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DaveFromCampbelltown

macrumors 68000
Jun 24, 2020
1,781
2,877
A housing estate was being built in Port Moresby, near the University.
The houses were built ok, but somebody mis-read the spacing between the houses.
Buildings that were supposed to be 10 metres apart, were built 10 feet apart.
In order to give people some privacy, trees were planted between the houses.
The result was that the little 'forest' of trees attracted more rain in that part of PM than anywhere else.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,604
28,365
Runways and floors? So anything that needs to be flat uses feet and inches?
The aviation industry still uses feet, miles and nautical miles - at least in the US. I imagine the US Navy probably also still deals with nautical miles as well.

If the US Army Corps of Engineers however, is building something in the US - they're going to also be dealing with inches, feet and yards.

And the generals on the base golf course are going to be expecting tee yardages to the hole in yards. ;)
 

Scepticalscribe

Suspended
Jul 29, 2008
65,135
47,525
In a coffee shop.
16oz sounds better to me. .5 sounds to ….mathematical. A 12oz bottle is fairly typical. No I don’t want to drink .35L thank you very much. :)

You just ask for a half litre of beer;

In fact, if you have served in Germany, you will know that beer can be served in .5l, .4l, .33l, and .2l servings - depending on the place.

(Then, there are the versions - such as the legendary, or notorious, 'boot' for example - where beer is served in litres, or two litre servings).
 

Micky Do

macrumors 68020
Aug 31, 2012
2,214
3,162
a South Pacific island
I had a 16-ounce beer on Friday night. Feeling just fine and no adverse effects versus a .5 L beer.
What's wrong with a pint, as is still traditional in some metric parts?

Could be anything from about 425 to 568.26 mls (an Imperial pint / 20 Imperial fluid ounces), or 16 US fluid ounces, depending on location. No one really cares as long as the measure is consistent, and in keeping with local custom at the joint providing hospitality.
 

Scepticalscribe

Suspended
Jul 29, 2008
65,135
47,525
In a coffee shop.
What's wrong with a pint, as is still traditional in some metric parts?

Could be anything from about 425 to 568.26 mls (an Imperial pint / 20 Imperial fluid ounces), or 16 US fluid ounces, depending on location. No one really cares as long as the measure is consistent, and in keeping with local custom at the joint providing hospitality.
And I see no problem with ordering continental beers (a Belgian beer, or a German one) in metric units, - which is what they are served in and is the denomination of the bottles they come in - and a British one in pints.
 
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Euroamerican

macrumors 6502
May 27, 2010
468
346
Boise
You just ask for a half litre of beer;

In fact, if you have served in Germany, you will know that beer can be served in .5l, .4l, .33l, and .2l servings - depending on the place.

(Then, there are the versions - such as the legendary, or notorious, 'boot' for example - where beer is served in litres, or two litre servings).

Yes, I had a ,4 liter Ulmer Gold Ochsen in the Ulm Hbf bier "pub" once. I felt like a chump, knowing I could get a ,5 liter bottle just down the street in a little grocery store nearby for about a quarter of the price. But I had no time before the ICE showed up.
 

Algr

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2022
516
771
Earth (mostly)
It would make cooking easier if it was metric. No more need to memorize conversion tables.

Who needs conversion tables for cooking? I just use the units listed. I don't recall ever encountering a metric unit, and if I did, they are right there on the other side of the measuring cups.
 
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Micky Do

macrumors 68020
Aug 31, 2012
2,214
3,162
a South Pacific island
Yes, I had a ,4 liter Ulmer Gold Ochsen in the Ulm Hbf bier "pub" once. I felt like a chump, knowing I could get a ,5 liter bottle just down the street in a little grocery store nearby for about a quarter of the price. But I had no time before the ICE showed up.
Usually cheaper at the grocery store / off-licence down the road. But you don’t get the service, ambience, entertainment and so on that is provided by a pub.
 

AlaskaMoose

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2008
3,585
13,429
Alaska
Runways and floors? So anything that needs to be flat uses feet and inches?
Not necessarily. It just makes it easier for the craftsman to use feet and inches. For example, the 12" x 12" vinyl floor tile is widely used in the US. For the craftsman it is a lot easier to purchase a 12" x 12" floor tile than it is for him or her to buy one like this: 0.3048 Meters x 0.3048 Meters. Don't you think so?

(0.3048 mm equals 0.012 inches. Just remove the 0.0 from 0.012, and keep 12")
 
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Longplays

Suspended
May 30, 2023
1,308
1,158
Who needs conversion tables for cooking? I just use the units listed. I don't recall ever encountering a metric unit, and if I did, they are right there on the other side of the measuring cups.
People who need to work quickly in a professional kitchens? We had to memorize the conversions.
 

