Mastodawn

Benjamin Hollon 🇺🇸🇲🇾🇮🇳🇦🇫May 1, 2023

@saramg
That is *amazing*. XD

Technically, the US's units are defined based on the metric system. A pound, for example, is defined as 0.4535 kg, or whatever the exact number is. :)

@benjaminhollon @saramg 1kg = 2.2lb

It's much easier in the other direction. Similarly,

1" = 2.54cm

Doire May 3, 2023

@vwbusguy @benjaminhollon @saramg
Two and a quarter pounds of ham
Weigh about a kilogram
Which is a useless memory prompt as you spend your time wondering if it might have been jam.

On the other hand I think
A Litre of water's
a pint and three quarters
Is genius.

nantucketlit May 1, 2023

@saramg I'm still trying to figure out OMG Cholesterol.

Mans R May 1, 2023

@saramg A Florida ounce is to a regular ounce as a Florida man is to a regular man.

Baron Von J May 2, 2023

@mansr @saramg A Florida ounce is the water displacement of a an average weight juvenile gator.

strwbrryJen May 1, 2023

@saramg i want to cry into my pillow every time i'm reminded that i'm american......

rednafi May 1, 2023

@saramg also a bit better education

Josh Butts May 1, 2023

@saramg I had the same problem with drinks when visiting Germany. I saw a label in “dl” and assumed it was Deutche Liters.

Derick Rethans May 1, 2023

@josh @saramg /me frowns in German 🇩🇪 :-)

SaraMG May 1, 2023

@josh I assure you, were the Deutche Liter a unit, it would be FAR more than a mere 100ml.

Derick Rethans May 1, 2023

@saramg @josh Yeah, it would be 1000ml, or... 10cm³.

SaraMG May 1, 2023

@derickr @josh That is the most German response I could possibly imagine.

Derick Rethans May 1, 2023

@saramg @josh I'll see that as a compliment for my teutonic tendencies.

Sebastian Bergmann

@derickr "Teutonic Tendencies" sounds like the name of a band that might be cool.

Martin Haſeneyer May 2, 2023

@josh @saramg With this we try to hide that the correction factor differs by region. In Bavaria, it is either one liter or half a liter, set by state government. In Cologne it is 0.2 liter, everywhere else usually 0.33 or 0.4 liter depending on local regulations, but can vary. (We tried to unify that once for all. As we still depend on fax machines, nobody was yet able to gather all authorities for a common meeting to do so.)

Andreas Krennmair May 2, 2023

@josh @saramg this is a Deutscher Liter, ever so slightly less than a metric liter because it is always served slightly underpoured.

HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴May 1, 2023

@saramg

Hilarious

#DeathSantis already has people believing #Florida has its own system of measurements:

https://fosstodon.org/@saramg/110295705736544857

SaraMG (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Y'all, America desperately needs to embrace the metric system. Fer reals.

Fosstodon

mike805 May 1, 2023

@saramg it should have been understood from the beginning that everything must be labeled in both units for one human lifetime. Some people will get an intuitive grasp of the metric units from seeing both units on containers all the time.

The rest will die. And the next generation that grew up learning metric units won't have a problem.

john spurling May 1, 2023

@saramg milliliters are the sort of ml I can get behind

Agora May 1, 2023

@saramg 🤣🤣🤣

@saramg There are only three countries in the entire world NOT using metric.

Liberia
Myanmar
United States

America is in good company.

@jimgoodall @saramg When the English and Aussies weigh themselves in "stone", which metric system are they using?

@vwbusguy @saramg
Stone predates metric.
I'm Canadian and use both imperial and metric, because I'm old enough.

Try being in Canada and measuring distances in hours driven.
Construction measurements are metric, but when you measure yourself, it's feet and inches.
Shipping weight is metric, but a person's weight is pounds.
Weather temperature is Celcius, but normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees.
It's a bizarre mix.

@jimgoodall @vwbusguy I think the problem might be "people who speak English as their native language".

