• shinratdr@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    For proof that this thread is just people justifying what they know as better somehow, look no further than Canada.

    We do cooking temps in Fahrenheit, weather in Celsius. Human weights in pounds, but never pounds and oz. Food weights in grams, cooking weights in pounds and oz. Liquid volume in millilitres and litres, but cooking in cups, teaspoons and tablespoons. Speed & distance in kilometres, heights in feet and inches.

    Try and give this any consistency and people will look at you like you’re fucked. The next town is 100km over, I’m 5ft 10in, a can of soda is 355ml, it’s 21c out and I have the oven roasting something at 400f. Tell me it’s 68f out and I will fight you.

    People like what they are used to, and will bend over backwards to justify it. This becomes blatantly obvious when you use a random mix of units like we do, because you realize that all that matters is mental scale.

    If Fahrenheit is “how people feel” then why are feet useful measurements of height when 90% of people are between 4ft and 6ft? They aren’t. You just know the scale in your head, so when someone says they’re 7ft tall you say “dang that’s tall”. That’s it.

    • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      As a Canadian idk why your using us an an example, we are wrong to do so and we blame Americans for giving us this bad habit.

      • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        I just see it positively and choose to believe you’re in the process of transitioning to enlightenment (metric). ;)

    • phx@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Outdoor temperature in °C, unless you’re talking about an outdoor pool then it’s often enough °F :-)

      I think part of the reasons it’s so mixed might just be due to how many Amero-centric devices and parts are common between the two countries.

      Y’all can take your shitty Phillips screws though. Roberts is by far superior ;-)

    • ursakhiin@beehaw.org
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      2 months ago

      Imagine weighing people as big rocks, though.

      Until the UK changes that, us Americans and Canadians can rest assured that nothing we are doing is quite that ridiculous.

    • Bongles@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      If Fahrenheit is “how people feel” then why are feet useful measurements of height when 90% of people are between 4ft and 6ft?

      Those are two different things. Hope this helps.

      • shinratdr@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        It doesn’t help at all, it’s being intentionally obtuse. You know what I mean, it’s unhelpful to pretend otherwise and pick a fight over it.

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          i still don’t see how this is intentionally obtuse, feet are a mid point between inches and yards, it just makes sense to break down things over a certain amount to a much more palatable scale. Everyone knows roughly what 1 ft is, and everyone knows roughly what 1 inch is. Paired together you can get a pretty rough and accurate guesstimate of height. I feel like it’s also pretty expected for it to be within the range of 4-6 ft. Most people don’t really measure feet outside of that range, unless you’re doing construction.

          humans are a comparatively arbitrary height so i feel like you’re just complaining about the height of humans being weirdly arbitrary? Out of all the systems you could use for height, ft and in is pretty well tuned to the human nature, you’re not gonna do much better.

        • Bongles@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          If an argument is being made for one thing, Fahrenheit, it’s not relevant to bring up a different thing. Why is feet a useful measurement? Maybe it’s not, we’re talking about temperature.

          • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Yeah like the metric system has good arguments for why it’s measurements and weights are better, mainly conversion being easier, but for temperature there really isn’t an argument. I would make an argument for Fahrenheit as it gives more precision without having to use decimals which at least in America isn’t a thing for temperature. But those are pretty minor things and I do tend to agree it comes down to what you grew up with.

            • uienia@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              without having to use decimals

              This fear of decimals is a strictly American thing. Celsius achieves more precision with decimals than fahrenheit without decimals. And this American fear of decimals is pretty funny, considering you will happily do advanced fractions as soon as you are doing length measurements.

              • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                I don’t mind decimals at all, it’s more that I don’t trust companies to actually deal with supporting decimals when making the switch. Plus the last time I discussed this on Lemmy someone was saying that decimals aren’t even universally used and it might depend on what you get whether you get that precision or not. Either way like the main point of my post was anyways these are minor arguments and at the end of the day there isn’t really a reason to use Celsius vs Fahrenheit.

                • psud@aussie.zone
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                  2 months ago

                  Can you feel the difference between 23.5° and 24? I can’t. You don’t often need precision to tenths.

                  In Australia most weather providers give you whole degrees, the bureau of meteorology gives you to one decimal in reports and whole degrees in forecasts

                  My coffee and beer boilers can hit high precision temperatures to variously 0.1° or 0.5° precision. The beer boiler gives 3 digits - hundredths below 10°, tenths below 100°, whole numbers 100° and over

                  You can choose the precision of thermometers you wish to buy for yourself

                  I have seen fahrenheit thermometers which are hard to read to better precision than 5 degrees

            • bufalo1973
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              2 months ago

              1cm3 of water weights 1 gr and needs 1 calorie to rise 1ºC.

              But calories are now obsolete and the unit is Joules.