the other day:
Father: “Okay, why did you call me to school?”
Principal: “Your son was found smashing pumpkins.”
Father: “What? What’s the big deal? Bring him here, I want to speak to him.”
Principal: “Alright, bring him in.”
Father: “What? This isn’t my son.”
Other Student: “Nah, I’m Pumpkins.”
A fifth is 750 mL, a pint is 200 mL, and a half pint is 100 mL. I always assumed it was no coincidence that the amounts in mL are so even, but maybe I’m wrong.
A US gallon is 3.785L which makes a fifth 757 ml. A pint is 1/8 gallon so ~473 ml.
An imperial gallon is 4.54609L which makes a fifth 909ml and a pint 568ml.
If your bartender is giving you 200ml pints you’re really getting ripped off.
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!
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.
By the way, the dollar is metric. 🤯
The United States has been on the Metric system since the late 1800s like every other Western country.
In what useful sense?
It’s all metric behind the scenes. When you pump your gas it shows gallons, but it’s doing the math in litres. We turned our backs on the ⅓ lb burger, we’ve trained corporations to treat us like idiots.
The units Americans use (Miles, feet, cups, ounces, etc.) actually are Metric units. They’re just not the standard ones. Because, again, The United States has been on the Metric system since the late 1800s like every other Western country.
Citation needed. Those are United States customary units per Wikipedia. Often incorrectly named Imperial units, but this is the first time I’ve seen it argued they are metric.
Also, The Metric Conversion Act happened in 1975, so not since the late 1800s. It also carves out that use of metric is voluntary.
The majority of U.S. customary units were redefined in terms of the meter and kilogram with the Mendenhall Order of 1893 and, in practice, for many years before
From the article you linked
Not redefined as ‘metric’. It means the base measurement is connected to SI along a fixed constant. Meters and kilograms are the base units for length and mass in SI, which is actually metric. The respective USCU units for length are inch, foot, yard, and mile and mass a really annoying number of things.
The systems of measurement are connected, but USCU is not metric.
And only some of the bullets.
I think it started for the same reason we have metric tools; foreign imports.
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.
Now I’m thinking about that copy-pasta about the military guy.
Which one?
That’s not true. We also use it in medicine. To measure, in mm, our progress to universal healthcare.
Also drugs. You just try buying meth in imperial.
This is a pretty good video explaining why the imperial system in the U.S. isn’t as bad as it seems: https://youtu.be/iJymKowx8cY?si=wcyG7yM150e71Rn4
For anyone thinking of clicking the link, the first 27 are all you need to watch.
If you’re that much of an idiot, and don’t want to hear competing arguments, why click the link in the first place?
Just because it isn’t as bad a joke would imply doesn’t mean it still isn’t really quite bad
Base 12 vs base 10 is pretty much the only objective advantage of USC, and it only uniquely occurs in USC for small construction-scale tasks (i.e. the inch-to-foot scale).
I don’t think people critiquing USC are unaware of what this video is saying. We just think it’s still worse.
source: 8th gen American who would rather switch to SI
I think farenheight is far superior to Celsius specifically for weather forecasts. 0 = very cold, 100 = very hot, 50 = medium.
Feet being roughly the size of a human foot, and inches being roughly the length between first and 2nd finger joint is also nice.
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.
then why is it called 556 if its actually 5.7?
556 was the measure of the inner diameter of the rifling of a barrel of a gun that shot 556.
Metric is confusing. That’s why for most shotguns, we measure the width by the number of lead spheres of that diameter that would equal one lb, eg a 12 gauge shotgun is the diameter of a 1/12lb sphere of lead.
Nobody knows how big 18.53 mm is, but everyone knows what a 12 gauge shell looks like.
Oh, and gun powder is measured in grains, maybe early smokeless pellets were about the same size as grains of wheat.
The problem is it’s impossible to tell whether you’re joking or being serious
he’s serious. The old casting method for round shot was to dump a measured amount of molten lead from a tower into a pool of water 40 feet below. the molten lead would form a sphere in free fall and fully set in the water, so it was convenient to define gauge diameter by fractional weight of a pound. Twelfth pound sphere fits a 12 gauge gun, etc.
The problem is it’s impossible to tell whether you’re joking or being serious. Throwing molten metal off the tower sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever, but apparently is a real thing.
Mostly.
Maybe the original was 5.56mm and some dumbass decide “nah, not enough b u l l e t, better make it 5.7mm.”
Chad rest of the world: We only use imperial system to measure pizza, height, body waist and dicks.
That’s not how that happened.
