Comment on Why do Americans measure everything in cups?

• andrewta@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Exactly. How is a foot anymore arbitrary then a meter?

  Or a cup anymore arbitrary then an ounce?

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  • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Imperial measurements were based on arbitrary things, metric has specific scientific definitions for their weights.

    1l of water is 1kg at sea level, why the fuck is kings foot size the defacto foot?

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    • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Imperial measurements were based on arbitrary things, metric has specific scientific definitions for their weights.

      What do you mean? A pound is legally defined as 0.45359237 kilograms.

      And the kilogram is defined:

      The kilogram, symbol kg, is the SI unit of mass. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.62607015×10^−34 when expressed in the unit J⋅s, which is equal to kg⋅m^2 ⋅s^−1, where the metre and the second are defined in terms of c and ΔνCs.

      These are all currently defined off of the same universal constants, just with different multipliers, which are all arbitrary numbers: 6.62607015 is just about as arbitrary as 0.45359237. Hell, the number 10 is arbitrary, too, so we still use a system for time based on dividing the Earth’s day into 24 and 60.

      Like, I get that there’s some elegance in the historical water-based definitions derived from the arbitrary definition of length, but the definition of “meter” started from about as arbitrary a definition as “foot” (and the meter was generally more difficult to derive in the time of its adoption based on the Earth’s dimensions).

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• lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Milk has a specific gravity slightly higher than 1, so that isn’t accurate.

  In this context milk is a bad example because the difference between 1.03g/ml and 1g/ml is negligible in a kitchen. Even oil (0.92g/ml) is close enough.

  This matters the most for stuff like below (with 1cup = 240ml):

  • honey: 340g/cup = 1.4g/ml
  • sugar: 200g/cup = 0.85g/ml [varies depending on granularity]
  • flour: 120g/cup = 0.5g/ml [sieved, and “properly” measured. It’s a PITA to measure it by volume.]

  Also, “cups” and “feet” aren’t arbitrary.

  All units are arbitrary, be them metric or esoteric.

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  • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    In this context milk is a bad example because the difference between 1.03g/ml and 1g/ml is negligible in a kitchen. Even oil (0.92g/ml) is close enough.

    The context is that if you are going to hand wave away a 3% difference in a quantity, then having to weigh everything probably isn’t important.

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    • lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The context [SIC - rationale] is that if you are going to hand wave away a 3% difference in a quantity, then having to weigh everything probably isn’t important.

      That’s poor reasoning; ignoring a tiny difference doesn’t imply ignoring larger ones. Myself mentioned three cases where the difference matters, with one (flour) being highly variable.

      A better argument to defend your point would be that most differences in the kitchen are tiny.

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      • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I’ve been making that argument in other comments. If I had to argue the nuances of this argument in every comment, I’d be copying and pasting pages long comments that no one would read.

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• BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s close enough for home cooking, the specific gravity of milk is around 1030g/L so unless your recipe calls for multiple liters of Milk the small difference isn’t going to affect the result.

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  • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’s close enough for home cooking

    And now you are getting to the reason why American use volume for recipes. If I don’t need the precision of mass for recipes as it won’t appreciably affect the taste, then why break out the scale?

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    • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Because the difference between packing a cup of flour and not packing a cup of flour is as much as 30%

      loveandoliveoil.com/…/weight-vs-volume-measuremen…

      It doesn’t really matter for liquids, but dry ingredients are a whole other ballgame when it comes to this mess.

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      • NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It’s really mainly only flour though, because can be compacted, most of the things that you’re using in the kitchen like baking powder or sugar aren’t going to be compacted to any appreciable level.

        For flour, you pour it into your measuring cup and then run the spine of a knife or something over it to get rid of the excess flour and get a level cup

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      • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        In my other responses, I’ve noted that I don’t bake. In other people’s responses, they’ve noted that there are still a lot of baking recipes out there that don’t require precision.

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  • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Elevation changes everything though and if you don’t adjust this measurements change more.

    If you’re at sea level, sure.

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