GIRL. NOT LIKE THAT.

How dare you!
We also measure our drugs that way
- And our largest bottles of soda.
  
  And alcohol!
  
  Like a goddamn liter cola
  
  That’s done intentionally to obfuscate the quantity, since most Americans can more easily estimate a half-gallon. It’s to encourage consumption.
  
  Literally all of your food and drinks in America are sold by the metric unit. That's why it is on the packaging. Your "fifth" of vodka is actually 750ml and is not 1/5 of a gallon.
- And the temperature of electronic components for some reason
  
  Lower numbers look better for that so it's like a cheat code for them.
- And some science stuff. Often related to drugs.
  
  And computing.
- And distances in track and field events

Hey, we use grams and kilos for...other things too.
It is funny how we're schizophrenic about it, though. Things will go from grams to ounces and then to kilos...or, so I've heard.
Edit: American cars are also kind of schizo like that, or at least they used to be. The engine and everything attached to it was metric and everything else was SAE. Fun times.
- Yeah but now I know that there are 28.5 grams in an ounce
  
  28.35. And don't expect more than 28. 3.5x8=28, and since every bag can't be exact, that's why lots of plugs have a bag or two that are just under.
- That's because a lot of American cars were/are using engines made by European or Asian subsidiaries while most of the rest of the car is produced domestically.
  
  Sounds like they wanted engines that work.
  
  Yep. Not sure when that became common, but my late 90s and early 2000s vehicles were like that. My late-model domestic car is all metric, though, so at least Ford standardized.
- Eh, the brits do that too, don't they? Buncha weirdos I tell you.
- It there some kind of tool lobby out there making Americans buy multiple tools to resolve functionally one identical task?!
- Tbf, some other countries are schizophrenic about it, too. The UK uses miles for some distances and km for others, metres for anything more than about a body-length, when it might switch to feet depending on context or location. That doesn’t even broach other (sometimes overlapping) units. Humans are* remarkably inconsistent considering how universally we talk about things relying on measurement.
  
  I think I also recall some comments from somewhere from UK people saying Fahrenheit makes more sense for weather-related temperature.
  But yeah, definitely human inconsistency lol.

The imperial system makes you a worse shot. Everybody in American stories misses by inches. In European stories, they miss by millimeters. It's quite the difference: 25 times worse.
- It's not a real fish tale if people are measuring in standard units instead of "c-hairs" or "gnat bollocks" anyway.

Longtime woodworker here (American). Fractions of an inch have always been a pain. Finished lumber like 2x4s and 1x12s have never in my lifetime been the size they're known as, but that's a matter of subtracting halves and quarters of an inch and everybody was used to it. Then maybe 20 years ago (no need to correct me, it really doesn't matter) companies decided that instead of making plywood the thickness they said it was, they would subtract 1/32th of an inch, because hey less wood means more profits! So for example a sheet of so-called 3/4" plywood is only 23/32" thick. Similarly with half-inch, etc. This means a slot cut with a 3/4" router bit, which used to fit a 3/4" thick shelf, is just slightly loose now, and if you are stacking multiple thicknesses the slight inaccuracies compound themselves. What the Actual Fuck. I have a metric tape measure, which makes some figuring easier, but inches and fractions of inches don't convert to exact mm. The imperial system is a shit show.
- I recently bought a house that was built in 1942 and I've been renovating it. I tore down one of the interior walls and reused the studs (which incidentally were completely straight and free of knots, unlike any modern 2x4 I've ever seen) to build a new wall. When I put the wall in place it didn't quite fit and when I measured I realized it was 1/2" too tall. I don't normally make measurement errors of that magnitude and it took me a while to figure out that the studs I was reusing were not 3.5"x1.5" like modern 2x4s but were actually 3.75"x1.75" (so the base plate and head plate being thicker than I thought was producing the problem). Apparently the transition from real 2x4 to BS 2x4 dimensions was gradual, who knew.
  One other weird thing was how the interior walls and ceilings were covered. I've worked on a lot of 19th century houses with lathe and plaster and of course I've worked with modern sheet rock. This 1942 house was in a transitional phase that used 16"x16" blocks of 1" thick rough plaster that were nailed to the studs, and then finish plasterers came in and put a smooth plaster coat over these rough blocks. I've never seen anything like that before, and removing these rough plaster blocks was a monstrous removed - each one weighs as much as a solid rock of those dimensions and I have no idea how a few nails were holding them up on the ceiling joists.
  Also found a hat in the attic from 1942. I like to imagine some young worker wondering for the rest of his life where he put his favorite hat.
  
  That's fascinating, I never heard of those small plaster panels - could they be a type of Sackett Board? According to Wikipedia they were made in 36" panels, maybe there were also smaller ones - although 1942 would be kind of late for them.
  Finding that hat is awesome! Was it a "slouch hat" workers commonly wore? The coolest thing I've found in my 1910 house was a WWII draft card inside a wall - I think it fell through a very thin gap between the windowsill boards. Always wondered if the guy put it there intentionally or what.
- use cabinet grade instead of construction grade for your plywood. The good shit will actually be what it says it is.
  