Reay Jespersen May 2, 2023

@jimgoodall @vwbusguy @saramg Out of curiosity, which construction measurements are metric?
We had a reno done recently, and decided our ceiling heights in feet, all the studs remain 16" on-centre, etc.

I'm old enough to still weigh myself in pounds (vs. the doctor weighing my daughter in kg, requiring my using a calculator), still use F on my oven, and had until quite recently, for decades, thought I was six feet tall because my driver's licence says I'm 180 cm.

https://www.reayjespersen.com/blog-1/2022/06/22/update-to-the-confusion-about-my-height/

Update to the confusion about my height – Reay Jespersen

@reay @vwbusguy @saramg
I’m retired from 40 years in construction, with the last 20 years being mostly under contract to City of Toronto. Water pumping stations and sewage treatment plants.
Everything is metric with CoT.

Your studs would be 40.6 cms.

Still annoying.

Reay Jespersen May 2, 2023

@jimgoodall @vwbusguy @saramg So even in the same industry, it’s still a mixed bag of imperial vs. metric. 🤷‍♂️

@reay @jimgoodall @saramg That is an issue for American cars. I've had Fords that mixed Standard and Metric on the same vehicle and it was incredibly frustrating.

@vwbusguy @reay @saramg
I was visiting the Canadian NORAD bunker in North Bay, Ontario, many years ago. I looked at the three big diesel generators there, & they were English Electric brand, out of the 50's. The guys there told us about how when they were first installed, the fasteners on them were all British Whitworth threads. Once they were operating, all modifications done on them were done with SAE threads. In the 80's, they went metric.
THREE full sets of tools required to do anything.

Jonathan Frederickson May 2, 2023

@jimgoodall @vwbusguy @saramg
> Try being in Canada and measuring distances in hours driven.

We do that one in the US too

Haelwenn /элвэн/

@jimgoodall @vwbusguy @saramg
How to measure things like a Canadian.png

@lanodan @vwbusguy @jimgoodall This is actually, shockingly close to my flowchart. Though I've erased Fahrenheit from my world with the exception of cooking.. The bit about cooking (temps and measures) is spot effing on.

@saramg @lanodan @jimgoodall One thing that's always interesting to me is that I never hear Americans use the term "Imperial". You might rarely hear a Canadian gallon referred to as "Imperial" but we call it Standard (or US Standard). A hardware store person might ask you "Standard or Metric?" (if Metric is even an option for that tool).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_imperial_and_US_customary_measurement_systems

@saramg @lanodan @jimgoodall When people say stuff like "US needs to got off Imperial measurements", the first thought is "When did we adopt Canadian gallons" before I realize they're conflating US Standard and Imperial because the units have the same names.

Comparison of the imperial and US customary measurement systems - Wikipedia

Haelwenn /элвэн/

@vwbusguy @saramg @jimgoodall Ah yeah, the part where it gets *really* annoying internationally because you have to ask yourself if the person is british or american if you need enough precision.

@saramg @lanodan @jimgoodall Odd fun fact, the US Standard system is actually older than the Imperial system in terms of definition of the standards.

Haelwenn /элвэн/

@vwbusguy @saramg @jimgoodall So UK adopted US standards but changed few bits? Or most unit conversion software are just doing it wrong?

https://youtube.com/shorts/4zYFl8gLj-o?feature=share

@lanodan @saramg @jimgoodall Nah, more like US is preserving an older system that got codified half a century before the UK one did. Same thing for US English versus UK. Often US English preserves older pronunciations or wording preferences as UK English continued to evolve and standardize well after the separation.

Why Do Americans Put an 'R' Sound in Colonel? | #shorts

YouTube

https://youtube.com/shorts/XmwJeB-vxgM?feature=share

@lanodan @saramg @jimgoodall Or perhaps more relevant:

Why Do Americans Call it the Pound Sign? | #shorts

YouTube

Rue Ciphervale May 2, 2023

@jimgoodall @vwbusguy @saramg Ecuador's pretty similar -- you buy meters of pipe but the diameter's in inches, gas is in gallons but everything else is in liters, etc.

