We’re taught both metric and US customary units in school. I prefer metric for most things, to the point I have a metric-only tape measure among other things.
However, I’ll die on the hill that Fahrenheit is superior for ambient air temperature. 0 degrees to 100 degrees neatly encompasses the range of average surface temperatures seen throughout the year in the contiguous US.
Metric in logic, but standard measurements are ingrained into my brain so it’s more practical. I think that sucks.
Agreed. If I am making it building something then I prefer metric. If I am thinking about how tall something is or how long it is I think in standard. I just feel that one foot is a good size to measure something rather than meters or centimeters. It’s much easier for me to imagine a 6 foot tall object than a 1.83 meters or 183 centimeters. It’s just easier to break something up into 6 parts than it is to break something into 1.83 parts or 183 parts.
I know you could use a unit that equals 25 centimeters and that would be similar to a foot, but no one uses that for some reason.
My perspective is probably unique but…
I don’t have a hard preference for either. I know both and I use both on a regular basis. If I need to convert, I convert. I find that one might be easier or more practical for specific instances or applications, but that’s far from a blanket statement that one is always superior, and I have little tolerance for that kind of thinking.
I also convert, neither system bothers me. I truly believe that the pushback against standard measure is that most people who use metric don’t know the conversions well enough to comfortably use them. Most Americans don’t either, hence their resistance to metric. But once you learn how to convert between the systems in your head (roughly) you can navigate both. It’s like being bilingual
If America adopted the metric system the need for convertion would go away. So there is no need to be bilingual in this stuff… Use metric and that is it. But you cannot do that as a single person. Laws should be passed.
There’s really no need. You’re (collectively) the ones bothered by it.
the range of average surface temperatures seen throughout the year in the contiguous US.
So give it a few more years of global warming and you won’t want to use that anymore either.
My digital micrometer has a button for switching between regular and metric I don’t give a single fuck
It depends on what I’m doing.
Baking: metric - grams on a food scale help me replicate recipes perfectly.
Cooking meat: standard - 140°F steak, 165 chicken
3D printing: metric always
Woodworking/household: standard - inches are just the standard for all the things. Wood, curtains, hardware, etc
Mechanical: ??/?? Depends on where it’s made! I hate having to switch wrenches or sockets due to the wrong standard.
This is the way
Metric. I do a lot of woodworking and auto repair and anytime I have to use not metric it’s annoying
Same as you. I agree on Fahrenheit on the same principle, but it’s not that big of a deal and °C isn’t that hard to adjust to.
You get used to what you use. When people tell me F I have no idea what they are talking about. I hate when my car or home reset to F after a power outage because they display gibberish. Is 68 a good inside temp? I know exactly what to expect for C.
This is true, but Fahrenheit is directly based on climate norms (though thanks to global warming there’s an argument to be made for recalibration). For F, 0 is as cold as it typically gets most places, 100 is as hot as it typically gets most places. By that metric it’s a useful measure for climate temperatures. For that purpose, measured temperature norms make more sense than the freezing and boiling points of water.
From what I’ve read, that’s only a story that it was based on climate temperatures in his hometown. According to the story phycist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit defined the 0 and 100 degree points of his scale as the highest and lowest temperatures regularly observed in his hometown of Danzig, now Gdańsk, Poland, then later when he needed to recreate the 0 point of his scale he came up with a brine that stabilizes at a specific temperature.
What we do know for certain is that the brine existed, was made of water, ice, and ammonium chloride, it did indeed stabilize at 0°F, and according to a letter he wrote the scale was based on the Rømer scale, but adjusted in magnitude so he could make 32 divisions between the brine stable temperature and the freezing point of a regular water solution, then 64 divisions between that point and what he observed to be the normal human temperature. The reason for 32 and 64 divisions was that since those numbers were factors of 2, they would be easier to divide linearly between their respective upper and lower bounds.
Fahrenheit observed that using this scale water boiled at roughly 212°F then after the popularity of the Celsius scale some 50 years later redefined his scale so that it kept the original freezing point of 32, but now had 180 divisions between Fahrenheit’s boiling point. This kept his existing scales fairly accurate to the new definition (the upper bound which was 96°F was now measured to be 98.6°F and the lower bound of the brine was 0°F now measured at 4°F) and used the new convention of defining the scale by water while keeping some nice number of divisions between their points, although they are a little more arbitrary now than they were before.
Metric. Imperial is a fucking mess. At least with Metric, most size measurements are 10 to the power of something.
Metric seems to be the superior measurement. Problem is , I can visualize 6in and NOT 6cm.
But a classic 12" ruler is 30 cm.
Half of that is 6" or 15cm
Half again is 3". Or 7.5"
Then realize visualizing didn’t need to be accurate because it never will be anyway and go from there.
An inch is about 2.5 cm if you need a quick and dirty reference.
Converting by halfs was my go to.
Excluding a few examples like frequently used gym weights, common fastener sizes, and short distances, I still have to do rough conversions in my head to have an idea of what a metric measurement is, so I guess I’d say imperial.
But I wouldn’t be upset if the US converted to metric.
Metric - so much easier to understand and work with. I personally hate the imperial system, but I know it because of where I grew up. I would shed no tears if the U.S. switched to metric tomorrow.
As of today, I am completely unable to estimate or visualize metric values with the exception of the meter (because it is roughly the same as a yard). That said, I would prefer to switch to metric and get used to it rather than continue using our current measurements. It would be vastly preferable to me to use mm and cm over fractions of an inch (I hate fractions, I much prefer decimals).
For temperature, I still prefer F over C. As you said, F is much more metric-like with a 100 degree range that roughly spans the typical weather environments we live in. And considering that the boiling point of water is only 100 C at sea level, that fact is no more valuable than remember that water boils at 212 F at sea level. The reality is, I don’t actually care what specific temperature water boils or freezes at (at any particular elevation). I happen to know what the values are in both C and F, but it doesn’t matter in my life (except for when I was trying to bake when living in Colorado).
Fun fact, the boiling point of water at sea level isn’t quite 100 C, though it is close enough that 100 is a good enough estimate in most circumstances. The actual boiling point is 99.98 C.
Because everyone’s thermometer is accurate to three significant digits.
I tend to use metric when I’m designing 3D models.
In woodworking and other linear measurements, I use imperial units.
Celsius for my 3D printer, but Fahrenheit for weather.
Driving is miles.
In cooking I use imperial units.
Metric for Physics.
Metric all the way
I use both all the time, prefer metric
