this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
521 points (98.2% liked)

Science Memes

11440 readers
288 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 53 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Victim blaming!

Like most things, this is Britain's fault.

[–] Buckshot@programming.dev 24 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No, an imperial ton is 1016kg. America made up this all on their own

[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I mean, sort of. TIL this particular unit came from different definitions of hundredweight. Though, I'd argue this is still kinda of British origin (and the pound).

My favourite unit to pick on when someone doesn't want to switch to metric because it's "European" and they're proud Americans, is BTU.

Why yes, how American, British Thermal Units haha

Don't be me started on tons of refrigeration 0_0 that's nightmare fuel

[–] Malgas@beehaw.org 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The long (British) and short (American) ton are both 20 hundredweights. The American hundredweight is exactly 100 pounds, while the British hundredweight is 112. You tell me which of those is more reasonable.

That said, both units did, in fact, come from Britain. The old Imperial system often used the same name for different units depending on what was being measured and for what purpose. Both countries passed laws to simplify and consolidate these measurements in the early 19th century, but in many cases chose different versions to standardize on.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Isn't it also because they would use the same units but undercut the American buyers or something? Same why a pint isn't a pint?

[–] Malgas@beehaw.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The pints thing actually has the same cause as I was talking about above: The British standardized around the Elizabethan ale gallon, while America used the Queen Anne wine gallon.

[–] Cube6392@beehaw.org 3 points 1 day ago

fuckin'. WHAT!?

like i absolutely believe you, but this sounds completely insane

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 36 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And Reagan, don't forget Reagan scrapping plans to officially switch to metric!

[–] bricklove@midwest.social 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I bet Reagan made "soccer", the British slang for association football, popular among Americans in his youth.

[–] kchr@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 day ago

I think we should call "football" exactly what it is. Unassociated soccer.