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[-] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 252 points 6 days ago

May I present to you, how to measure like a Brit

Flow chart showing the uses for metric and imperial in the UK

It's great fun especially when you're trying to work out how fuel efficient your car has been when your tank and fuel pump is in litres and the fuel efficiency is in miles per gallon.

Oh and you'll have a jolly time following a recipe from more than 20 years ago trying to remember what the hell "Gas Mark 4" is in centigrade for fan or convection ovens.

Oh and my personal favourite for the industry I'm in: when designing a PCB your component sizes will use imperial codes, your wire diameters will be in AWG, your track widths and PCB dimensions will be in millimetres, but your copper thicknesses will be in ounces despite the final weight for the assembly will be in grams.

[-] addie@feddit.uk 41 points 6 days ago

Bear in mind that the gallon we use is different from the US gallon, too:

  • a UK gallon is eight (imperial) pints of 20 fluid ounces, so 4.54 litres
  • a US gallon is 231 cubic inches, so 3.79 litres

The reason that I thought American car fuel economy was so terrible as a child is partly because UK mpg is +20% on US mpg for the same car on the same fuel. But also, because American car fuel economy is so terrible.

[-] bitwaba@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Don't forget that the UK fluid ounces are different (slightly smaller) than the US fluid ounces as well

20 UK fl oz = 19.21 US fl oz

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[-] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 27 points 6 days ago

Canada has a similar chart, with some fun modifications. For example, distance could be feet/inches, millimeters/meters/kilometers, or minutes/hours, depending on what you are measuring.

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 19 points 6 days ago

As an Indigenous Canadian ... when someone asks me where something, someone, some town, some location, the sun or a celestial object is located ... I turn my head and point with my lips.

And my distance measurements are usually answered first by asking 'why?' .... and if they give an acceptable response, I'll tell them the distance is either ... 'not far' ... 'far' ... or 'very far'

[-] hsdkfr734r@feddit.nl 12 points 6 days ago

I turn my head and point with my lips.

TIL that this is a thing in Indonesia.
I still have some doubts. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BeIUsyoAoLs

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[-] Psythik@lemmy.world 17 points 6 days ago

Thank you for posting this. So sick and tired of people saying that GB switched to Metric.

[-] Overshoot2648@lemm.ee 9 points 6 days ago

This! That stupid map that just shows the US and Burma always annoys me. The US customary system includes Metric units. Canada and England still use Imperial/Customary. And "Metric" Is actually like 5 different systems with similar features like ANSI/ISO, KMS/CGS, and the three different pressure measurements.

Natural units >>> Metric I want an alternative to Metric that uses base 12 units instead.

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[-] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

It's because we're stuck with a bunch of twats who can't let go of the past. They'll stick with Imperial measurements, mostly because the word looks like "Imperialist" and that's the side they want to be on. Jacob Rees-Mogg is a wrought-iron dildo.

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 12 points 6 days ago

According to this chart, goat milk is vegan 🤔

[-] notabot@lemm.ee 12 points 6 days ago

Goats are actually malevolent vegetables.

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[-] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

A similar chart could be made for the US, proving that it does use metric: soda and wine bottles, medicine doses, eye-glasses measurements (in fact most medical things).

I think that both systems are used in schools now.

But then I see cooking instructions for a "cup of chicken strips" and a recipe having 1/4 cup of butter, and I wonder why anyone thought that volume was a good idea there.

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[-] BluesF@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

The only part I disagree with is stone/pounds for people's weight. Although we use stone, I've never heard someone use pounds... Maybe if you're in Weight Watchers or something, but otherwise it'd be rounded to the nearest half a stone (e.g. 9 and a half stone)

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[-] Zip2@feddit.uk 44 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It’s always worth bringing this out again at times like these, while the US trots out the same old excuses for their lack of progress that every other country that used to have old measurements has made.

“It’s fine”.

[-] dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee 19 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The US system month/day/year is pretty bad, but honestly, so is day/month/year. Pretty much everything else is written from largest to smallest unit. Regular numbers: 123, here 1 is the 100s, 2 is the 10s and 3 is the 1s. In money, when a currency also have smaller units, you always say the largest first. "3 dollars, 50 cents." A digital clock displays the numbers ordered from largest to smallest - 10:45:31. So why are people so proud of the european date format? Writing out a full timestamp would switch from increasing to decreasing units.

ISO-8601 is the only sensible choice.

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[-] DakRalter@thelemmy.club 17 points 6 days ago

I've seen people (ie USers) say that imperial makes more sense because it's easily divisible by 2, 3, 4 and 6 so it's more intuitive. Yet I've never seen any of these people campaign to ditch their base 100 currency for a more "intuitive" £ s d style system. You already use decimal currency and find it easier than a system where 240¢ makes $1.

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[-] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

For the Time units - in terms of organizing by a list of numbers, I find year, month, day the best because it organizes itself.

  • 20241210 today
  • 20241211 tomorrow
  • 20241217 a week from now

If these were folders in a computer, they'd be in numerical order automatically.

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[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 81 points 6 days ago

these MFs convey weight in whatever the fuck "stone" is. don't let them shame you for not using liters

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 32 points 6 days ago

It’s 14 lb. Definitely a contender for the dumbest unit in common use.

Should just be called a fortpound

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[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

They'll also list height in meters and centimeters, but list driving distance in miles.

