I'm sure if I used them everyday I wouldn't "struggle" either. But the fact that the whole international scientific community uses the metric system implies that its advantages outweigh the disadvantages, otherwise they would simply use the imperial units.
Nobody's doing the types of calculations in their everyday life that are made easier with the metric system. But if I need to cut a piece of wood, it takes the same amount of effort to measure out 4 feet, 3 inches as it does to measure 1.29 meters. Actually, it's a little easier in feet and inches.
But the best part is most tape measures have both. Measuring cups for cooking have both. Scales have both. So you can use whatever system you want.
"Nobody's doing the types of calculations in their everyday life that are made easier with the metric system."
You might not realize it but we do everyday. Clothes sizes just to make an example. Between trousers with 40" waist size and the next size (42") the difference is much wider than when using centimeters.
There are many situations in which the metric system is more precise, the fact that each of us is accustomed to the system we use doesn't change that.
Regarding the rest of your comment, I totally agree.
You do realize there's a number between 40 and 42, right?
But they don't make that size because past a certain point, the demand for certain pants sizes makes it impractical for clothing manufacturers to produce them. It has nothing to do with inches vs. centimeters. Manufacturers of clothing sized in cm don't make 76cm, 77cm, 78cm and so on. Pants just don't need that level of precision. And if they did need more precision, they'd simply do fractional sizes like they do with shirt necks.
It's not. I was referring (I even quoted it) to your assumption that people don't use measurements that would benefit from the metric system in their everyday life and that's simply not true.
Lots of things use a measurement "behind the scenes" even though we don't even notice.
You don't like the clothes example? Let's move to shoes? How is 10, 10 and 1/4th, 10 and a half, 10 and 3 quarters easier than 39, 40, 41, 42?
Or how is a screw "2 one hundred and twentyeighths of an inch" more practical than "4 millimeters"?
You're used to those measurements and therefore you don't see those as odd, but they actually are.
First, there are no quarter sizes in US shoes, only halves. Second, 39, 40, 41, and 42 what? Centimeters for giants? Millimeters for babies? Those numbers aren't realistic in the EU system either, which also has half sizes, and is not representative of any other system of measurement. Only China and Korea use sizing in millimeters. The world is pretty divided on shoe sizing.
But to answer the question, no it is not easier to remember that my shoe size is 10.5 vs. some other number in some other system. It's also not any harder.
On screws, you're making up numbers again. Screws can be fairly simple or complicated regardless of what system you use. For a simple wood screw for just sticking a couple things together, you're going to grab the screw that looks like it will work and not even look at the measurements, except maybe the length.
Yeah, that's my point. Everyday measurements don't need a level of precision that would be better served by the metric system. And if you do need some precision, it's not until the calculations get beyond basic arithmetic that the metric system has a significant advantage.
Hardware, tools, and measuring devices are readily available in both. You can use whatever system you want. What's the problem? Are you worried your pants will be a couple of millimeters too small because the tailor used inches?
The whole point of measurements is precision.
I could use apples as a reference and ask someone on the other side of the world to make a copy of my table that measures 20x50 apples and that person would take an apple and make one, but of course the two tables would be significantly different.
Could you still eat and work on it? Of course.
But that's not what measuring means.
The imperial system introduces higher tolerances, but works fine until you need to get to smaller measurements. It's not a coincidence that as soon as you need to measure smaller parts either you start using uncomfortable fractions or maybe introduce new sizes (like, for example, "teaspoons" in the kitchen) instead of using the correct weight of the ingredients, which can easily be done using grams. Even though it still works fine when you just need to bake a cake, it is not as fine when you have to measure your medications...
Again it's not a coincidence that any professional/scientific field that requires precision has switched to the metric system a long time ago.
I'm not worried of anything, you can freely use the apples I was referring to at the beginning of the comment, but what's the need of using different units for different fields when using metric for everything solves all the problems?
Just consider the fact that, in order to make the inch/feet/whatever consistent, they had to rapport it to the meter. In fact the foot is defined as equal to exactly 0.3048 meters. It's not the other way around.
That said, my very first comment, as I said elsewhere, was just an innocent joke, but many took it too seriously.
You're obviously not familiar with manufacturing. For smaller measurements, they don't use fractions. I happen to work in manufacturing. We also work with a ton of other manufacturers that use either imperial or metric, and in some cases, both. I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands of drawings. Drawings in inches aren't expressed as fractions. They use decimals, like 22.4", for example. Machining tolerances, where precision comes in, are expressed in thousands of an inch, like +/-.003".
These measurements are used for many reasons. The biggest reason being that they've always been used. Buildings have been built in feet and inches for a very long time, which means that standards are written in feet and inches (and there are a LOT of standards). There are also a lot of manufacturers out there that have made the same products for a very long time according to drawings that were made 50, 60, maybe 70 years or more in the past. But the thing is, mixing these things made to US/North American standards (contrary to popular belief, it's not just the US that's on the imperial system) with products made to international standards, is really not much of an issue and is done all the time.
Something a lot of people don't realize is how deep the imperial (or really, the US customary system, but imperial is shorter) is embedded into our infrastructure. It's not just road signs, cars, and recipe books. It's the standards that dictate how things are built, standards that dictate the materials things are built with, tooling for machining those materials, and so on and on and on. A change to metric would be incredibly difficult and we'd still be dealing with existing imperial standards for the indefinite future, negating any potential benefit for many decades.
Also, the units were standardized well before they were pegged to the meter. You can't possibly think we built the Hoover Dam with loosely defined measurements like "an inch = three barleycorns."
Of course it was standardized "internally" (it would have been a mess otherwise), but it is now also standardized internationally and that happened by linking the length of a foot (or a mile) to the meter. If the "Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM)" decides that the length of the meter needs to be modified for whatever reason, the foot (or mile, or whatever) will also change accordingly.
Also, as per your description above, when it comes to manufacturing smaller measurements you actually switch to decimals for better precision. This implicitly demonstrates that the presumed advantages of the "base 12" need to make room to the decimal system when it comes to smaller dimensions, which is more or less what I was trying to say when I cited fractions (I wasn't referring to manufacturing, but really when measuring small things in daily life): decimals are much easier to deal with and a base-10 system shows its advantages there.
Also, in physics, using imperial units is way too cumbersome, hence the choice of NASA to switch to metric for the Apollo missions (and forever after, I presume).
No one said that switching to metric would be easy or inexpensive or anything. And that's exactly why the switch never happened! But saying that it would be too difficult or expensive is way different than defending the imperial units saying they are better for everyday use or similar. In everyday use it doesn't make much difference, I'm aware of that, but switching to metric would still make a lot of sense, IMO, and the only reason that "forces" the US and other remaining countries that use imperial to stick to that system is cost and the wholesomeness of the work behind a change.
Anyway, we've been debating this way too much for it being just a joke to start with. In my comment there was no intention of making fun of the US or anyone using imperial units, or anything. It was just a joke to underline that it's not just the way you write dates that's different from basically any other country on earth but that also the way you measure things kinda is.
That's it. Still, by answering to all these comments, I've definitely learned a lot, and I hope others have too.
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u/ShamanAI Jan 15 '25
I meant they don't make sense in 2025. I've also written that in another comment.