  I didn't know that. But at this point I can barely afford sanded shop plywood from Home Depot.

M'erican here. My workshop is 100% metric. I do far too much measuring, designing and planning to fuck around with inches, feet and football fields. Motherfuck the imperial system. America has been robbed of the superior until of measurement. Every last bit of my work is in millimeters and it will be that way until I die in a horrible firey accident in my shop because beer and dangerous power tools are just too much fun when taken together.
- The only thing I will hand to the imperial system is how it uses inches. Then again that's really a part of the system but of its practical use.
  What I like is the use of parts of inches. Especially the fractions which are powers of two. Very useful. That's a little difficult with the cm and mm because they're already so small. And a dm is quite large on the other hand.
  I know my uncle uses inches to make flutes e.g. Supposedly helps with getting things lined up and accurate to tune. I dunno. But yeah. Otherwise, metric ftw.
  
  What I like is the use of parts of inches. Especially the fractions which are powers of two. Very useful. That's a little difficult with the cm and mm because they're already so small.
  What? With millimeters you barely have to use fractions because it is so small, how is that a negative? Fractions are also way harder to understand if you need to het precise

Oh no, it's worse than that... we use the metric system to measure the customary system...
The Mendenhall Order marked a decision to change the fundamental standards of length and mass of the United States from the customary standards based on those of England to metric standards. It was issued on April 5, 1893, by Thomas Corwin Mendenhall.
\ [...]
\ Mendenhall ordered that the standards used for the most accurate length and mass comparison change from certain yard and pound objects to certain meter and kilogram objects, but did not require anyone outside of the Office of Weights and Measures to change from the customary units to the metric system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendenhall_Order
Technically every unit in the US customary measurement system is just a weird conversion factor of an equivalent metric unit. At this point 1 yard was defined as 3600/3937 meter, which means 1 inch = 2.54000508 cm. By 1959 everyone finally agreed that this was stupid and redefined it as 1 yard = 0.9144 m (1 inch = 2.54 cm).
All measurements in the US are based on standard reference objects provided by BIPM.

Most of us know what two liters of carbonated sugar water looks like.
- Hey, that's flavored carbonated sugar water if you don't mind.

Every US company I’ve (engineer) worked for has been a metric company
- I (machinist) have only seen a few large US firms or companies send me a metric print. Different worlds, I guess.
  
  As an engineer who dabbles in machining, that checks out. What really grinds my gears (sometimes literally) is how sometimes people use fractions of an inch and sometimes people use decimals.

This is why i use the amertric system
It 318 kft not 60 mi or 100 km. That avalanche was 1 decaempire State building in volume. 1 mi is actually 2.28 kft.

.223: Proper American rifle round.
5.56: Communist European rifle round.
- 5.56 puts out slightly higher pressures. I used to have a bolt action .223 rifle that wasn't rated for 5.56. I sold it to an old guy in the country who was going to use it to kill coyotes stalking his chickens and small livestock.
  
  I was gonna say similar, minus the coyote shooting. Well, kinda.

cops: "9mm is too weak! we need something with 'stopping power!"
gun people: "ok here's 10mm"
cops: "too much recoil!"
gun people: "ok here's .40 s&w"
cops: "u no wat, we're just gonna stick with 9mm"

And the only time they use the proper date format is their national holiday.
- If you mean dd-mm-yyyy instead of mm-dd-yyyy, I’d agree it’s superior. That said, other countries have us both with their fully ISO compliant yyyy-mm-dd standard.
- Who certifies the "proper" format? Im fairly sure it isnt dd-mm-yy

Hey, we also measure our large soda bottles that way!
- And street drugs

Ignore all the rest of the US rounds like .30-06, .30-30, .357, etc.
- And let's not get started on .338 lapua magnum.
  A bastard child of both American and British measurements, ending up being made by a metric manufacturer.

and drugs

Took me a while to realize that Caliber is roughly inch/100. Once I did I no longer needed to memorize them.
- I don’t understand. A 5.56mm round has a .223 bullet. .223 is the caliber and is in inches already, no math required. .223 / 100 =0.00223 which isn’t particularly useful.
  
  Their math was flawed, but I'm not really sure how to explain the math part better. I get what they were going for, though.
  It's closer to decimal divisions of an inch, so a .223 caliber bullet would be a hair shy of a quarter of an inch (.25) wide.
  Edit: just realized you had the second part of that already
  
  caliber
  dodge caliber
  .233 bullet
  bullet is ~1/4 the size of a compact vehicle
  us military: ERECT

whats fucking weird to me is that we use millimeters and inches on the same fucking rulers.
- I have some rulers like that but they are just very cheap.

Also wetsuits…? 🤷‍♀️

they would freak out if they have to measure temperature in kelvins, even celcius freaks americans out.

Hey, that's a win. I'll take it.

We all use metric. We need to just rip the bandaid off.

Well you know, first things first.

