I'm not sure if I can say -1C is cold or not, but where I came from, it was always useful to know that once it starts dipping under 0 we could expect ice and snow, above 0 it was just wet... But then again it is just a matter of habits, same as working out weight and lengths in decimals or fractions. We grew up thinking in decimals, therefore it seems more sensible, others grew up thinking in fractions and it feels more sensible to them. Neither is better or worse, it is habitual. (/shrugs)

However, I have so far found metric to make more sense, for example 1Kg is 1L of water at 20C and 10.1 N, so there is a relationship between some of the measurements that I found lacking in imperial. Probably just because I have never used it really, since we where thought metrics at school.

Or if you're me (which I hope you're not, that'd be confusing). Whenever I need to fill in a date I automatically do YYYY-MM-DD (yes, also with a pen(cil) on paper), unless it's specifically stated that it should be in a certain format (and even then, I frequently notice that fact after I've already filled it in). Most swedes do D/M-YY.

I don't see how this is relevent to the discussion or friendlier of easier temperature scaling.. if you're talking size of the unit, then I'd think that would be even less of an input to 'judgement'

I doubt you could 'judge' the smaller units of F any better than someone could 'judge' the larger units of C.. in fact from your point of view YOU would be at the disadvantage.

Interestingly (to me), the kilogram is the only SI unit that is still defined by a physical object. While the kilogram does approximate the mass of 1L of water at 20C and 10.1 N, it's not defined by it. There is an official kilogram that determines what the mass of a kilogram is. Interestingly, the mass of the copies of the official kilogram in comparison to the official copies has been diverging from each other, which has caused an increased demand for an official, scientific mass for a kilogram.

0 does: it's the temperature of a brine of water, ice, and ammonium chloride. This maintains its temperature for a long time in a laboratory without refrigeration, so it was a convenient calibration point in its day. (Fahrenheit's original paper, 1724).

It was later observed that the freezing and boiling points of water on this scale were about 180 degrees (a half-circle in angular measure) apart, so it was adjusted slightly to make these points 32 and 212.

The only remaining value of the Fahrenheit scale is that it keeps temperatures of ordinary experience in a range that is mostly between zero and 100, and having to be outdoors in anything outside that range demands precautions against frostbite or heatstroke.

The problem with converting from "customary" to metric units is, apart from social inertia, largely a mechanical engineering one. Mass-produced interchangeable parts such as nuts and bolts are made to dimensions that are convenient numbers in one system or the other. So, for example, a 6-40 UNF screw is almost, but not exactly, interchangeable with an M3.5x0.6 screw, and the difference is just enough to fail in the most critical applications.

There is one it's the mass of a fixed number of moles of silicon the problem is the first sphere is still in production (it's been 12 years) :P Though there is a rival for it but that one escapes me...

First up: How many centimeters to an inch? Quick check, a little over 2.54. Back to construction. You want a wall that's 8 feet 6 inches. 259 centimeters, or two meters 59 centimeters. You gained 9 centimeters, and if you're doing the generic conversion 2.5 = 1 inch, you lost 6 inches in conversion. What about a generic 200 foot wall? 2400 inches, generic conversion is 6000 centimeters (60 meters) Actual is 6096, a loss of 3 feet. Metric is a precise scale, meaning when you use it, you need to be precise. For the most part in imperial, you can make the same measurement and cut, you'll lose maybe 1/8th inch if you have your guide for the saw set a bit too far. Still an issue, but not as much as losing half a foot. The two inches against 5 centimeters, interchange them if you want, I'm making the same point like before. Generic size against specific. It's pretty damn hard to get exactly two or exactly five, but in the case of a fraction with two inches, say 1/4, that's 6.35 millimeters, so now it's 5.635, 5635, or you go with 2 & 1/4th. Less precise but irrelevant to what you need the size for. You could get rid of the millimeter value but then you have to scale up or down, either a bit big or a bit small, and inches will generally leave you with a bit big but snug or a bit small but filling.

