• Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    I use metric far more than this chart indicates. While I might say something in a recipe calls for a cup, if I need to be specific, it’s 250ml. Even height and weight I ususally know them in both metric and imperial. I was starting elementary school when the metric changeover began which made shopping confusing but eventually retail mostly caught up. I do agree with the travel distances though. Time is a much more common measurement: it will take 10min or 1/2 hour or 15 hours is more likely measurement than x km because it is specific to mode of travel: walk, bike, car, transit, plane.

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        14 hours ago

        While I set my oven to 180 and measure out how many grams of flour to use, I pause to see my pool temperature is 28. On my way back I stepped on a bathroom scale that read 80kg and I thought back to secondary school weigh ins where I was in the under 60 bracket.

        No, the chart doesn’t help. As I said, I don’t understand how Imperial shows up so much on them.

        Using Imperial for construction is true because we buy/sell to the US. But that’s really it, maybe one day we’ll weigh things in stone and cook using gas mark.

  • blackshirt@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Thank you, I’m tired of people saying only the US still uses imperial units.

    UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, … and more still use them.

    And the whole aviation industry is using feet for altitude and the whole world is using inches for screen sizes.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      Feet for altitude, nautical miles for distance traveled, knots for speed, statute miles for visibility, centigrade for temperature and dewpoint, pounds of weight and gallons or quarts for volume.

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
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      14 hours ago

      The U.S. has been on the metric standard since the late 1800s like every other western country (including Canada). It’s populace uses the adjusted imperial units because the U.S. government didn’t historically have the power to campaign for a change.

    • Bad_Ideas_In_Bulk@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      No no, they use United States customary units.

      They’re similar and some units are the same. But not all. Some only have the same name.

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    European variant:

    [ is it displays? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
     ↓ no
    [ is it screws? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
     ↓ no
    [ metric ]
    
    • boonhet@lemmy.zip
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      14 hours ago

      Never seen screws in inches in europe (though I’m sure they exist, just don’t see them being common), but you’re missing wheels, pipes, hoses and fittings, socket wrench drivers, screwdriver bits, clothes (sometimes) and perhaps more

      • RichardDegenne@lemmy.zip
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        13 hours ago

        You use metric for displays?

        I’m in France, and my TV is 55’ and my monitor is 27’. I wouldn’t be able to tell you the equivalent is centimeters off the top of my head.

    • blackshirt@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago
      [ is it displays? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
       ↓ no
      [ is it screws? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
       ↓ no
      [ is it tires? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
       ↓ no
      [is if flight altitude? ] -yes-> [ feet ]
       ↓ no
      [ metric ]
      

      FTFY

      • adarza@lemmy.ca
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        13 hours ago

        [ is it tires? ] -yes-> [ inches ]

        both for car and light truck tires. inches for wheel diameter, millimeters for tread width,

        • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
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          3 hours ago

          Even in the US we use metric tire sizing apart from a select few offload tires, which is annoying because its not even actual dimensions but more of a ratio or percentage of the overall width of the tire (in addition to the wheel size being in inches as you mentioned).

      • Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca
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        14 hours ago

        Road bike tires? Metric. Mtb tires? Imperial. Car tire inner diameter? Imperial. Car tire width? Metric.

    • NightmareQueenJune@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Well, screws are more complicated. We mostly use M sizes which are metric. But when it comes to plumbing and compressed air thread sizes you get into imperial terretory fast.

  • nogooduser@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    We’d need several versions of this in the UK with a decision tree required to select the relevant decision tree. It would need to take age and where you were brought up into account.

    I think that the most complicated is distance. For me it is imperial for a person’s height, metric for short distances that I measure, imperial for short distances that I estimate (that one’s weird), miles for ground travel distances and time for air travel distances.

    • egrets@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It would need to take age and where you were brought up into account.

      And which sports you’ve been involved with, and how nationalistic your parents were when you grew up, and whether you’ve had chronic health issues, and whether your oven runs on natural gas, and whether you visit mainland Europe often.

  • rbos@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    It’s a bit out of date, and definitely varies by individual, but broadly, yes.

    Like I’ll weigh myself in kg and give height in cm but most people won’t understand it outside a medical context.

    And most cooking is in grams or Celsius, except my oven, which is F.

  • observantTrapezium@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    This is not funny, it’s a fucking problem. I’m a metric purist and have an unreasonable negative emotional response when others are not.

  • khannie@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Can’t believe Canadians use fahrenheit for cooking. Must be because of American cookers.

    Any Mexicans here? Is it the same there for cooking?

    Ireland: everything is metric except…

    • human height, very slowly changing
    • pints in the pub
    • human weight for older people who still use “stones” (this is quickly declining towards zero). A stone is 14 pounds.
    • I think some plumbing stuff as a hangover
    • edit: oh yeah, TV’s as someone else pointed out
    • Shea@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I think mexico is weird because officially it uses metric and a lot of people know that, but as you go north closer to US you get people who say millas, libras etc. This is my experience as a non-mexican who spent a few months over there and drove all throughout it.

  • mastertigurius@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Canadians are surprisingly confusing with their measurements when they’re so easy to understand about most other things.

    • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Doubly colonized. Very porous border with supplies all engineered in ‘freedum units’.

      Some industries have been extra slow to convert, usually due to supply chain dependencies. Also generations have to die before giving up key habits drilled into them as kids. I distinctly remember grandparents talking about mass in stones, yet canadian-born.

      Settler states can sometimes be stuck in preserve old ways while imperial centers move on. Metis fiddlers sent a delegation to Scotland (? or thereabouts) to reteach them forgotten reels from a few hundred years ago.

      • mastertigurius@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        This is also a question for our friends in the UK: if I weigh 13 stone, would those be large stones or just medium ones? Would those stones be granite or some other type? I’d prefer pumice, if I can have that.

  • Jay@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Speed I’m bilingual in, I’m old enough to remember when we changed from miles to km and watching the road signs gradually get replaced. Manitoba also runs a grid pattern on roads throughout a lot of the southern province, having at least a gravel/dirt road nearly every mile, so you kinda grow up with that burned into your brain.

    Temp wise, C all the way. Fahrenheit totally screws me up. I know 70 is around room temp but beyond that I need to convert it for my simple brain to understand.

    • Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      It is easier for me to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. The actual equation is (9/5)C+32. I usually just double the Celsius, add 32, then subtract a few. Gets it close enough.

    • Caveman@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      100 is body temp so you can use that one to convert the highs. No idea what freezing would be in F