Hi, I think in metric units, so almost everything is some form of a power of 10, like a kilogram is a 1000 grams, etc.

Sometimes I will think of an hour and half as 150 minutes before remembering that it is 90 minutes.

Does something similar happen to imperial units users? Because as far as I understand you don’t have obvious patterns that would cause you to make these mistakes, right?

  • mindlight@lemm.ee
    2·
    10 months ago

    I still don’t get “There’s some things imperial is just better at…We as people can perceive imperial temperatures a lot better than metric.”

    I can remember -17.8°C and 37°C just as good as Americans can remember 32°F and 212°F. So in that sense there’s no difference, just different scales.

    However, Fahrenheit based 0°F on the lowest outdoor temperature he could measure in Gdansk (Poland) during the winter of 1708/1709. He then based 100°F on his own body temperature.

    Even if you were able to perceive human body temperature without a thermometer, there’s no way you in any way can relate to the winter of 1708/1709.

    At this point using Fahrenheit is just a principle and nothing else.

    • azulavoir
      2·
      10 months ago

      if you think of Fahrenheit as roughly corresponding to the approximate percentage of your skin you’d like exposed it works out

    • prettybunnys
      1·
      10 months ago

      Let me go ahead and distance myself from that statement.

      I didn’t make it.

      I’m saying that standard units were created the way they were for a reason and if you stop and remove the idea of the metric system as something to compare it to (which will make standard look bad always) you can see there is some logic and reasoning to it and often it’s because the measures are easily to comprehend.

      That doesn’t make it better, it made it work in a time when standardization was rare. Metric is clearly the better system for measuring EVERYTHING but the standard units were what they were for a reason.

      That said personally having used both metric and standard for my whole life and now largely use metric for everything where measuring matters, I find myself converting temperature specifically back into Fahrenheit. Everything else I convert the other way. Just an anecdote.