Metrication

[SkyPesos]

This is true (and dividing by 5280 is such a pain in the ass nobody even attempts it; we just say things like "½ mile" rather than "2640 feet"), but the thing that makes km usage in the US unlikely isn't because of the division, but because the country was physically built using a mile-based surveying system.

Take a look at this utterly typical section of rural land south of Woodward, Oklahoma:
[img snipped]

That grid of roads is built exactly 1 mile apart. That means you can easily determine the distance between any two points on it just by counting the grid squares. Of course, you can't do that with kilometers, you have to actually measure.

Canada was also surveyed using customary units. Canada only adopted metrics in the 1970s.

However, something funny happened in the Toronto area, where the surveyors decided that each "square" would be 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 miles.
Funnily enough, that translated to 2 km x 2 km when metricated. Therefore metrication actually made it easier to estimate distances simply because surveyors chose a random number back in the day.

[img snipped]

Chicago's street grid using 800 for every mile correlates pretty well to metric, which makes it 1000 for every 2 km. Turns out changing the grid from the initially proposed 1000 for every mile to the implemented 800 per mile helps when measuring it in metric, though planners back then most likely didn't know that and this is a coincidence.

[US 89]

Well, I'm not the one who decreed that most people (and other creatures) have hands with ten fingers in total and feet with ten toes in total . . .

Just think how much easier math would have been if we'd had six fingers per hand. Base 12, baby!

[kalvado]

Or go to college basketball, where jersey numbers are base 6.

Are you serious?

Yes, show me an American college basketball jersey in the last 60 years containing a number 6 to 9, players only, no mascots or fans.

That's for the ref's simplification so he or she only needs one hand to signal who committed a foul. That's all that is.

That is what base 6 is. Those of us with 2 hands usually work base 10...

[vdeane]

And I still have to hear "gibibyte" used in the wild.

"Gibibyte" is only necessary because some asshole capitalists decided it'd be a great idea to rip everyone off by 24 bytes out of every thousand when selling storage. A kilobyte was always 1024 bytes except when buying hard drives. Thus "kibibyte", since there became a need to have a term to distinguish "real kilobyte" from "capitalist kilobyte".

I'm guessing it has to do with most people thinking in base 10, so they would have seen a base 10 system as more understandable than a base 2 system.

Measuring computer storage, both memory and disc, in multiples of 1024 bytes is the natural unit and was well established by the late 1960s. And there was indeed a large element of saving a few bucks by marketing hard drives in multiples of 1000 bytes.  The spiritual kin of changing the 16-oz cans of beans to 15-oz cans of beans.

Natural for computer scientists, yes, because a byte can be 0 or 1 so base 2 makes sense.  For people who don't know the first thing about how computers work and quite frankly couldn't care less?  Decimal probably feels more natural.

Incidentally, it's not just hard drives that do this: RAM does it too.

It's a bit that can be either 0 or 1.  A byte is usually 8 bits.

Hard drive and flash memory sales literature typically refers to decimal units, but RAM is typically sold in binary units.  And many computer OSs - MacOS included - refer to both using binary units.

Typically people who don't know the first thing about computers aren't opening the case at all, let alone installing more memory.

They may not be installing more, but they do select how much is on the computer when they buy it.  And I've never had a computer where the amount of reported RAM matches what it theoretically has; it's always less, just like with hard drives.

[Road Hog]

Or go to college basketball, where jersey numbers are base 6.

Are you serious?

Yes, show me an American college basketball jersey in the last 60 years containing a number 6 to 9, players only, no mascots or fans.

That's for the ref's simplification so he or she only needs one hand to signal who committed a foul. That's all that is.

That is what base 6 is. Those of us with 2 hands usually work base 10...

That is my point. 5 is the highest digit in a base-6 system. 5 requires one hand, 6 would require 2 hands.

[kkt]

And I still have to hear "gibibyte" used in the wild.

"Gibibyte" is only necessary because some asshole capitalists decided it'd be a great idea to rip everyone off by 24 bytes out of every thousand when selling storage. A kilobyte was always 1024 bytes except when buying hard drives. Thus "kibibyte", since there became a need to have a term to distinguish "real kilobyte" from "capitalist kilobyte".

I'm guessing it has to do with most people thinking in base 10, so they would have seen a base 10 system as more understandable than a base 2 system.

Measuring computer storage, both memory and disc, in multiples of 1024 bytes is the natural unit and was well established by the late 1960s. And there was indeed a large element of saving a few bucks by marketing hard drives in multiples of 1000 bytes.  The spiritual kin of changing the 16-oz cans of beans to 15-oz cans of beans.

Natural for computer scientists, yes, because a byte can be 0 or 1 so base 2 makes sense.  For people who don't know the first thing about how computers work and quite frankly couldn't care less?  Decimal probably feels more natural.

Incidentally, it's not just hard drives that do this: RAM does it too.

It's a bit that can be either 0 or 1.  A byte is usually 8 bits.

Hard drive and flash memory sales literature typically refers to decimal units, but RAM is typically sold in binary units.  And many computer OSs - MacOS included - refer to both using binary units.

Typically people who don't know the first thing about computers aren't opening the case at all, let alone installing more memory.

