Comment on Tiddies are nice but the metric system is better
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe 4 days ago
I changed my car to metric.
When I returned to pick up my car after dropping it off for a smog check, the tech hadn’t done it. He noticed the odometer was in kilometers and putting that “mileage” in the system would have caused havoc on the car’s history (mileage seeming to go up and down is a red flag).
As annoying as that was, it would have been far worse if he’d just entered the kilometers as miles.
I use metric daily as an engineer, but in my personal life I find some metric measurements pretty silly. Celsius and L/100km are not useful or show it’s not a great system for everyday use.
5318008@lemmy.ml 4 days ago
This is probably just a matter of taste and convention. If everyone knew what 12°C was, then it would be perfectly fine for everyday use. Everywhere else in the world, people are using it for everyday use, and they’re doing just fine.
Same for L/100km. Oops, you specifically wanted to know how far you were going to go with 1 Liter? You can convert that just fine. But it’s just as likely that you’re looking at mpg, and you actually wanted to know how many gallons it would take for you to go from A to B, in which case you also need to do a conversion.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 4 days ago
How cool is it outside? I dunno, around 10 to 12.778 C I think.
Much better than 50-55 F.
I know I’m being silly, but my brain likes numbers like 5 and 10. I can’t imagine saying 10 to 13. And a 5 degree swing in C feels too big.
A good measurement system for humans needs to have roughly fudgeable numbers within the ranges that we regularly experience. Which is to say, whatever temperature system we use to describe outside temperature should go from 0 to 100 in the range of temperatures we experience outside. It’s like metric, but for people instead of water. Fahrenheit isn’t perfect. The 0 should be colder. The 100 should be hotter. But not by much.
5318008@lemmy.ml 4 days ago
Yeah, but that’s because that’s what you’re used to with the F scale.
If you were estimating a number of tablespoons of sugar, you wouldn’t be estimating in groups of 5, because that’s crazy. You’re probably more accustomed to estimating one tablespoon at a time. Or, maybe measuring cups of milk.
Or, if you don’t cook very much, for estimating walking distances, you’re not estimating in groups of 5. You might group by quarter miles and say, “It’s a quarter mile away,” or a half or something.
There’s nothing special about thos scale. All of the supposed benefits are the reault of your familiarity with it. Had we been using °C the whole time instead, you would be estimating degrees two at a time instead of 5, and everything would be completely normal.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 days ago
nah, tablespoons you estimate in groups of four. teaspoons in groups of three.
Jiral@lemmy.world 3 days ago
You are fooled by your own habits. Most of the world uses C just fine and why wouldn’ they? The steps of one °C are just what starts to be relevant in daily life. Yes you would totally say it has 13°C and not round up to 5 or 10s. The latter you would only do if your unit has more precision than is needed.
That said, if you want more precision just say 13.4°C. Some wearher forecasts do that but it is really not very releant what comes after the comma for daily weather forecast needs.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 3 days ago
What would you say if you wanted less precision? Would you give a range?