this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 251 points 4 months ago (14 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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'

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months 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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I've also learnt to point with my lips. It's pretty handy.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (9 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

According to this chart, goat milk is vegan 🤔

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Goats are actually malevolent vegetables.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

If it's medical, over 12%abv, or 2L of soda we use metric. Or related to spaceflight after the incident

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Butter comes in sticks that are 1/2 cup. So half a stick is 1/4 a cup

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (6 children)

True, but that's just replacing a cup with a length, and rules out using an existing tub.

Why not use weight, which is easy to measure and tolerant of different forms/shapes?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Butter in a tub usually isn't pure butter as they add oil to it to make it spreadable when cold.

Recipes that call for butter are normally designed for true/pure butter and may not cook or bake properly if spreadable stuff is used. (there is however Amish rolled butter that's sold in big 'loaves' where measuring can be annoying)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Unless you need to measure it in grams then it's super simple!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Since volume is equivalent to metres cubed and distance is equivalent to metres (both multiplied by some conversion coefficient), I think fuel efficiency should be measured in metres squared, because why not.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

This is a correct unit for it. Why? Think of it like a tube where as you move along it you use up the fuel. Over a set distance you would use more in a lower efficiency vehicle. Since the length of that pipe is the same, then the change would be the area of the ends of the pipe. Thus fuel efficiency is an area, smaller is better.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

https://what-if.xkcd.com/11/

(Yes, the "bird poop" one is correct, it does talk about fuel consumption too).

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's common talking about babies birth weight but that's about it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I'm 14st 13lb. Nowhere near 15 stone.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Short distances should be meters, feet, inches, millimetres.

None of that fractions of an inch bollocks.

And milk is often actually in litres and half litres, we just assume it's in pints. Clever little bit of shrinkflation.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

fractions of an inch bollocks

my condolences

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Short distances should be meters, feet, inches, millimetres.

American machinists go a different way altogether: thousandths of an inch. So no binary fractions, but still imperial-ish. :/

And milk is often actually in litres and half litres, we just assume it’s in pints.

That one makes sense.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

your track widths and PCB dimensions will be in millimetres

Not milli-inches? Is this a UK thing or have PCB design evolve since I last touched it?

Anyway, milli-inches is one of the funniest unities I've used.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

How about breast milk? It is neither cow milk, nor vegan milk...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Isn't it vegan if it's sourced by consent?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Presumed consent is not consent. We cannot assume it was consensually sourced.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Like the steak in the restaurant at the end of the universe?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Measure in ml if it's outside, or g if it's in the baby, I think.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Or cup size, if still in the source container.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

There's also a difference between imperial miles and nautical miles, though I'm not sure if British long distance ships use nautical miles or not.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Aviation uses nautical miles across the western world.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Yes. Calculating how much a car journey is going to cost is such a chore. Trip in miles ÷ mpg × 4.5 × £/litre of fuel = cost.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You forgot that inside temperature is in Fahrenheit, outside is in Celcius.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

No it isn't, I rarely see fahrenheit in the UK

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Old people who still remember old money

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

How old are you? Even my parents, both in their 70s, use Celcius for everything.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

But what if it is horse milk?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

How about spherical feet?