• notacat@mander.xyz
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    11 months ago

    I do find cooking easier in grams. Just put the bowl on the scale and add ingredients until it hits the number. No measuring cups to wash. But it would life changing if woodworking switched to metric. Doing any sort of exact math is annoying as hell. What is 12’7” divided by 4? How many 1/8” is 0.55 inches?? It is my own personal hell.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      It’s also a lot easier to multiply and divide recipes if you switch it over to metric. This is particularly useful if you don’t have enough of one ingredient and need to reduce the others by that ratio.

      Then there’s the ability to measure the ingredient directly out of the container, using any scoop you can find, rather than needing multiple sets of measuring spoons.

        • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Say you have a recipe that takes three eggs but you only have two. Do you wanna do the math on what 2/3 of one cup is actually?

          • gordon@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Ummm… It’s 2/3 cup, and that is a standard measurement. But maybe that wasn’t the best example. Let’s say 2/3 of 1/4 cup. Well that’s 2/12 or 1/6 cup which is far from common. However a cup is 48 tsp, so 1/6 cup is 8 tsp.

            I mean it’s dumb as hell but it does work.

            The Metric system is easier though.

            • Lemon1095@lemmy.ml
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              11 months ago

              It’s like when the crazy guy says it’s easy and then pulls out a pinboard with pictures and string connecting them and proceeds to explain how it makes sense in his head and you have to admit that you sort of follow but also can’t believe what you’re hearing is reality.

              • gordon@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                The thing that drives me bonkers is that ounces is both a volume and mass measurement, and they aren’t the same for water.

              • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                You can just say you don’t know fractions.

                It’s okay.

                They used to give out a little conversion rotary slide rule at trade shows. Pretty nice tech, two circles of cardboard pop riveted together in the center, on the top one the units are written on a series of rings, smallest on the outside, biggest on the inside, there’s a cutout along the radius so you can see the numbers written on the bottom one. Spin the bottom one so the unit you know is showing and the one you want will be right there.

                I bet they still make em.

                • Instigate@aussie.zone
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                  11 months ago

                  As a previous hardware store employee in Australia I can confirm we were given these as well, as a lot of our tooling is still in imperial measurements - particularly bits, tools, fasteners and the like. I think my old one is still lying around in a box in the garage somewhere…

        • RoquetteQueen@slrpnk.net
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          11 months ago

          Sometimes I buy liquid eggs in a carton if I need a lot of eggs for one recipe and don’t feel like cracking a dozen eggs. One large egg is about 50g, so 0.8 metric eggs is about 40g.

        • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          A metric egg is a little over 50 grams. You typically get a bit over 30 grams of white, 20 grams of yolk and 5-ish grams of shell.

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
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      11 months ago

      I do find cooking easier in grams. Just put the bowl on the scale and add ingredients until it hits the number. No measuring cups to wash.

      Uh, you know metric has volume measurements as well, and Imperial has weight measurements? Measuring cup vs scales is not really a difference in metric and imperial.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        Directions and nutrition information and other stuff like that tend to use mass for metric and volume for imperial. Yeah, you can convert stuff, but it’s annoying.

    • Classy@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      I get around it by just working in inches entirely. If some guy needs the foot-and-inch measurement I’ll convert but generally calling for something to be 97 5/8" is sufficient, without needing to add feet into the equation.

      I do agree that metric would be interesting. I have a metric tape measure I use when I am practicing botany so I can work on familiarizing myself with common metric distances like 10/100cm

  • jg1i@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I was born in the US and have switched by myself. My brother thought I was weird until one day we went to the hardware store.

    I needed to buy a 15/64 in drill bit, but they didn’t have it. So then we thought, fine, maybe we can use the next closest size…

    Except WTF is the next size up or down from 15/64??!!! Neither of us could figure it out. Internet wasn’t great. Sales people didn’t know. We left because we weren’t sure what to buy.

    In metric, it’s trivial. 5mm drill bit, 4mm is smaller, 6mm is bigger.

    After this, he stopped thinking I was a weirdo for using metric measurements. But he still uses imperial because murica.

