Over the last few years, I (an American) have gotten into hobbies (3d printing, coffee brewing, sciencey things, etc.) that pretty much require you to use metric over imperial because the community as a whole uses metric and it is straight up better for scaling. I have been enjoying that I can roughly convert between the two “languages” quickly and I have found I use a pattern that is essentially this meme, but not for a lack of reason; it’s based on whether the thing I’m dealing with has to do with me as a human or not.
Things that directly affect me like temperature, weight, height, and descriptions/estimates in an abstract sense relative to me (how far something is from me, about me, with me, on me) is far easier to relate to in imperial. Room temp is 21C, but thinking of it has 72F feels more intuitive because 0 is fukkin cold and 100 is fukkin hot. And yeah F keeps going in both directions but idc if it’s 100F out or 120F out, at a certain point hot is hot and cold is cold. 32F/0C is freezing for water, but not to me; I’m chilly, (maybe? That’s t shirt weather after winter sometimes lol) but I’m not avoiding the outside until it really approaches 0F/-18C. The scale of /human/ feels better in imperial.
Most other things that I need measurements for is going to be in metric. Big things (SPACE), scalability for recipes, measuring tiny things for printing/modeling these things just feel so much more precise using metric. Yes, precision is there in imperial too, we build houses pretty damn accurately, but I would argue that follows my affects me logic.
Cooking is weird, idk these aren’t RULES.
Imperial is just more of an approximation that feels very relatable and natural to my human monkey brain. That’s probably because it was the first thing I learned and then I specifically taught myself metric, but that’s the vibe I use and the fact that I can understand and convert pretty well between the two is what I assume knowing how to speak a second language feels. Which I cannot do. Because American education system. And I keep forgetting my Duolingo.
is far easier to relate to in imperial. Room temp is 21C, but thinking of it has 72F feels more intuitive because 0 is fukkin cold and 100 is fukkin hot.
No, it’s easier because you’re more familiar with it. Regardless, I agree that 0 is somewhat cold and 100 is fucking hot.
I was taught metric basically alongside imperial. I remember a depiction of a ruler with inches and centimeters in my first grade math book. In high school, I would go outside in the morning and build a house in inches, then I’d go inside and do chemistry labs in milligrams.
In flight school…some of this I’d like to wring some necks over…altitude and runway length is given in feet, temperature in centigrade, humidity as dewpoint in centigrade, pressures in inches of mercury, visibility in statute miles, overland distance in nautical miles, speed in knots, weight in pounds, gasoline volume in gallons. Oh, gasoline is sold by the gallon, jet-A is sold by the pound.
Over the last few years, I (an American) have gotten into hobbies (3d printing, coffee brewing, sciencey things, etc.) that pretty much require you to use metric over imperial because the community as a whole uses metric and it is straight up better for scaling. I have been enjoying that I can roughly convert between the two “languages” quickly and I have found I use a pattern that is essentially this meme, but not for a lack of reason; it’s based on whether the thing I’m dealing with has to do with me as a human or not.
Things that directly affect me like temperature, weight, height, and descriptions/estimates in an abstract sense relative to me (how far something is from me, about me, with me, on me) is far easier to relate to in imperial. Room temp is 21C, but thinking of it has 72F feels more intuitive because 0 is fukkin cold and 100 is fukkin hot. And yeah F keeps going in both directions but idc if it’s 100F out or 120F out, at a certain point hot is hot and cold is cold. 32F/0C is freezing for water, but not to me; I’m chilly, (maybe? That’s t shirt weather after winter sometimes lol) but I’m not avoiding the outside until it really approaches 0F/-18C. The scale of /human/ feels better in imperial.
Most other things that I need measurements for is going to be in metric. Big things (SPACE), scalability for recipes, measuring tiny things for printing/modeling these things just feel so much more precise using metric. Yes, precision is there in imperial too, we build houses pretty damn accurately, but I would argue that follows my affects me logic.
Cooking is weird, idk these aren’t RULES.
Imperial is just more of an approximation that feels very relatable and natural to my human monkey brain. That’s probably because it was the first thing I learned and then I specifically taught myself metric, but that’s the vibe I use and the fact that I can understand and convert pretty well between the two is what I assume knowing how to speak a second language feels. Which I cannot do. Because American education system. And I keep forgetting my Duolingo.
No, it’s easier because you’re more familiar with it. Regardless, I agree that 0 is somewhat cold and 100 is fucking hot.
I was taught metric basically alongside imperial. I remember a depiction of a ruler with inches and centimeters in my first grade math book. In high school, I would go outside in the morning and build a house in inches, then I’d go inside and do chemistry labs in milligrams.
In flight school…some of this I’d like to wring some necks over…altitude and runway length is given in feet, temperature in centigrade, humidity as dewpoint in centigrade, pressures in inches of mercury, visibility in statute miles, overland distance in nautical miles, speed in knots, weight in pounds, gasoline volume in gallons. Oh, gasoline is sold by the gallon, jet-A is sold by the pound.