Second, metric is mainly for very large scale or very small scale (nano, centi, milli, deca, kilo, whatever. I consider those scales, not names), nanometers, power 10^-32 or such. Imperial? There's a couple names for small objects in it, but the scaling is horrible where everything is in fractions of each other. 16 ounces to a pound for example, or something like .43 kilograms. That first example again, you can measure in metric, you can measure in imperial. But with metric, you can measure out in centimeters but that will take you forever, unless it's common to have 1000 centimeter measuring tapes. You can check it in meters but then you have to switch back to centimeters with anywhere between 100 and 1 left, then another 10 millimeters between one and the next. Then do you say 3.214 meters or 3 meters, 21 centimeters, 4 millimeters, or 3214 centimeters? If you're using metric, then you have to be completely on the dot every moment. Imperial, there's two scales for length you can use. Feet, then inch. The feet will cover everything until it becomes too big to measure with, and then inches for whatever comes under. I imagine when you're using metric, you have many many different in-between pre-scaled materials, 500 centimeters, 2500 centimeters, whatever. The point is, if I use metric I expect to have 4 decimals places to be accurate, which you do need if you use a meter or liter or kilogram or bigger. If I use imperial, I'm going to get something like 20, 11, 1/4th, quicker The precision doesn't matter much because if you're a little big, you shave off a little. If you're a little short... well, both ways bite you on the ass.

As far as something like cooking, same issue. Generic number over precise. One cup water, 239 milliliters. 25 pounds to work out, 11.3398 kilograms. It's easier to have one small number over a precise four decimal value. I imagine this is simplified by making liquid and mass measurements in a .5 or .25 scale, so you use 250 milliliters, 11.5 kilograms, 1 liter, 25 grams, 3.5 meters in residential life. You can precise and accurate to 1000 decimal places or so in metric, but the patience it takes to try and measure that for something in between whole numbers requires changing scale or it requires blowing off that precision if you don't need it. But then, you still need a little precision. Imperial gives you only a little bit, a generic number that's just enough for what you need. Most of our scales are fractional only to 1/16th, while inches go as far as 1/64th if you really need that kind of precision. But then, you might as well use metric if you make fractions that small.

The whole point of all this? Simplicity and quickly measure in a whole number of less than 5 or measure so that you need .01 scale accuracy. If you have anything massive or minute, metric, go for it, 10000 kilometers is some whatever feet after 30000, where your generic is now in metric form. If it's some general application for the general public who doesn't need general precision such as 12.36 centimeters, you might as well call it 2 1/4th inches because you'll measure that a whole lot quicker.


Let's be clear though: I'm an engineering student, I'm all for metric measurements. I've used it in physics, statics, circuitry, chemistry, where you get your ass and your grade handed back to you if you're off by so much as .001 meters (Or sometimes, .0001 centimeters) or 1 mole or 5 newtons. But I'm also lazy, and I'm not going to say I'm 190.5 cm or 1.9 meters, I'm going to say about 6 foot three inches, and that's an inaccuracy I can deal with. I'm not going to say I need .23 liters, I'll say I need a cup, or I'll need a gallon instead of 3.785 liters of a chemical. I won't say I want 6.8 kilograms of steak for a party, I'm going to say.... well, probably 15 steaks at 8 ounces each. I'm going to use metric for everything in school, but it's faster and easier to use the most generic measurement possible when it isn't required to have perfection, and in residential life imperial is where most of your generic numbers are. You'll have generic in metric too, but you have to force it to do so.

1000cm tape =10m tape tape measures are marked to the mm with lines (slightly longer lines for the 5mm points) black numbers for each cm, red every 10cm black across the tape for the metre mark.
You want 3.214m? You measure to the 3m find the second red number for the 20cm go to the next black number (labled you know 21) find the longer line after it and move 1 to the left for your 4mm. It's usually referred to as 3m 21.4 . And heres the thing YOU DO IT ALL ON 1 TAPE. sheesh.

As for cooking our recipies are slightly different to american ones and generally produce slightly larger batches...

::edit to add:: oh and your gallon is also a problem the rest of the world uses metric gallons America has caused air crashes (and probe crashes) by putting in imperial gallons when every other goddamn airport(space agency) uses metric and expects you to use them!

Thanks.for the reply. :)

Thanks for not answering my question at all and missing the point completely.

For some bizarre reason, you keep thinking that the metric system can be used for precise measurements and for precise measurements only. What I tried to say with the 2 in ~ 5 cm example was that most of the time, we use metric units very imprecisely, exactly the same way you are using imperial units. When I buy half a kilo of meat, it's rarely exactly 500 grams.

Which, I'm afraid, makes the entire wall of text you have posted there quite meaningless.

For what it's worth, my grandfather was a pattern-maker with a military aviation company, and he used to work wood to one thousandth of an inch tolerances...

Which would be a nice argument, except Kelvin is based on Celsius, you see.

Also, people keep forgetting that perceived temperature is caused by a lot more than actual temperature of the air. Humidity and wind are huge factors there. Unless you're in a strictly controlled environment, you can't possibly claim to feel the difference between, say 68 and 69 F or 20 and 21 C, because there are way too many variables influencing that.

