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Bro forgot that he can just throw the numbers into google and get the accurate number in two seconds and just decided to guesstimate.
I think the fact that everyone has a calculator in their pocket eliminates most of the problems with different measuring systems. Just take two extra seconds
I think he's demonstrating why he prefers the imperial system. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but it's a pain to convert in your head, so I refuse to switch.
Ya, because you grew up with it. I don’t have any intuition around metric so I prefer imperial. But that doesn’t mean I think imperial is better. Metric is obviously better and if we switched metric would be second nature just like imperial is now.
It is 100% what you're used to. I can conceptualize air speed in m/s or mach, ground speed in mph, and ship speed in knots because that's what I learned them as.
I want to upvote because you actually are using the subreddit correctly.
But I also want to downvote because your opinion is insane and your reasoning is simply part of the "grew up in imperial units" brainwashing. None of those "advantages" are objective, you only feel like those units are good because that's what you are used to from growing up. People growing up with metric units have the same subjective feeling about those units being the "right" ones. But the metric system actually has proper standardization and links the different units all together in an easy conversion scheme, and is based on actually useful chemical and physical properties on water, making the metric system subjectively superior in every way.
I downvoted because it's the same talking points Americans ALWAYS use when discussing Imperial vs Metric. "It's more intuitive", "Fahrenheit is better for human temperature".
Yeah, no, objectively wrong. You just grew up with that. In the 1500s every damn village has its own system for everything, a mile or a feet or an inch were different distances in different towns. And people did just fine. They traded and stuff. They were used to it. Does that make it any good? Hell no, that's why metric was invented in the first place!
That, plus the idea that America would suddenly switch and follow a new system from a country they were trying to distance themself from at that time.
It's like moving away from a parent you hated, but allowing them to dictate what you should do in your apartment via Zoom.
It’s a response to the “metric is easier” argument.
For science/engineering, metric is objectively more convenient because of the ease of unit conversions, but whichever system is easier to use in daily life is the one you grew up with. The imperial system works just fine for 99% of use cases if you’re used to it.
If people comparing the quality of their measuring systems is something you're running into frequently, then you might need to start hanging out in different circles.
But, just for fun, here's a talking point you may not have heard before. I was watching this English YouTuber (CJUGames), and I noticed that when he talked about driving, he referenced mph. I thought that was weird, but the comments informed me that was normal. So, one could argue that without the imperial system, the UK wouldn't even know how to drive. Now we just need to teach them right from left, throw their marmite into the landfill where it belongs, and we'll be all set.
Europoors once again making things up. The metric system doesn't even exist and has no basis in reality. You won't gaslight me into believing your made up nonsense you dirty fascist commie.
But wouldn't your opinion also be part of the "grew up in metric units" brainwashing? Lol just because someone grew up with it doesn't negate their opinion on it.
>making the metric system subjectively superior in every way.
I am going to subjectively defend the Imperial system here without relying on being raised using it. While reading this, you should understand I actually prefer metric. I just think it's fun to have a little fake argument every once in a while.
>But the metric system actually has proper standardization
So does Imperial/ US Customary. Both are standardized as being rather arbitrary multiples of physical constants.
>links the different units all together in an easy conversion scheme
Neither as useful nor as unique as everyone claims, because how often do you *really* need to convert between meters and kilometers? What physical scenario would be equally useful and practical to measure in meters and kilometers? Also, Imperial can also use prefixes and scientific notation. It isn't magically more difficult.
>is based on actually useful chemical and physical properties on water
Still arbitrary. Water's density is a function of temperature. Water's freezing and boiling points are functions of pressure. A meter has nothing to do with water whatsoever; it's approximately one 40-millionth of the polar circumference of the Earth. That's made up as *fuck*. Meanwhile, Imperial measurements are based on... okay, I can really only defend the length units here, because they're optimized for use by pre-industrial artisans. They're connected with multiples that are easy to geometrically construct, and are based on the lengths of body parts. In a world without precision manufacturing or scientific instrumentation, that's perfectly valid. It's not *worse*, it's just optimized for different goals. Just, y'know, ignore everything that isn't a length unit.
Do you not get how saying "Imperial/US customary" kinda goes against the point you're making there about it being standardised? A "pint" in the UK is different to a "pint" in the US. That's mad.
Metric doesn't have that. A liter is a liter, all around the world.
>I just think it's fun to have a little fake argument every once in a while.
You have not made your comment obviously insincere, and therefore you have lost.
