Why don't Americans have proper units?

[idunnosomename]

I mean speed limits are a big one. Our whole system is based around increments of 10 mph.

[touchingcloth]

I think I've seen some systems neither working in proper metric or imperial either, instead choosing compromise sizes like the 'metric foot':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_2848#:~:text=A%20metric%20foot%20is%20a,shorter%20than%20an%20imperial%20foot.

This is fine for a lot of paper calculations but is yet another thing you've got to figure out how to convert if you're building a system that can display in either based on locale settings.

They should just do the sensible thing and simplify everything to angstroms and zeptoseconds, then working out the rate of change in acceleration to calculate your arrival time at the moon is just a trivial matter of shifting a few decimal points around. A fucking baby could handle that, a fucking congenitally stupid prick of a baby could manage it.

[Zetetic]

I mean speed limits are a big one. Our whole system is based around increments of 10 mph.

Right, but there are no metric units being "hidden from public view" there.

It's not as though the system of speed limits is beings secretly calculated in increments of 4.4704 m/s. (Edit: Although DfT work on traffic speeds is often expressed in km/h, which I thought was odd, but I guess also reflects the non-UK specific tools they're probably using.)

[Sebastian Cobb]

They should just do the sensible thing and simplify everything to angstroms and zeptoseconds, then working out the rate of change in acceleration to calculate your arrival time at the moon is just a trivial matter of shifting a few decimal points around. A fucking baby could handle that, a fucking congenitally stupid prick of a baby could manage it.

I'd probably just use the pint library and curse the fact that the first thing their documentation tells you to do is instantiate a class with no variables just to access some constants.

[buzby]

Right, but there are no metric units being "hidden from public view" there.

Indeed - on motorways in England there are metric distance signs that are intended to be visible to the public - Driver Location Signs:

These areplaced every 500m alongside each carriageway and give the name of the road, the carriageway and the distance in kilometers from the road's datum point intended to assist motorisits in reporting breakdowns or accidents. They are a more public display of the information on the Distance Marker Posts, which are every 100m along the side of the road and used to provide a location datum for maintenance workers and emergency services

[touchingcloth]

Aha! Miles are a stupid measurement once you get used to leaving them behind. I was resistant to making the mental switch to km when I first moved to mainland Europe, and kept the satnav in miles / mph even though road signs were given in km / kmh, but at a certain point I realised that doing mental multiplications and divisions by 1.6 was a big waste of time.

The signs leading up to junctions are a good case in point. If you have a junction 2km ahead and are travelling at 120km/h it's easy enough to work out how long it will be before you arrive at the junction, and easy to switch when you reach the III/II/I signs which count down from 300m away from the junction.

Try doing the same when you're travelling at 70mph with the junction 2 miles away and the signs counting you down from 300 yards. I end up converting the 70 and 2 into rough metric numbers, then saying fuck it and calling 300 yards the same thing as 300m.

EDIT: I note that "saying fuck it and calling 300 yards the same thing as 300m" is exactly what the people who produced that image did. And they're presumably the professionals.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Fluid ounces and FUCK OFF.

How on earth am I supposed to measure that. ML I can deal with because I know that a pint is 568 ml so can take a decent guess at 200ml or whatever.

[beanheadmcginty]

There's an actress in Kindergarten Cop called Park Overall

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0653802/

[Better Midlands]

I thought this was going to be about kitchens.

Been reading Mumsnet too much.

[Buelligan]

Right, but there are no metric units being "hidden from public view" there.

Have you considered that they may be expertly hidden?

[Uncle TechTip]

Ha as if workies actually measure where they're placing temporary signage rather than leaving it where it lands.

Things you assumed everyone else does - compared the distance between road signs and distance registered on the speedo.

[Rizla]

One thing that's weird is the vague measurements in American recipes.  Two sticks of butter and three teacups of lard.  What the fuck is that?

I can't look at american recipes, I find them enraging. Mince mushrooms? Carmelise? Broil? Stovetop? Their cookers are weird too, hobs too far apart like the eyes on an inbred person. Like they've got gigantism.

[touchingcloth]

Their cookers are weird too, hobs too far apart like the eyes on an inbred person. Like they've got gigantism.

I've always struggled to describe Vicent Cassel's face, but you've done it.



Face like an American stovetop.

[canadagoose]

Imperial measurements are ridiculous. They should have completely metricated the UK, road signs and all.

[Buelligan]

I've always struggled to describe Vicent Cassel's face, but you've done it.



Face like an American stovetop.

