• hperrin@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    The original Fahrenheit system was actually pretty clever. It set 0° at the temperature of brine and 96° at internal body temperature. That made marking a thermometer really easy. Like, ridiculously easy. 96 is divisible by two many times before reaching a decimal.

    Because the freezing temperature of water was really close to 32°, the later Fahrenheit system set that as the lower temperature and 212° as the boiling point instead of using body temperature. That made marking a thermometer more difficult, and basically took away Fahrenheit’s only advantage. It was more consistent though. Now Fahrenheit is formally defined based on Kelvin.

    Centigrade was originally marked as 100° at the freezing temperature, going down as temperature increases to 0° at the boiling temperature. Obviously that didn’t last long. The downside is that marking a Celsius thermometer depended on atmospheric pressure. Now Celsius is defined based on Kelvin by -273.15° being absolute zero and a degree corresponding to a very specific amount of heat energy increase.

    So yeah, Fahrenheit hasn’t made any sense for many many years.

  • Melllvar@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    The one thing that bothers me about the metric system is how much of it is never actually used. No one says “1 megameter”, for example. They say “1,000 kilometers”. When you think about it, most metric prefixes are never used with most metric units.

    • Bilb!@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 months ago

      I’ve thought that was weird too. Decimeter’s seems like a good unit for measuring a person’s height, for instance.

        • Bilb!@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          27 days ago

          Yeah, I hear you. There’s really no practical difference between saying 174cm and 17.4dm I think from the American perspective where 6ft is a sort of benchmark for adult male height, so psychologically that 6 looms large. CMs obviously work fine, but I’m trained to see the bigger 17 as a sort of benchmark/goal. None of that is healthy or rational, though.

          Maybe it’s easier to say “Oh, they’re 17dm” or “15dm” and get a general sense for the height of a person. When you need to get precise, it’s not useful.

    • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      It’s because metric sucks at anything on a human scale and most people deal with things on a human scale. Imperial was developed over hundreds of years to be extremely narrow and scope in a specific two things at a human scale.

      It’s a big reason why imperial makes far more sense. If you actually need to talk about anything on a human scale, everything no matter how nonsensical makes sense the moment, it’s explained because it’s all extremely intuitive.

      While metric is basically a tiny fraction of a technically Superior system that basically makes no f****** sense in 99% of cases for a day-to-day life.

      Try metric is the measurement of science, engineering and other fields of study because they actually do with things outside of day-to-day human scope

      As the saying goes, use the right tool for the right job and only a dumb f*** uses the wrong tool for the wrong job

      • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        I have no idea what you’re talking about… humans are around 1-2m tall, weigh about 40-80kg, have a body temperature of about 37 C, and need to drink a couple litres of water per day. How are these units not the proper order of magnitude for measuring things “on a human scale”?

  • rayyy@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 months ago

    The US could have switched to the world-wide standard years ago but under Reagan the switch was abandoned.

    • 4am@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      No, the original “Make America Great Again” guy? The first actor elected President who presided over an unprecedented health crisis and ignored it because he hoped it would only hurt the “right” people, and plunged America into an economic disaster the likes of which we are still feeling today and may never recover from? That guy?

      God this place actually sucks

    • Soggy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      *at sea level, assuming pure water

      It’s intuitive with respect to water. Applying it to anything else is exactly the same as the Fahrenheit scale: you associate various things with numbers.

  • Hansae@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 months ago

    Tbf as someone who grew up with the imperial system due to being raised by a British boomer its fairly easy if you’re familiar with it, I still often cook in imperial due to a load of old cook books I have.

    Having said that anyone who wants the imperial system in the modern day is a absolute idiot, metric is objectively superior.

    • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      A brit once told me that the imperial system makes sense if you look at it from the perspective of a peasant at the market - units of 12 was a lot easier to work with in the olden days because it’s easily divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.

      I guess it makes sense from a historical viewpoint.

      • seejur@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        I just wish it was always 12 instead of 3, 12, 1760 and whatever the eff they come up with.

        Farenheit on the other hand does not make sense at all

        • Geologist@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          2 months ago

          Best way to use Fahrenheit is to consider it as a percentage of how hot it is. 0 degrees is zero percent hot, and 100 is fully hot. Beyond that you’re in super cold/hot territory.

          But yeah, Celsius is still better.

          • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 months ago

            Fahrenheit is better at describing weather in reference to human interaction with temperature Celsius is better for everything else.

            But that’s the same for everything imperial. It’s always better when it comes to actual human elements. How big is that stick? How many things in that piece of bread? How much weight is that rock? I need to move.

            While metric is basically better anytime you have tooling you need to be extremely exact. You need to know something that is less human and more mathematical or abstract.

            Well each system can do the thing. They’re not great at it quickly falls apart. That’s a big reason why people tend to say imperial sucks. Most people no longer actually interact with the natural world anymore. Everything is computers, exact measurements, quantifiable numbers from shops. The only thing left that most people deal with on a day-to-day basis is the weather and why Fahrenheit may be better than Celsius. It’s only vaguely better since weather is already such an imprecise thing that really doesn’t matter.

            Well yes the granularity of Fahrenheit is far more useful. If you actually want to be like specific about things Celsius when it comes to weather it’s close enough f****** does the job

      • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        Imperial is FAR more human and “natural” then metric. Metric fails frequently at being quantifiable with natural experiences and objects.

        But imperial falls apart the second your trying to do something at a large scale, super small scales or literally anything that isn’t “human scale”

        And basically every test I’ve ever seen. If you don’t have tools or some reference point, people will nine times out of 10 be able to more accurately gauge something using imperial measurements then using metric measurements.

        Metric relies far too much on reference in tooling, but that’s also its greatest strength. It’s absurdly, exact and reliable while imperial is loosey-goosey

    • Spezi@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      Please also lets use the International fixed calendar where every month has exactly 28 days/4 weeks and the year has 13 months. Every 1st of the month is a sunday, every 2nd is a monday and so on, so you will always know which day it is by the number.

      The leftover day is a dedicated new years day.

      • Soggy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Sounds fun, now update every computer system simultaneously to a new date format.