• Cethin@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    The US usually consistently uses imperial, which sucks but it’s consistent. England switches between the two constantly. They’re crazy people, and they use measures like “stone” for weight sometimes too. Metric is obviously the better system, but consistency is better than randomly deciding which to use when.

    • HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Consistently. Like the 500mL bottle of water I’m currently drinking in coastal Alabama?

      Like the 2 and 3L sodas sold in stores all across the USA as far back as I can remember? I’m about a month and a half away from 50 years old btw.

      Or maybe like how all our drugs medicines, over the counter, and yes, even the illegal ones, are all in milligrams or grams?

      Or our military using kilometers to measure distance across land, although calling it a klick because it’s faster to say than kilometer?

      Or how most of our weapons are measured in millimeters?

      That sort of consistency?

      • jagungal@aussie.zone
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        3 hours ago

        The fact that you call kilometers “klicks” does my head in since the rest of the English speaking world shortens it to “kays”

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        5 hours ago

        Some of those are because international standards (the military and ammo, although the US military uses yards more than kilometers, but they do use both, probably because of international influence). Some are because science is run on metric (pharmacists).

        Litres though, yeah, idk. I’m assuming it’s because it’s easier to make a bottle in Litres and sell it around the world? Litres predate metric too, so it could be because of that? I never see poured liquids measured in Litres though, only bottles. Usually it’s pints or fluid ounces.

        I do have to congratulate illegal drugs for teaching metric to Americans probably better than our schools though. It’s an interesting dynamic.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          3 hours ago

          Could also be a hold over from WW1 or WW2 that caused the weird drunk litres thing, would not put it past some dude in logistics getting bitched at by the French and that situation spiraling into litre measurements being standardized for drinks.

    • TheTetrapod@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Our smallest unit of weight is the ounce, which is 28g, and as much as Americans hate metric, we hate fractions more.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          Under an eighth you switch to grams. But in my experience the professionalization of cannabis seems to be metricating it.

          The US is slowly, item by item, learning metric. We know how much a liter is from soda. We’re learning how much a gram is from drugs, and before too long something will teach us what a meter is.

          • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 hours ago

            In the ultimate American way of learning metric, from a young age I could estimate 9 milimeters from holding ammunition, and estimate 10-50 meters from learning to shoot. God Bless the USA 🫡