• innermachine@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      2 days ago

      There are 2 types of countries in this world: 1. Those that use the metric system and 2. Those that put a man on the moon ;)

    • Newsteinleo@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      24
      ·
      3 days ago

      When you can divide a meter evenly by 2, 3, 4, 6 we will talk. Until then take your crappy base 10 measurements and stefu!

      • MrFinnbean@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        17 hours ago

        Easy.

        Can you quickly calculate how many gallons of water receptacle with dimensions of 5 inch x 3 feet x 1 yard can hold? Extra points if you can also calculate how many pounds it weight when filled.

      • Synapse@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 days ago

        It can be done just like for feet and inches, look:

        • a half meter: ½m
        • a third of a meter: ⅓m
        • a fourth of a meter: ¼m
        • a sixth of a meter: ⅙m
        • Newsteinleo@infosec.pub
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          2 days ago

          Yet I only need an integer when using the imperial system, and I don’t have to repeat 3 into infinity.

          • SlurpingPus@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 day ago

            If you only need integers, why are the measurements of your home hardware and tech specified in 1/8ths and 1/16ths of an inch? Stick to whole inches or shut up.

          • monotremata@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            2 days ago

            But then you’ve got a space that’s 5’ 7 3/8" and you need a clearance of 7/32" on each end, so your piece should be…uh… 5’ 6 15/16" long. So much easier than metric, right?

            In metric it would be 1711mm (or 1.711m) and you’d need to take 5.5mm off each end, so it’s 1700mm. (For the record, I picked random numbers in imperial and only did the metric conversion afterwards, I just lucked into the nice round number here.)

            I dunno. You need how many sig figs you need in whichever system, but switching between a factor of 12 for the feet, base 10 for the inches, and the equivalent of binary decimals for the partial inches sure does take getting used to. I’ve finally gotten used to it enough that I can do it in my head, but I prefer to work on metric for most things.

            I acknowledge that machinists just use thousandths of an inch, which does greatly improve working with that system, but it also introduces a third kind of measurement that can’t easily be interconverted with the other two. I dunno. It just feels like we’re doing way too much work propping up this archaic system when literally everyone else in the world is using something simpler and we could just be on the same system.

          • Synapse@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 days ago

            ⅓m is 1.093504 feet or 13.12205 inch. I don’t see how it’s more convenient.