I imagine you're talking about gallons of gas then. But hey, you know what? The issue there is confusion of conversion and I imagine the same issue arises the other way around. If everyone used gallons, it wouldn't be a problem. If everyone used liters, it wouldn't be a problem. We don't, but we have to deal with it anyway, the issue is inattentiveness more than the scale, and this is one of those moments where precision is a pretty damn big deal on both sides. But then, I didn't talk about using gallons for fuel, I talked about using it in a chemical batch.

As for the tape measure, so what? What if you didn't have a 10 meter measure? What if you had a bunch of single scale measuring devices? Or say your tape isn't accurate? If you're trying to be that accurate it's a big damn deal, if not then you stick your lines in between the two numbers wherever you need it. Seriously, why are ignoring the point I keep trying to make and jumping on me for every little damn thing in between? I keep telling you the same thing in here, and this is the fourth time I have to say it. Metric for precision, imperial if you just want to be close. Engineering, you have to be accurate to millimeters or your ship blows up. You have to scale your gas tank or it fits wrong and punctures. You have to measure out your distance to the moon or you'll have to write a half dozen more numbers to do it in imperial to figure out the best fuel to weight ratio. If you're trying to figure out the speed of a traveling proton in order to make it collide properly with a second particle in your attempt to find the Higs Boson, I'm not going to say miles per hour because that's too many damn numbers and imprecise. If all you're doing, is cutting a board, on a table, to make a table or some furniture or whatever, you're going to keep a one digit number, an 85% of the time single digit number, and a fractional number in your memory better than you will a single digit, two digit up to 100, one digit number. Or you make it one four digit number, you can still get confused on both. You need to know the size of say a washer or a bolt for your washing machine or your engine, your imperial number's smaller and easier to remember. You need to know how heavy someone is so you don't murder them with your medication, pounds are whole numbers that you can measure manually without having to guess the difference of a half kilo or a tenth of a stone or whatever else mass/weight measure you want to use. Imperial uses whole numbers and that's well enough most of the time for basic things that don't suggest that you're going to blow up if you get it wrong, you have to make a metric scale in between two scales or round it.

You can always say "Just write down the number on paper you American retard" but that's assuming that you're always 100% ready with everything at all times, without fail, and I can't think of anyone who can manage that standard for long. But hell, maybe they scaled on all the other things too, listing quarter stone or 1/5th kilo on measuring scales, but we're back to where a whole number is going to be faster to read. Also, ounces are stupid, but it's enough to work generically. Feet are stupid (Seriously, measure the length of a king's foot, why did they think that was a good idea?) but 6 is a nicer number to keep track of than 2.79. Pounds are stupid, but it's more precise than measuring whole kilos or .5 scale kilos. And the imperial scaling is retarded, ounces to pounds to... whatever's between a pound and a ton. Cups pints gallons barrels whatever else, but it's still a different scale that doesn't need fractional measures (Cooking, you said it yourself, your portions are bigger. You have to round it, like I said in the last one. Okay, fine, bigger, not always better). Both systems have uses, metric is useful for so much more but Imperial is at least better for a few things, and that's when you need precise without precision. You have the same thing in Metric, but I'm naming both of them anyway where precise without precision is best.
Why do you want to use it imprecisely though? You can do both precise and imprecise with both but precision is always going to be nicer in metric because it's accurate. And your half kilo of meat may not be exactly 500 grams, but still it's easier than saying 1.13 odd pounds, and at a smaller scale is still more accurate. Deviation is a bitch in everything, but I'd rather my deviation be 1/8th of something than be .125. It's the same value, but it's going to bother me more metrically because I know what the exact difference is, and knowing I can do it better than that.

And your question, that you keep saying I've ignored: Two inches is better than 5 cm because it's easier to remember, and works on a scale that requires less exactness. Hey, third time I'm saying this, metric is better for everything, so long as it's precision in small scale, or the generic in large scale. I'm not saying you can't use it generically, slap off the .8 milimeters, on your way, but I don't like using metric without using it at it's most exact I can get it.

Because I genuinely don't care if the "half kilo" I bought is actually 473 grams?
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call "grasping at straws".

You told me to answer the question, I answered it. But I answered it before. The previous answer was on a larger scale, and that made a big difference. This is two against five. I'm using the same answer as before, and I'm not going to change the answer because we made it all single digit, because it's the same exact difference. Are you about done complaining?