    Also, interesting, I learned that he thinks imperial units were invented by the US. I told him they were British units and I stopped caring about British units in 1776, but he didn’t seem to believe me.

    • cantsurf@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      16/64 is 1/4. Your next size up is a quarter inch. Is it intuitive? Maybe not. Is it really that hard? Only if your educational institutions have also failed you.

    • grandkaiser@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Except WTF is the next size up or down from 15/64??!!!

      There’s lots of great reasons to switch to metric. Inability to do basic fractions isn’t one of them…

      For the record, it would be 16/64, or, 1/4

      • grue@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        For the record, it would be 16/64, or, 1/4

        Nope! It’d be 6mm, then B gauge (6.045mm), then 1/4" (6.350mm). And that’s not including things like over/under reamers and such.

        (Sorry, I’ve been watching too much Blondihacks lately.)

      • explodicle@local106.com
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        11 months ago

        Everyone has trouble with something that’s basic for someone else - we just have different skills. If these fractions are too confusing for a significant minority of people, then that’s a good reason to switch from fractional to decimal.

        • grandkaiser@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Except In this specific case, it’s about measurements for tools. Fractional is far more practical for construction than decimal for tooling.

      • Stuka@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        But somehow the brother is convinced, despite the fact that they left the hardware store without the bit they needed!

      • explodicle@local106.com
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        11 months ago

        To be fair the modern USA is imperialist, we just don’t call it that because imperialism is no longer considered a good thing.

  • Esjee@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    We went from posting Twitter screenshots as memes to posting reddit screenshots as memes

  • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    It’s so nice the US and Liberia are the only two countries to share both Ebola AND the imperial system. They’re buddy buddy.

    • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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      11 months ago

      TBF in practice a lot of countries use the imperial system, from Canada to the UK to Jamaica to the Philippines. They just “use metric” on paper.

      Also, here in the Netherlands we use inches for screen sizes and cups for some cooking recipes. I will insist that my monitor is 55cm and even tech people ask me how much that is with full sincerity.

        • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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          11 months ago

          I noticed some Canadians seem to use metric exclusively, while others very much use imperial systems through and through. Android defaults to imperial systems when it’s set to Canadian English, which confuses me even more but I suppose imperial must be used a lot, then

          • Catweazle@social.vivaldi.net
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            11 months ago

            @lord_ryvan @BonesOfTheMoon, I don’t understand how it can be in the 21st century that a system as idiotic and archaic as the imperial one continues to be used. NASA has already caused millions of dollars in damage by crashing several probes due to miscalculations with these outdated and devoid of any logic measurements, based on parts of the body of a king, dead centuries ago instead of clear physical and mathematical units as in the rest of the world.

            • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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              11 months ago

              I also don’t get it and my country is slowly adapting it too (Netherlands)

              I absolutely hate it and try to counter it actively

          • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I find stuff like cups and spoons and pounds and inches are used here more than metric, but we definitely use kilometers only.

            • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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              11 months ago

              Android lied to me

              Maybe it’s a plot by the Australian government because it led me to set all my devices to Australian English; they’re always 100% metric

    • Lemminary@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      We use 24 h format here where I live but we speak in 12 h format because it’s less awkward. Not all that shines is gold, I guess

      • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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        11 months ago

        I use 24h in speech, it trips up some people a little but they all understand and I’ve gotten a few to switch!

        My native language is Dutch, but I to give an example I say “vijftien uur” for 15:00 / 3pm and “vijtien uur dertig” for 15:30 / 3:30pm. My closest English equivalents would be “fifteen oʼclocm” and “fifteen thirty”, really.

        My point is, make the tiniest possible step, only replace the number of the hour with the 24h variant and drop the am/pm part.

    • PenguinLover@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      If we are doing this, shouldn’t we go straight to Kelvin? So we no longer have to deal with negative temperatures

      • MeshPotato@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Didn’t you see the meme: “There are 2 types of countries, those that ise the metric system and those that landed on the moon.”?

        It’s also usually shared by the same idiots that don’t realise that barley corn is an actual measurement in their beloved imperial system.

        Ask any of these smart arses how barley corns are in a foot or how many feet are in a mile and suddenly you hear excuses. Not to forget that the inch defined by the meter.

