I don’t see why everyone else in the world can’t just put in a little effort to do things our way instead. 'Murica!
I’ll see myself out.
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F to C → Subtract 30º, half it /// C to F → double, add 30º. Close enough (well, for “weather” temps).
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Given, that this is winter time, it’s perhaps more useful to remember that -40 is the same temperature in either system.
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Legalized cannibas gives the metric system new life in the US.
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I see you’ve bought the disinformation campaign perpetrated by Big Metric.
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Someone once tried to convince me that the pint was such a great unit because it was exactly the right amount to drink with a meal. Interestingly that was supposed to be true for both US and Imperial pints, but 500ml just wouldn’t do.
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Aw dang, I never thought about it that way. Our evolutionary processes are mathematically inconvenient. So instead of converting to metric, we should convert to duodecimal numbering!
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I grew up learning and using both the US and metric systems in grade school through high school, but once I hit college I used the metric system almost exclusively except for a few classes.
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I believe the proper nomenclature is “Megametric.”
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I think that’s NATO standardisation more than early adoption
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That’s a big part of it for sure but Wikipedia says US ground units have been using “klicks” since 1918.
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I use metric whenever I can, because for most things, it’s just better. Easier to math in your head when you don’t have to remember how many smaller units in a larger unit. But I still use Fahrenheit for temperature. I like the increase in precision, meaning I don’t need decimals. And there’s nothing about temperature that makes setting the freezing point of water at 0 (as opposed to 32) affect my day-to-day in the slightest.
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American here. This is the most stupid nation (although the UK seems to fighting for the honor).
I’ve been using mm, cm, etc. for fine measurements for a long time. 5 7/8 inches is madness.
I was amazed to learn that many engineering trades, e.g. PCB layout, use mills, or 1/100s of an inch. Except I’d expect mills to be thousands of an inch. Insanity!
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I curse this during every DIY home improvement project. Read the directions to assemble something, discover parts are missing/damaged, go the hardware store, and wind up attempting conversions in the aisle.
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addiing to any confusion, wwikipedia says
A thousandth of an inch is a derived unit of length in a system of units using inches. Equal to 1⁄1000 of an inch, a thousandth is commonly called a thou /ˈθaʊ/ (used for both singular and plural) or particularly in North America a mil (plural mils ). Thousandth of an inch - Wikipedia
pretty big error. Thou (or hund if you really do mean that) might be a better term
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hoo boy! i can confirm mil as a source of confusion regarding paper thickness in printing. something like a 4mil text weight sheet, like your basic home printer paper, is .004 inches thick or 4 point. not to be confused however, with type measurements where 12 points make a pica - where 2 points ~= 1mm. and don’t even start on paper “weight” e.g. 20point coated cover is labeled as 100 pound cover (where 500 sheets of a certain size would weigh 100 pounds). much simpler to give weights in grams/square meter - GSM, but that would be too damn confusing to dumb ol’ 'mercans.
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And good luck finding A4 paper at Office Depot!
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I see this argument a lot and I just don’t get it. I can’t feel the difference between 25°C and 25.5°C. Why would I ever need that precision?
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It’s even an earlier adopter when you consider our monetary system. While England was going on about pounds, shillings (20 to a pound) and pennies (12 to a shilling) and other countries had a variety of monetary systems, we chose one based on the metric system in 1792:
1 dollar = 10 decidollars (shortened to dimes)
1 dollar = 100 centidollars (shortened to cents)
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It’s certainly handy to be able to tell at one glance whether the roads will be icy or not
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