7mo ago

Everyday, as an American

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Why are there angry European posts and comments on this every freaking day as if each and every one of us who live under the American system of weights and measurements are personally responsible for implementing and keeping the system?
I'm comfortable in either format.
It doesn't chafe my balls to talk in metric or to see signs or containers in metric. Why does every god damned European feel like they're missing out on diaper powder every time an American talks about miles or fahrenheit?
Who hurt you? What damage does this really cause you?
Are there no other fucking issues that matter? We're gonna blow this whole fucking planet up if Jim Bob in Missouri doesn't start talking in liters God damnit!
- I kinda thought the title made it clear I was an American.
  
  The subject in and of itself is just exhausting
  
  then you can't claim you're not responsible for keeping the system. the fact that you get exhausted by merely seeing someone say "hey metric would be nice" is why you won't change. not just this but a ton of archaic stuff everyone else in the world has moved on from.
- Each and every time this comes up. I say that I am familiar with the metric system and use it for quite a few things, but I specifically prefer woodworking in fractional inches because working in base 12 and power-of-two fractions is closer to the tasks I need to perform in the wood shop than base ten decimal math does.
  I give real-world examples like "divide 19mm, a commonly used stock thickness, by three to make a tenon, you get something point 3333 repeating of course" and they 1. downvote and 2. Invent sizes that we don't conventionally mill stock to thinking they found a "gotcha." "Well what's 2 inches divided by three?" we don't mill stock to 2 inches thick, we'd use 1 1/2", a third of which is 1/2". Y'all actually do use 19mm.
  But Americans use inch fractions so inch fractions must be dumb and bad, right?
  
  Did you know you can use fractions with metric units? 1/3m is a thing.
  
  You want to show me a tape measure, caliper or micrometer marked in thirds of a millimeter?
  
  You don't need a tape to find a third. Just like you don't need one to find a half. If you're a woodworker, you'll be using a centre finder. And it's not hard to make one to find thirds. Just take a plank of wood and put four holes at equal distances, then insert two short dowels into the furthest holes.
- Yeah it really only matters what you are comfortable with, if you get units you aren't comfortable with then it gets confusing. I almost feel like metric folk don't realize that the USA is like 50 EU states in size, and this disconnect causes them some rage at seeing imperial units. At the human level I still can't comprehend Celsius, mostly cuz those numbers have meanings in fahrenheit, sure makes for some cognitive dissonance to heard 35 degrees thinking you would need snow gear to hearing it's unbearably hot.
- I would not mind if americans used whatever. As long as anything exported from america always!! used metric. As it is now we need 2 complete sets of nuts and bolts, pipes and fittings, tools and gizmos, csbles and connectors. Just imagine the space we could save in our shops and storages if we could /2 the requires spare part storage. Not to mention the time and frustration avoided when doing basically anything on almost anything.

322 comments