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[-] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 39 points 6 days ago

The UK sorta tried switching to metric but didn't do it completely and now has a weird system where the system you use depends on the situation I hate it

[-] pyre@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago

stone is my favorite stupid measure

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[-] moopet@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 6 days ago

The US does it too, the other way around. They use fractions for a lot of things (3/8", half a foot, etc.) and then switch in decimals (like "2.5 inches") when they think you're not looking. Except for bullets for some reason which are in mm.

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Fractions and decimals are the same units though. It should be easy enough to convert between them as well

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[-] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I end up doing a lot of lazy maths, and remembering rough numbers.

45MPG? That's about 10 miles per litre.
8 inches? Eh, 20cm.

Anything remotely technical, I convert everything to metric (and actually take the time do accurately).
Having the inch-fractions to mm table on the back of a ruler is very useful when using old drill bits and spanners.

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[-] kameecoding@lemmy.world 46 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Invents the word Soccer, calls americans dumb for using it.

(TBF it's dumb, especially since you call hand egg football, sry americans)

[-] BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee 16 points 6 days ago

apparently its short for association football

[-] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

The term football used to apply to any ball sport played on foot (as apposed to on horseback). The idea that it could only belong to soccer is actually quite arrogant.

[-] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 11 points 6 days ago

Yep! It was to distinguish Association Football ("Soccer") from Rugby Union Football ("Rugger").

I suppose we should use "Gridder" for North American "Gridiron Football".

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[-] thepiguy@lemmy.ml 15 points 5 days ago

The UK can pretend all they want, but they ain't part of the metric club.

[-] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 30 points 6 days ago

Everything the UK has done throughout history was just for the banter. We're not a serious people.

[-] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 6 points 6 days ago

True dat. You wouldn't believe the crazy, flavourful food we eat behind closed doors. We save the bland beige-on-toast for when foreigners are around.

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[-] LavenderDay3544@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Screw both. If you don't measure temperature in Kelvin don't talk to me.

[-] LostXOR@fedia.io 23 points 6 days ago

As an American, I use the metric system whenever possible. As of more recently, it's usually taught in schools, as well as used ubiquitously in science. I wouldn't be surprised if the US switches to primarily using the metric system in the next few decades.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Nah, we have already reached the point of being a mix depending on tradition. We have been bottling soda in 20oz bottles and 2 liter bottles for decades and changing all the speed limit signs would cost too much to gain any traction. Just a confusing mix of whatever!

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[-] ptz@dubvee.org 21 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Someone: Ugh, the recipe is in grams, and I need it in ounces.

Me: Just divide by 28

Them: How'd you know that?

Me: ...👀

[-] Zip2@feddit.uk 20 points 6 days ago

That’s fine, it’s the insistence that “cups” is a measurement that pisses me off.

Especially when you have oz, fl oz and cups in one recipe. Sort it the fuck out and just use grams.

[-] AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

Cups can be a nightmare in the UK as it's usually US cups, but sometimes it's metric cups (which are just 250ml, so an entirely redundant measurement in the first place), and recipes rarely say which, and if you buy measuring cups, they'll rarely say which type they are, but more commonly be metric ones, despite those being the least likely that a recipe would use.

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[-] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

For decades, Britain has had campaigners against metric (or the “Napoleonic system” as some of them call it), who were generally on the populist right. There was a grocer who refused to display prices in metric measurements and, when he was fined, refused to pay and was sent to gaol; the tabloids called him the “Metric Martyr”, and lionised him as a hero alongside those who vandalise speed cameras. One of the promises of the Brexit campaign was to abolish the metric system and go back to imperial measures, though after they won, they realised that the imperial measurements have been legally defined in reference to SI units for decades, and establishing a new basis for measurement would be far too expensive and disruptive to do just to placate a bunch of pub bores and opinionated van drivers, so they dropped it.

So Britain has a mixed system (beer and milk are measured in pints, and road distances/speeds in miles, but most other things are metric), only the fluid ounce, which is 1/20 of a pint, is legally defined as 28.4ml or so. Even worse, road distances given in yards (each being around 0.9 of a metre) are actually in metres, going on the assumption that the average person can’t tell the difference. Of course, they can’t call them metres, as there’d be irate letters to The Times and questions in Parliament.

[-] thehatfox@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

There were some polls asking why people voted for Brexit. Not only where there respondents wanting imperial measurements, there was even a small but significant group that wanted the return of pre-decimal currency, which was abolished in 1971.

For those not familiar with the UK’s old currency, it used to be 12 pence in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a pound, and with a variety of coins representing odd combinations of those.

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[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 days ago

The US was a founding member of the Metre Convention, find a new slant

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[-] PanArab@lemm.ee 6 points 5 days ago

The US wanted to rid itself of as much English influence as possible, she even changed the spelling. Odd that she held on to Imperial.

[-] PsychedSy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 days ago

Imperial is slightly different. We use US customary measures.

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[-] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

We bamboozled ourselves. The Brits woke up to the fact the metric system was better and changed. Sure they still have their idiots who like the old system there but they ignore them. Whereas here we let that small minority rule. That is why we are using a broken old system and why we are the only country that is. Because we let the stupid rule in order to beat some imagined enemy.

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this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
1312 points (98.1% liked)

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