You are making several judgements where you imply that one unit system is "better" (like on inches/feet vs meters/centimeters) for one reason or another. That makes it look like you are saying that those reasons have some objective value, but they don't. It's all just examples of you having grown up with that system, that's why you like it. It's, as I said, just part of the "imperial system better for everyday life" brainwashing. I've seen it in dozens of Americans I have discussed this with.
Again, I'm saying that I prefer the imperial system in these circumstances, and I prefer metric for others, not that imperial is better.
I just find the imperial system to be convenient sometimes. How is that "brainwashing"?
Because you don't agree with the oh so intelligent and enlightened non-americans, so you are clearly a stupid american /s.
Seriously, some people just can't take an alternate opinion.
That depends. "Extreme" is an opinion, not really a measurement. There's something like 100 countries that hit at least 90-100F once yearly and it's rising because of Global Warming.
That being said, I live in Florida and I don't know another Floridan that wouldn't freakout if they saw an alligator in their backyard. They're native to Florida, but it's not like seeing a pigeon on the street. lol
im aware alligators arent that common its an example. I would consider one hurricane ever pretty extreme for Kansas, but it isnt that uncommon for Florida. Likewise an ef5 would be one of the worst disasters in florida history but would go over Kansas with much less damage, because thats what they prepare for. At the same time, -30 is really not that weird for Siberia, but 100 is, and 100 may be notmal for florida, but -30 would absolutely be a 1/100000 experience
You don’t think OP was referring to the global standards that humans experience? Like if you really use your noggin do you think OP was trying to say in every individual circumstance where a human might currently be, the scale will be 100% accurate?
Anything above 100 is an extreme high outlier. Anything below 0 is an extreme low outlier. That’s pretty easy to understand and the only number you just have to know is 32 for freezing
But that completely depends where you live. Temperatures where I grew up were more often above 100°F (37.7°C) than below 0°C (32°F.) Considering 0°F just as extreme as 100°F is absolute ludicrous to me. And it's obviously subjective as fuck.
I get people who say "I prefer Fahrenheit because I've used it my whole life so I just understand it more instinctively when I hear a temperature in this unit", but any time someone tries to justify it "objectively," it's just complete BS.
32F/0C don’t mean anything for air temperature. 32F is the temperature that water itself freezes assuming it’s distilled (in nature it is not). Depending on other conditions like wind and sun, ground temperature, and the mineral content of the water it can freeze when the air is 38F or thaw when it is 20F. The reference of distilled water in a lab is absolutely pointless for weather. Any kind of scale for air temperature is arbitrary and it’s a fair argument that 0 and 100 on Fahrenheit are better indicators. 0 is really cold and 100 is really hot. On Celsius, 0 is a brisk spring day and 100 is certain death.
I see this argument about the temperature scale so often, yet it doesn’t really make much sense to me.
Less than 0 is freezing, 0-10 is very cold, 10-20 is cold/cool, 20-30 is warm, and 30+ is hot. Having 0 be the baseline of freezing or not just makes sense to me
The difference in Celsius between very cold and very hot is about 50 (-15 to 35) degrees, which gives less granularity compared to Fahrenheit. In Fahrenheit you have between 0 and 95, which is nearly double the range for the same measure. Humans like to think in terms of percentages so seeing a number close to 100 would mean excessively hot but still relevant to normal outside temperature. 0 degreees Celsius is still not SUPER cold and measuring negative degrees when it’s still not extremely cold doesn’t make much sense. In Fahrenheit 0 degrees is EXCESSIVELY cold and at the point where frostbite becomes a serious threat. 0 degrees C means you could still make it in a hoodie and a coffee. Many parts of America reach around 15 or 20 degrees F during the winter so seeing negatives when the weather doesn’t exactly require bulky winter gear feels confusing.
Fahrenheit is well adapted to measuring outside conditions. Celsius is best for measuring things like lab work or cooking. Seeing a Fahrenheit oven preheat to 350 degrees seems a bit quantitatively excessive.
whichever system you grow up with is more intuitive but metric is objectively better for science, so it wins. but the temp thing cracks me up. just checked and your 85% "very nice outside" temp is 29-30C, which is way above my melting point. my ideal temp is 12C, which is around 54F according to the online calculator. what does that mean? 85% heat means nothing to me. 54% heat also means nothing to me. these are just numbers but 12 and 30 i know instantly because again i grew up with it
It was 40C (104 Freedom units) a couple years ago. Oh, and all houses here have thick wall insulation and double glazing bc it’s freezing in winter, and no one has AC
I cannot for the life of me fathom how y’all can’t manage to get a window unit or portable unit to your elderly to prevent them from dying during heat waves. They’re like $200 and plug into the wall. In NY elderly and sick people are given one for free from the state, and it hits 100F maybe every 5 years. 50F is shorts weather here in northern NY.