Algr

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2022
516
771
Earth (mostly)
People who need to work quickly in a professional kitchens?
It sounds like a pretty disorganized kitchen to lack tools that match the recipes. Rather than risking a conversion error, I'd just write the conversions into the recipes, or better yet, make sure the cups and spoons had both standards.

Edit: Come to think of it, I wouldn't allow celsius thermometers in my kitchen. I wouldn't want to take the risk of chicken being cooked to 71°F and served.

Edit 2: They sell 35mm film in 400 foot rolls. Go figure.
 
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Longplays

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May 30, 2023
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It sounds like a pretty disorganized kitchen to lack tools that match the recipes. Rather than risking a conversion error, I'd just write the conversions into the recipes, or better yet, make sure the cups and spoons had both standards.
You dont work in a professional kitchen.

Standardizing everything to metric would streamline a lot of things.

I get if you do not want to adjust but that unwillingness to adjust just adds overhead.
 
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CyberDavis

macrumors 6502
Sep 26, 2022
262
442
Okay guys, this is probably my angry 1 AM self again posting here, but this is something that has been bothering me for a few weeks now. I am posting it here because I know this is a website primarily of American people, and I don't know who else to rant this about.


Okay, first off, temperature. We all know what the three useful temperature measurements are. Only one is used in daily use, it's Celsius, and across the entire world. It is the most logical of the three, 0° is water's freezing point, 100° is its boiling point, every semi-educated person knows that. Only THREE countries use Fahrenheit exclusively, and surprise surprise, the United States is one of them. Why? Why is that necessary? Why use a system that is absolutely outdated, makes no sense whatsoever (water freezes at 32° and melts at 212°? yeah, totally makes sense), that is used by basically no one else? Even, excuse me for this term, stubborn countries like the United Kingdom now use Celsius exclusively and primarily. Even Canada, and its influence of the country did not force it to keep Fahrenheit. It annoys me because every time someone says "it's 60° outside!" I have to google and convert it because that means nothing for me, and I don't communicate enough with Americans to bother learning it. I could get away with it if it was something that was used interchangeably in multiple countries, but it isn't, it's outdated.

Second, measurement units. On one hand, you have the most logical system on the planet, the metric system. Simple, each unit correlates with each other, and there are basic prefixes which simply divide or multiply the numbers by multiples of 10. And I will be blunt here, the imperial units are more intuitive and are still somewhat logical. However, once you want to do anything slightly more complex, it becomes annoying. You can't do anything with a system like that. You have to learn the massive amount of words and how each of them correspond with each other. Imagine instead of having to use Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes, you would instead use Floppies, Discs, Drives, and Servers. It seems like the logical option, but they do not work together well at all and you gotta remember all of that crap. Once again, only the United States along with two other small countries exclusively use this system. In fact, when I thought that the United Kingdom was responsible for the same thing, it turns out it's technically the main measurement system of today (even though many people still use the other one), so I've actually gotta give them credit for having the guts to defy a traditional system. Every commonwealth country has adopted the SI, even if some like Canada still offer it occasionally. Seriously, why do this? Sure, I can deal with that, it's not like it's stupid or anything, but NOT when it's officially only used in a SINGLE GODDAMN COUNTRY (I'm excluding minor countries here because they are usually very small and have very little influence on the rest of the world).

Finally, this one pisses me off so much I just want to die. The date system. The entire world uses one or the other, either a DD/MM/YYYY system (common in European countries), either a YYYY/MM/DD system (common in East-Asian countries and some other places). Both are perfectly fine, as they represent a proper level of importance. What is NOT fine is when a single country just comes to troll everybody and bring a MM/DD/YYYY system, which completely messes up the order of the dates. The month, then a small part of the month, and then the year which the month takes place in? WHAT? How does that make any sense? WHY IS THAT NECESSARY? WHY THE ILLOGICALITY? I can bear with a January 1st, 2016 date system because it is closer to being a feature of the language, but not when it's a purely written form! At least use YYYY/MM/DD if you want to keep the M/D part! Seriously!


