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Hold on, that’s not fair, we also use it to measure how much Coca Cola is in the bottle…hmm never mind that’s not helping… let me start over…we also use it for drugs! Wait, shit…
I love how soda comes in 12 oz cans and 2 liter bottles. Mix and match!
And don’t forget the 20oz bottles too!
My favorite is the 16.9 ounce. It’s such a weird and awkward number that makes no sense until you realize it’s the nicely round 500 milliliter bottle.
But people still call it the 16.9 ounce bottle. -_-
Nice
I recently converted all my recipes to metric and now I dump everything in a bowl on a scale. Total game changer.
Welcome to the modern times!
That is because weight is more accurate than volume.
Volume was previously used because the measuring tools were cheaper and easier to use than a scale.
I do, as a metric person, feel like doing things by volume is way more fun though. And I mean visual volume, no measurements. I’m radical like that.
I feel that you are the type of person that is responsible for recipes with instructions like “knead until it feels right” or “make in the usual way” 😜
My favourite recipes are 100 years or older. They usually aren’t very instructive.
It’s more accurate, it dirties fewer dishes, it’s easier to scale recipes for larger or smaller batches, and it’s much easier to fine tune portions. Plus, I make a very consistent coffee. I found something I like a lot, and I want it to be extremely repeatable.
I wish the US had made the switch to metric back in the 70’s. I remember having to learn it in grade school, and there seemed to be a push for it, but never went anywhere. I now work as a chemist where everything is done in metric, but then go back to US measures once I punch out for the day. Would be nice to have a single system instead.
In fairness… Most of the “behind the scenes” are done in metric so we kind of did convert to metric. It’s mostly just the public that is imperial still.
back in the '70s*
Right? OP paid attention in math class but not in English.
Drugs too!
Let’s not forget liquor!
But liquor comes in shots, cups, pints, fifths, and handles?
A fifth is 750 mL, a pint is 200 mL, and a half pint is 100 mL. I always assumed it was no coincidence that the amounts in mL are so even, but maybe I’m wrong.
A US gallon is 3.785L which makes a fifth 757 ml. A pint is 1/8 gallon so ~473 ml.
An imperial gallon is 4.54609L which makes a fifth 909ml and a pint 568ml.
If your bartender is giving you 200ml pints you’re really getting ripped off.
It also comes in my dad :(
Hi it’s me, Liquor.
That’s not fair. We also use it to weigh drugs
Only below 3ish grams or above 1000 grams though.
It’s also used in measuring soft drinks like the 2 liter bottle
The United States has been on the Metric system since the late 1800s like every other Western country.
In what useful sense?
It’s all metric behind the scenes. When you pump your gas it shows gallons, but it’s doing the math in litres. We turned our backs on the ⅓ lb burger, we’ve trained corporations to treat us like idiots.
The units Americans use (Miles, feet, cups, ounces, etc.) actually are Metric units. They’re just not the standard ones. Because, again, The United States has been on the Metric system since the late 1800s like every other Western country.
Citation needed. Those are United States customary units per Wikipedia. Often incorrectly named Imperial units, but this is the first time I’ve seen it argued they are metric.
Also, The Metric Conversion Act happened in 1975, so not since the late 1800s. It also carves out that use of metric is voluntary.
The majority of U.S. customary units were redefined in terms of the meter and kilogram with the Mendenhall Order of 1893 and, in practice, for many years before
From the article you linked
Not redefined as ‘metric’. It means the base measurement is connected to SI along a fixed constant. Meters and kilograms are the base units for length and mass in SI, which is actually metric. The respective USCU units for length are inch, foot, yard, and mile and mass a really annoying number of things.
The systems of measurement are connected, but USCU is not metric.
And only some of the bullets.
I think it started for the same reason we have metric tools; foreign imports.
Some of them we disguise the metric cause it’s anathema to us, 30 aught 6 for instance.
Look at what we’ve done just to not have to refer to millimeters!
30-06 is a 30 cal bullet which should be 300 thou but is really 308 thousandths of an inch and is commonly designated a 7.62 mm NATO which it isn’t because that’s measured at the inside of the lands, so its actually 7.82mm.
Simple.
7.62 NATO isn’t the same thing as 30-06. 7.62 NATO refers to a specific cartridge, not the bullet projectile itself. It’s the same as .308 Winchester. 7.62x51mm.
30-06 is 7.62x63mm
Damn, you’re right.
You must think us Americans are just really stupid because we still use imperial, and violent because we’ll only modernize our units for weapons, but you’re wrong.
We also use metric units for dispensing soda, and measuring engine displacement.
So we’re fat and we’re obsessed with cars too!
That’s not true. We also use it in medicine. To measure, in mm, our progress to universal healthcare.
Also drugs. You just try buying meth in imperial.
Metric was too confusing for bullets, so we use both, and but neither of them are actually the diameter of the bullet, most of the time.
.223" is the same diameter as 5.56mm (which is 5.7mm across), but if you use 5.56 in a 223, it might kill you.
223 in 556 is fine, might fail to cycle.
then why is it called 556 if its actually 5.7?
556 was the measure of the inner diameter of the rifling of a barrel of a gun that shot 556.
Metric is confusing. That’s why for most shotguns, we measure the width by the number of lead spheres of that diameter that would equal one lb, eg a 12 gauge shotgun is the diameter of a 1/12lb sphere of lead.
Nobody knows how big 18.53 mm is, but everyone knows what a 12 gauge shell looks like.
Oh, and gun powder is measured in grains, maybe early smokeless pellets were about the same size as grains of wheat.
This is a pretty good video explaining why the imperial system in the U.S. isn’t as bad as it seems: https://youtu.be/iJymKowx8cY?si=wcyG7yM150e71Rn4
For anyone thinking of clicking the link, the first 27 are all you need to watch.
If you’re that much of an idiot, and don’t want to hear competing arguments, why click the link in the first place?
That’s not how that happened.