They may not be installing more, but they do select how much is on the computer when they buy it.  And I've never had a computer where the amount of reported RAM matches what it theoretically has; it's always less, just like with hard drives.

My impression is they usually just take it in to the Experts and say "Make it go faster"

[mgk920]

Or go to college basketball, where jersey numbers are base 6.

Are you serious?

Yes, show me an American college basketball jersey in the last 60 years containing a number 6 to 9, players only, no mascots or fans.

I'll take your word for it.  I had no idea.  What a strange custom.

The same in high schools.  When I was a student watching high school games, the ref would call a foul and then signal to the scorers' table using both hands to identify the offending player, one hand for the first digit (0-5) and the other hand for the second digit (0-5).  I thought that it was a very neat and efficient way to do it.

Mike

[Poiponen13]

My reasons and thoughts to metrication:


Street grids in new development should place exactly 10 streets per kilometer.
The boundary of severe frost would be different: -10 C in South, -15 C in Northeast, -20C in Midwest, -25 C in Canadian Prairies and -30 C in Canadian Arctic.

[TXtoNJ]

Well, I'm not the one who decreed that most people (and other creatures) have hands with ten fingers in total and feet with ten toes in total . . .

Just think how much easier math would have been if we'd had six fingers per hand. Base 12, baby!

Each hand has twelve knuckles that can be tapped by the thumb, which is where it's proposed that the base-12 system came from. Multiply that by the five fingers that can be used as place holders on the other hand, and you've got the base-60 system that was often used in Mesopotamia.

[Scott5114]

Wait, how do you tap the knuckle at the base of your middle finger with your thumb on the same hand?

[kalvado]

Wait, how do you tap the knuckle at the base of your middle finger with your thumb on the same hand?

From the other side.

[Scott5114]

Ah. Still kind of an awkward reach for me, but maybe my thumb joints are just stiffer (or my thumb is longer) than average.

[algorerhythms]

Well, I'm not the one who decreed that most people (and other creatures) have hands with ten fingers in total and feet with ten toes in total . . .

Just think how much easier math would have been if we'd had six fingers per hand. Base 12, baby!

You can count up to 31 on one hand, and 1023 on two hands by using base 2.

[hotdogPi]

You can count up to 31 on one hand, and 1023 on two hands by using base 2.

Try sticking out your index and ring fingers and only those two. I personally can't.

[Big John]

There are 10 types of people - those who use binary and those that don't.

[kalvado]

Well, I'm not the one who decreed that most people (and other creatures) have hands with ten fingers in total and feet with ten toes in total . . .

Just think how much easier math would have been if we'd had six fingers per hand. Base 12, baby!

You can count up to 31 on one hand, and 1023 on two hands by using base 2.

Boys can count up to 21 without to many problems.

[1995hoo]

Well, I'm not the one who decreed that most people (and other creatures) have hands with ten fingers in total and feet with ten toes in total . . .

Just think how much easier math would have been if we'd had six fingers per hand. Base 12, baby!

You can count up to 31 on one hand, and 1023 on two hands by using base 2.

Boys can count up to 21 without to many problems.

27. (Ten fingers, ten toes, two hands, two feet, two..., one... 🤔)

[wxfree]

The metric system isn't just about base numbers and multiples.  It has an internal consistency.  A calorie is the amount of heat needed to change the temperature of one cubic centimeter (one milliliter) of water (which has a mass of one gram) by one centigrade.  To me, this is beautiful.  But what's also beautiful is having an intuitive understanding of what a measure means.  I know what a mile per hour is, but I have no idea what a kilometer per kilosecond is, or a decigram per centistoke.  I know exactly what a boatload is, but the idea of a metric boatload just confuses me.  We need to improve education, including bimeasure education, so that people will not have to be convinced to accept a superior system but instead will demand it because they understand why it's better.

[kalvado]

The metric system isn't just about base numbers and multiples.  It has an internal consistency.  A calorie is the amount of heat needed to change the temperature of one cubic centimeter (one milliliter) of water (which has a mass of one gram) by one centigrade.  To me, this is beautiful.  But what's also beautiful is having an intuitive understanding of what a measure means.  I know what a mile per hour is, but I have no idea what a kilometer per kilosecond is, or a decigram per centistoke.  I know exactly what a boatload is, but the idea of a metric boatload just confuses me.  We need to improve education, including bimeasure education, so that people will not have to be convinced to accept a superior system but instead will demand it because they understand why it's better.

Do you have a feeling for bushels per acre or therms per dollar?

[hotdogPi]

I don't even have an intuitive understanding of an acre.

[kalvado]

I don't even have an intuitive understanding of an acre.

Oh, that's an easy one. My backyard times 2.

[elsmere241]

An acre is ten square chains, a chain being 66 feet or four rods.

[Scott5114]

I don't even have an intuitive understanding of an acre.

I only do because I grew up on a one-acre lot.

[Rothman]

I don't even have an intuitive understanding of an acre.

Oh, that's an easy one. My backyard times 2.

My childhood lot was an acre.  Smallest lot in the "neighborhood."

[Big John]

I don't even have an intuitive understanding of an acre.

An American football field is 1.32 acres.