        • Lizardking27@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I’m not sure what your point is? Some people not knowing a certain obscure unit of measurement doesn’t discount an entire system of measurements. Also your mile example doesn’t make sense because most people do know how many feet are in a mile.

          • MeshPotato@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            You’re proving my point exactly. The imperial system is so convoluted that even people that INSIST that EVERYONE should use it, don’t understand its units.

            Just because most people don’t have to deal with a certain conversion, doesn’t mean that none do. There are enough engineers that design stuff which is related to problems on these variations in scale. They waste hours in productivity in needlessly complicated conversions (because fractions). Not to mention the mistakes that get introduced like the famous Mars lander that crashed because of imperial unit conversions.

            Not only are the units incredibly inconsistent, you also have the issue that Brits and boat people use variation of some of the same units. US Gallons vs British Gallons, mile vs nautical mile. MPH, vs knots. That barley corn that Holzkohlen mentioned defines shoe sizes, unless of course, you don’t wear shoes.

            • Lizardking27@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              You have no point to prove! You’re just ranting like a crazy person about stuff no one’s heard of that doesn’t even matter!

    • TheKingBee@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’d heard of that before so after a quick google America passed the Metric Conversion Act in 1975 then in 1982 the Metric Board was abolished by President Ronald Reagan…

      So like the harbinger of doom for American progress he was Regan killed it…

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          We actually got rid of that in Denmark recently, but in a pretty foolish way: our time is now locked in on daylight savings time rather than the original unmodified time.

          Probably gonna mean some dark mornings when the times come and we don’t switch back, which’ll suck for those of us who have a hard time getting out of bed before the sun’s up…

    • mondoman712@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      And everything is measured by volume. Just tell me the amount of salt I need in grams and I don’t have to worry about if it’s kosher or not.

      • Unseeliefae@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        You technically only need kosher salt if the recipe involves some of kind of fermentation or yeast rise, because the iodine in non-kosher salt will kill the yeast before it can rise.

        • mondoman712@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          But every recipe from the US uses kosher salt, which means their measurements don’t match for other salts, but if they gave the weight it wouldn’t be an issue. 5g of salt is 5g of salt no matter the size of the crystals, but one teaspoon can be totally different.

        • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          That’s why making a preferment like poolish is a superior method for any bread recipe. You only add salt once the poolish has finished the leavening process.

    • Saneless@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Sure it is

      You can teaspoon the shit out of everything. 3tsp to a table. 5ml to 15ml. Cut recipes by turning everything into a tablespoon. Need to make 1/2 of something that is already 1/4 cup? That’s 16 tbsp to a cup, so you were at 4, now half a 1/4 cup is simply 2 tbsp

      For dry shit, get a gram scale and welcome to consistency city

        • Saneless@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Google assistant has gotten worse and worse but “Hey Google, how many tablespoons are in x” is pretty helpful

            • Saneless@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Does that plug into assistant speakers?

              I’m not a massive fan of it but hands free cooking questions are nice. I use DDG for my browser search

              • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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                11 months ago

                I’m sure some open hardware hacker could get DuckDuckGo or qalc to work through their home-soldered voice-controlled assistant.

                But other than that, no. For what it’s worth, I spend 2 to 3 seconds for each conversion through the terminal when preparing a recipe, or about 15 seconds unlocking my phone and looking it up in DDG on the spot

    • nomadjoanne@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Right? Cooking is the single area where the American system makes sense. Much more intuitive and you don’t need a kitchen scale.

      • atyaz@reddthat.com
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        11 months ago

        Using volume is imprecise no matter what units you’re using. Not a big deal for cooking, but for baking, you definitely should use a scale.

        • Saneless@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Cooking is an art. Baking is a science

          I was with someone who eyeballed it. Worked out for a skillet. Then she tried to make bread one night. I warned her but it did not go well

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    tespoons? That’s what tsp means?

    Yeah what’d you think it meant, Eugene?

    …ten square pounds?

    Calzone explodes

    Jazz music intensifies

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    I personally fucking hate ounces. Recipes could mean volume or weight.