Nah, you're wrong, it's the hammerhead thing.  Once you've seen it...


_Voila!

[Dr Rock]

STOP SAYING ERBS AND LEARN HOW TO PRONOUNCE DANIEL CRAIGS NAME HES ONLY BEEN JAMES BOND FOR TWENTY YEARS

[thecuriousorange]

Know what they call a Royale with Cheese in America? A "Quarter Pounder" with Cheese!

[touchingcloth]

Nah, you're wrong, it's the hammerhead thing.  Once you've seen it...


_Voila!

Nah, stoveface.

[Jasha]

Fucking love kpa, use it to measure how far I have walked

I prefer to use bar

Spoiler alert

Cheers
Blue Oyster
Bob's country bunker
The Gold room

[close]

[shiftwork2]

Canadians say 'clicks' for both kilometres and kilometres per hour.  Country needs to have a word with itself.

[Sebastian Cobb]

i thought clicks was just some shit people say if they want to pretend they're soldiers.

[Jasha]

Why hasn't time been decimalised yet?, Formula 1 cars qualify down to 1000ths of a second but we keep at 60 seconds minutes 24 hours 7 days 12 months

[Buelligan]

i thought clicks was just some shit people say if they want to pretend they're soldiers.

That's exactly what I thought.  I always want to kick people in the genitals when they use that particular pathetic little fooling-absolutely-fuck-no-one verbal vanity. 

Sometimes I do it myself, just drop it in.  Not so much in speech but in writing, get the fucking adrenaline pumping.  Hooo-yah.

[Dex Sawash]

General Motors acceptable rate of engine oil consumption is one liter of oil for every 100 gallons of fuel used.
This is so incredibly baffling to customers that I have never had anyone come back to bring me their fuel receipts to get a warranty repair. 

[touchingcloth]

General Motors acceptable rate of engine oil consumption is one liter of oil for every 100 gallons of fuel used.
This is so incredibly baffling to customers that I have never had anyone come back to bring me their fuel receipts to get a warranty repair. 

How are fuel consumption figures given in the states? In the UK they're miles per gallon, but our Euro car has a display for litres per 100km. I know it amounts to the same thing, but my brain can't get used to it because it's somehow easier and less abstract to visualise how far the €5 of fuel you have just pumped will get you than it is to think in 100km chunks.

[Sebastian Cobb]

How are fuel consumption figures given in the states? In the UK they're miles per gallon, but our Euro car has a display for litres per 100km. I know it amounts to the same thing, but my brain can't get used to it because it's somehow easier and less abstract to visualise how far the €5 of fuel you have just pumped will get you than it is to think in 100km chunks.

I once killed a bit of time on a boring drive in a rental car trying to convert that in my head.

I think in the US they use mpg too, but it's not interchangeable with British mpg's because their gallons are smaller.

[Sebastian Cobb]

General Motors acceptable rate of engine oil consumption is one liter of oil for every 100 gallons of fuel used.
This is so incredibly baffling to customers that I have never had anyone come back to bring me their fuel receipts to get a warranty repair.

And yet in the UK the general consensus is older Fords tend to drink oil whereas older Vauxhalls tend to drink water.

If vague consensus is on reddit are anything to go by, a lot of people there overplay the importance of oil-changes and don't realise that your car doesn't suddenly break if you go over a certain number of miles without doing them.

[Dex Sawash]

I once killed a bit of time on a boring drive in a rental car trying to convert that in my head.

I think in the US they use mpg too, but it's not interchangeable with British mpg's because their gallons are smaller.

I like to convert our standard mpg to nautical miles/imperial gallon.

There's no metric latitude/longitude measure, is there?

[touchingcloth]

I once killed a bit of time on a boring drive in a rental car trying to convert that in my head.

I think in the US they use mpg too, but it's not interchangeable with British mpg's because their gallons are smaller.

I've come close to missing turnings when trying to do the same, especially when you're driving a car without km/h markings on the speedo and trying to do the currency exchange rate at the same time.

The US mpg doesn't have to be interchangeable, as as long as you know how many miles per local gallon your car is doing and how much you paid for each gallon it's easy to visualise the cost of your drive. Must be a total piece of piss on US roads given that their pumps measure in gallons.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Never quite understood why the US persists in using Fahrenheit in weather data when just about everyone else in the world went over to Celsius decades ago - even the fusty old UK changed more than 50 years ago.

Nothing wrong with it as a scale, of course, but freezing point being 0 degrees C seems much more intuitive than it being 32 degrees F.