Josh Samuel May 2, 2023

@vwbusguy @jimgoodall @saramg Aussies use kilograms. No one uses imperial measurements here.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Kingdom

glyn May 2, 2023

@vwbusguy @jimgoodall @saramg Distances on UK roads are still in miles. Metrication didn't quite take.

But thank goodness we no longer do money calculations in pounds, shillings, and pence! (£1 was 20s, 1s was 12d)

Metrication in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

rood May 2, 2023

@jimgoodall @saramg Liberia doesn't count. It's Merica 2'0

Reay Jespersen May 2, 2023

@jimgoodall @saramg A couple of years back I was also stunned to discover that Canada and the U.S. are among the I think only TEN countries on the planet who still use "letter" sized paper instead of the way more intuitive A1, A2-type sizing.

Hey, North America and the handful of others: Time to let it go, already.

@saramg Thanks for this. Best laugh I've had all day.

Brace of Hounds May 2, 2023

@saramg I just love the way that would play out, if there was any traction to switch to metric. It would go on a state-by-state basis, with some states eager and switching over, and others fighting it to the death. The adorable prospect of people from the latter crossing state lines and yee-hawing as they see the speed liimit go from 70 (mph) to 110 (kph). And 50 or 70 in residential areas. Freedom!

ADHDel-DRAFT-v10-final (2).doc May 2, 2023

@saramg @lmgenealogy …and start writing your dates the same way as every other country.

@del @saramg I agree, but I was interested to notice, while studying history in Scotland, that the system of dates now considered uniquely American was formerly used in the UK as well.

ADHDel-DRAFT-v10-final (2).doc May 2, 2023

@lmgenealogy @saramg Much like lots of our language we likely moved to distance ourselves from the US when they went their own way.

I like that our date is more human-relevant yet we use Celsius for temperature. The US use human-relevant Fahrenheit but then mess up their dates!

@del @saramg Alas, it doesn't matter where you go, there will be *something* irrational.

@del @lmgenealogy Negative. ISO-8601 or GTFO.

ADHDel-DRAFT-v10-final (2).doc May 2, 2023

@saramg @lmgenealogy I’m a UXer so the answer is it depends. Let me attempt to soften your GTFO 😂

1.
Friday, 5th May 2023 for humans (and readability). Shortened as appropriate:

- Friday, 5th May 2023
Useful for dates way in the future.

- Friday, 5th May
Most times we can presume the year and drop it.

- Friday, 5th
Drop the month if we’re referring to this month (or next if the numerical value is lower than today).

- Friday
If the date is within seven or so days of today we can even rely on the day of the week and don’t even need the numerical date.

Including the actual day of the week at every stage makes it useful, #accessible and #inclusive, particularly for the #neurodivergent community; as much as 20% of the population.

2.
Obviously all the above is little help when working with data. That’s when 2023-05-03 is the only way.

@del @lmgenealogy I was ready to agree right up until "Friday" by itself. I have had WAY too many arguments with people using that variant incorrectly. e.g. "No, not tomorrow-friday, the next friday, if I meant tomorrow-friday I'dda said tomorrow!"

Which just makes my engineer brain scream.

@del @lmgenealogy
Obviously yes, spoken dates are a very different animal and I never say "See ya on 2023-05-05!"

Written dates though.... I'm less inclined to exclude year and will pretty much only do "5th May, 2023" or "2023-05-05" as the only unambiguous options.

@saramg @del I would write "5 May 2023", but have used the year-month-day on documents. The problem for me is that I currently live in the US, so I'm always confused: If someone writes 12/5, I see 12 May, when the person who wrote the date meant 5th of December.

@lmgenealogy @del Right. That's what I mean. X/Y/Z is meaningless unless we're lucky to be talking about a date after the 12th of the month.

ShadSterling May 2, 2023

@saramg @lmgenealogy @del I just never write the month as a number, or the year as only 2 digits, so it’s never ambiguous. Some might pause for a moment to translate the ordering, but they’ll never misread it as a different date