this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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Fuck I wish imperial would just disappear. Metric is 100% better in every single way, bar none.
As a European who grew up using only metric I like inches for crafting. It's a good scale for the things I craft and I prefer fractions over decimals when doing quick math or measurements.
But that doesn't mean metric shouldn't be the standard.
I think we should all switch to base twelve and then measure everything in dozenal metric. All problems solved.
Edit: TGM by the Dozenal Society of Great Britain
Base-60 ftw.
I'm all for it if you can manage to make people learn 60 digits <3
Above link stopped working for me so here's another: http://www.dozenalsociety.org.uk/apps/tgm.htm
Can we make it so?
Is lemmy big enough that we can rise awareness for a change? Or the other way around, can we use the rallying behind the metric system to make lemmy popular?
I don't think the majority of Americans have strong feelings about it one way or the other (despite what the internet may say). Honestly it's just so low on the list of priorities that it doesn't seem like we'll ever be in a stable enough place to care about tackling it. Hell we're still struggling to kill daylight savings time and that would require a fraction of the changes required to adopt metric.
Then we should start with daylight savings time.
The interesting question is if social networks can get stuff done without a stable enough place.
We're trying, but the Sunshine Protection Act is stuck in congress. They're tying themselves in knots trying to figure out which time we should settle on. Like, I don't give a duck, just pick one and move on! Ask the farmers and other outdoor workers what they prefer, the rest of us can deal. They're concerned about traffic and whatever when we've seen that time changes cause lost productivity every single year. So infuriating, can't help but waste time on the simplest things.
That's where the social network comes in. Have all farmers in a channel and let them vote.
But let's not forget powerful people who want sunrise in their breakfast room at a certain time. It's stupid but those concerns should also be respected, among many others that can be considered when the requirements are collected.
Imperial unit ratios tend to have a greater number of smaller factors, which makes fractions nicer. 1yd/3 = 1ft. 1ft/3 = 4in.
The fractions don't help me when I go to the grocery store and unit price of one bag of nuts is "per pound" and the unit price of another is "per ounce". You'd better be good at dividing by 16 in your head if you want to price-compare! And you'd better be good at remembering how many fluid ounces are in a quart when you go to the olive oil aisle (hint: it's not 16).
There's nothing nice or consistent about those fractions. A third of one is one of the other, but a third of that is four of the other? Imperial units don't convert in any meaningful or logical way, you have to memorise the conversions. With the metric system, it's all tens.
And the fact that there are no usable units smaller than an inch and you have to use fractions should drive any craftsperson up the wall.
I agree there’s nothing consistent, but having 3 as a factor in ratios does make things nicer - it lets you stick with integer numbers for more things. I’m not saying it’s better than metric, but I do think having more small factors in ratios is nicer than having only the factors 5 and 2.