9mm Parabellum was designed by Austrian George Luger 10mm Auto was designed by FFV Norma AB of Sweden 5.56 NATO was developed in Belgium by FN Herstal, as was 5.7mm 7.62×39mm was developed by the Soviets
These European cartridges all use metric measurements
.223 Remington, .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, .40 Smith & Wesson, .22lr, .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .44 Remington Magnum are all American made cartridges that use decimals of Imperial measurements Original designer’s name gets includes because, well, capitalism lol
I think one of the few exceptions might be 6.5mm Creedmoor, developed by Hornady

Hey! HEY!
For many calibers, we often still call them by their size in inches.
All of these are named by the diameter of the bullet in inches.
eg: .22 means .22 inches.
-rim fire-
.17 hmr
(basically a .22 WMR necked down to .17. rising in popularity as a kind of... more powerful, faster thus flatter trajectory, replacement for longer ranged .22 shooters)
.22 short
(early revolver round, early semi auto round, still used fairly widely for both, today)
.22 long rifle
(still widely used today in carbines and revolvers, as well as down caliber'd variants or kits for 'meaner' looking semi-autos)
.22 WMR
(.22 lr, but magnum. big boy .22)
-center fire-
.223
(the 5.56 before the 5.56 was NATO standardized. very short summary: they basically just put more gunpowder in a .223, and called that 5.56x45. many in the US still use weapons that are made for .223... but you're gonna want to upgrade your barrel to something that can handle the greater gun powder in 5.56 if you are not a fan of your gun exploding in your face when you fire it)
.38
(many variants of this exist, most notably the .38 ACP for semi autos, and the .38 special for revolvers)
.40, or 'forty cal'
(early attempt at making something meaner than a 9x19mm, led by the FBI, less generally popular today, but was very popular with the FBI for a while)
.45 ACP
(the caliber of the iconic Colt 1911)
.300 blackout
(an 'intermediary' round that is between the NATO 5.56 and 7.62, often used with suppressed weapons)
.357 magnum
(very, very common revolver round. Sig Sauer actually at one point made a .357 sig for use in semi autos... don't think anyone really uses those any more)
30-30, or 'thirty thirty'
(lever action carbine round, been around for over 100 years, like the .357, probably not going away anytime soon, as the lever actions that shoot them have not only remained fairly popular, but also are currently having a bit of a rennaissance with many gun makers in more legally restrictive states offering 'tactical' lever actions with modern housing, collapsable stocks, optics mounts etc)
30.06, or 'thirty ought six'
(basically, a 7.62 NATO that's 12 mm longer, used to be standard in military springfield rifles, also used in the BAR, still used by many hunters today in some kind of rifle)
.338 Lapua Magnum
(specialized sniper rifle round... if you don't count 50 BMG or even larger, anti-materiel rounds, the lapua has the longest recorded, confirmed sniper kill in history... though this may possibly now be incorrect as of the RussoUkraine conflict... point is, its a very capable sniper cartridge, good deal of wealthier US hunters and long range target shooting enthusiasts love it as well)
.410
(for some estoeric reason, this skinnier shotgun round is not referred to with the standard 'gauge' nomenclature)
.44 magnum
(dirty harry's revolver caliber, which will take your head clean off, assuming you do not feel lucky)
45-70
(older, fuck off huge revolver / lever action round)
'50 cal'
(can refer to either the .50 AE, famously used in the Desert Eagle, or the .50 BMG, used in the 'Ma Deuce' M2 Browning Heavy Machine Gun, and the Barret M82 Anti Materiel Rifle)
...
I've almost certainly missed a good number, point being, us American gun nuts... and/or gun nerds... yeah we learned metric, but we still use inches/imperial all the damn time.
We really only call NATO standardized rounds by mm. 9mm, 5.56mm, 7.62mm... and I guess the 6.8 grendel, and newer 6.8x51mm round the Sig Spear / M7 uses... and also I guess we size grenade launcher rounds in mm, but uh, ....civillians generally don't get live grenade launcher rounds in the US.
We had to draw the line somewhere rofl, and apparently it is grenade launchers, hahahah.

It's like that because everyone else measures them that way, and capitalism. It's not even because it's a better system, it's because money.

And by "Americans" you mean the companies that manufacture the firearms, right? Or whatever body, if any, that controls what size ammunition cartridges are measured by?
- Both are used. If you see caliber after the number it's in 100 of an inch. If you see mm it's metric. (Though caliber refers to barrel diameter and can be expressed in imperial or metric). So a 45 caliber is 0.45 inches or about 11.5mm.
  NATO has standardised on a few round types so they can share supplies between countries. The NATO 7.62×51mm round is very similar to the .308 and they can usually be interchanged.
  
  And when not, kablammo?!

They so stupid, they unconsciously use it everyday for example to calculate medicines' dosages or measuring time (miliseconds), it only shows how backwards and limited their measurement system really is.
- Time is mostly base 60. It goes against the metric system based 10.
  It's like saying milifoot. For 1/1000th of a foot. Doesn't make it a metric unit.