Okay, I understand that this was a bit blunt. But I can't accept that. I can't accept a country where there are people so lazy to adopt systems that are, by far, much more convenient than whatever is present, especially considering we are in 2016 and no improvement has been made to this date. And not to mention I'm sure there will be some idiots defending this system saying that "we are not sheeple to follow other people like that!". Well, uh, then you're sheeple to your own ****ing community. Any thoughts? Sure, you may call be brainwashed if that's what you believe, but I'd just like to point out that even though I grew up in a 24h system and I completely switched to 12h. And now I'm (partially) back at 24h. During this whole time, I barely spent any time outside. How exactly can you prove this against me if that's your intent? Anyway, any reasonable and non-biased explanations and/or defenses? Thank you.
Being English obviously I have some sympathy, not sure I'd have poked that hornets nest on here though.
🤣😂🤣😂
 
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Algr

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2022
516
771
Earth (mostly)
Standardizing everything to metric would streamline a lot of things.
Or standardizing to fahrenheit, since most cooks in the US cooks have 165° memorized. But if your kitchen has people doing math conversions on the fly in their heads, then they obviously haven't standardized on either. The reality is that mixed standards are something we are all stuck with forever.

It's true, I don't work in a professional kitchen. But I actually CAN'T adjust because I've never seen anyone selling a metric thermometer, nor recipes on packages that include celsius. I know HOW to use metric, but I just don't encounter it often.
 

Longplays

Suspended
May 30, 2023
1,308
1,158
Or standardizing to fahrenheit, since most cooks in the US cooks have 165° memorized. But if your kitchen has people doing math conversions on the fly in their heads, then they obviously haven't standardized on either. The reality is that mixed standards are something we are all stuck with forever.

It's true, I don't work in a professional kitchen. But I actually CAN'T adjust because I've never seen anyone selling a metric thermometer, nor recipes on packages that include celsius. I know HOW to use metric, but I just don't encounter it often.
You're in the US. I dont think metric sells all that well.
 
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Huntn

macrumors Core
May 5, 2008
23,972
27,055
The Misty Mountains
Or standardizing to fahrenheit, since most cooks in the US cooks have 165° memorized. But if your kitchen has people doing math conversions on the fly in their heads, then they obviously haven't standardized on either. The reality is that mixed standards are something we are all stuck with forever.

It's true, I don't work in a professional kitchen. But I actually CAN'T adjust because I've never seen anyone selling a metric thermometer, nor recipes on packages that include celsius. I know HOW to use metric, but I just don't encounter it often.
This is one area, the kitchen where I can’t imagine using anything other than Fahrenheit. :D If forced to I’d get used to it, but would not be happy about it.
 

Micky Do

macrumors 68020
Aug 31, 2012
2,214
3,162
a South Pacific island
Or standardizing to fahrenheit, since most cooks in the US cooks have 165° memorized. But if your kitchen has people doing math conversions on the fly in their heads, then they obviously haven't standardized on either. The reality is that mixed standards are something we are all stuck with forever.

It's true, I don't work in a professional kitchen. But I actually CAN'T adjust because I've never seen anyone selling a metric thermometer, nor recipes on packages that include celsius. I know HOW to use metric, but I just don't encounter it often.
Do you have a passport?

T’was Fahrenheit where I’m at, when I first started in the kitchen some sixty years ago. When we went metric about fifty years ago we adapted quite quickly. I’ve never seen anyone selling a Fahrenheit thermometer or recipes on packages that include metric measurements for decades.

The reality is that we did away with mixed standards when we went metric.
 

drumcat

macrumors 65816
Feb 28, 2008
1,190
2,891
Otautahi, Aotearoa
This is one area, the kitchen where I can’t imagine using anything other than Fahrenheit. :D If forced to I’d get used to it, but would not be happy about it.
All you do is put up a little sheet of paper somewhere for every 25f.

In the roughest terms:

100 = 212 (200)
150 = 302 (300)
175 = 347 (350)
200 = 392 (400)

Literal estimates are half/double for cooking.

A cup = 250ml / 1/4l (0.236/4.22, a little off)
A liter = 4 cups
A kilo = 2lbs (2.2, I know it's a bit off)

This stuff is not hard.

If you need to get precise, "Siri, what's 600 grams in pounds".

It's never been easier to deal with it. Hell, all your sugar cola bottles are litres...
 

Algr

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2022
516
771
Earth (mostly)
In the roughest terms:
...
Literal estimates are half/double for cooking.

The US tried to convert in the 1970s. I think that failed because everyone was always talking about conversion tables and how much math you had to do in your head. They should have just concentrated on familiarity with the units: Two meters is a really tall person. 40° celsius is a very hot day. And no one ever got lost on the highway for figuring a Kilometer as half a mile. The longer words for everything may have been a hindrance too.

Sadly, society doesn't care what anyone in the society thinks.
 
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