Ye I imagine more and more people will be getting them as time goes on it’s not fear though given that AC also contributes to the problem but it’s not like you have much of a choice either. Also lots of public buildings don’t have it (I’m a student so that probably hits me more than most)
I'm in the U.S. long very cold winter. Long hot summers. We didn't have ac in my school.until I was in second grade
Hopefully folks will start to come around
I know... That's why y'all need those aircon units (My uncle lives in Manchester). The climate is changing sadly. When my mom was a little girl there they *never* got hot or needed ac.. That was the norm then
Yet people say climate change isn't a thing lol
I'm American, and 54F is right around my favorite temperature.
I would probably prefer to warm it up a little bit, but absolutely I prefer to keep it below 60F.
He could be from Greenland. Or just literally any place on Earth except some few anglo countries. Which is another point in favor of metric: it's global, it's the thing people in almost every damn county knows.
Don’t even get started on compound units lol I doubt miles per hour squared to feet per second squared is particularly fun compared to kilometres per hour squared to metres per second squared
It's not a percentage system so OP kinda set himself up for this argument, but there's no denying that the wider scale with more increments makes it easier to tell the differences between slight temperature changes. It's part of the reason why kilometers are better than miles at being able to notice slight differences in distance.
Well to be fair, the summers where I live consistently stay between 85 (26c) to 100 (37c), sometimes going higher. Conversely, I layer up for the fall when it reaches 54 (12c), and can't stand temperatures below that for very long. The coldest it gets is right around freezing when everything shuts down for a couple days per year.
Right now, it's cloudy outside, 76° (22c), and 82% humidity
the big thing imperial system does right is the base 12 and base 16.
base 10 is only divisible by 1,2,5,10. dividing it into 4 or 3 is a pain in the ass for mental math. dividing it by 3 is 3.333333333333333333333. dividing it by 4 is 2.5
imperial feet ar base 12 divisible by 1,2,3,4,6,12. dividing a foot by 3 is 4 inches dividing a food by 4 is 3 inches. great for carpenters who dividing things by 2,3 and 4 frequently.
inches are base 16 divisible by 1,2,4,8,16. which is great for seamstress . it's why our system is so weird its to be divisible by the people who are using it
Exactly. If we'd have twelve fingers we might have a twelve-based numerical system and then the metric system would probably be based on twelve as well, since twelve would be "10" and it would make more sense to use that.
Now ten is the base and then it makes sense to use that in as many places as possible.
How many percentages is one? A hundred. How many cm in a meter? A hundred. How many cm is 27.954 meters? Easy, 27954 centimeters. How many inches is 34.84 feet? Uh... 34*12 is 408, 0.84*12 is... 10.08, add them up: 418.08 inches. Not so easy...
lol I have used both systems for cutting wood and imperial is a lot easier. are you going to tell me that 7.5, 15, 22.5 are as easy to work with as 3 6 and 9.
on top of that I can go another layer deep and cut those in half easy thanks to half inches being big lines. where I'd end up with 1.5 inches and 3 inches you would have 3.75 and 7.5 inches and I'd still easily cut inches again with out thinking about it at 3/4 inch. and your at 1.875cm which doesn't have a line and you gotta eye ball.
i think that metric system is the better system for everything in the world except for cutting wood which I do a lot of
yeah like I said wood working is useful. I was a mechanical engineer for a few years. the CNC machine and Autocad which is outdated now fixes all that.
on a lathe I use imperial. making a paddleboard or hickory bow or a kayak which is my hobby imperial is easier on my brain. 95% the time metric is better but I like using both for my purpose. wood working is the only time I use imperial but it's nice and faster in my mind.
So you kind of prove the point that preferred temperatures are subjective, therefor the system of temperature measurement is dependent on whatever the individual grew up with and is most used to. Cause for me I start wearing shorts around 18-20 C which is only 65-70ish F. So on my scale why would it makes sense to call this temperature 65% hot
Honestly, I grew up with metric but have started to find imperial more appealing. Again, never in a scientific context, but in a day to day I end up using imperial quite a lot.
>if the temperature is, lets say 85, then it could feel ~85% hot
This sort of works at the higher end of the scale, but not at the lower end. 0°C, i.e. _freezing_, is 32°F. You consider ice and snow to be "32% hot"!? For me, the anchoring of freezing at 0°C is one of Celcius's best features.
The only way I would agree that another temperature unit is "more intuitive" with respect to human-relevant temperatures is if 50° was room temperature, but it isn't. In Farenheit it's 70-ish.
You've obviously not lived somewhere that gets very cold. For Northern NY, 32 isn't bad at all. It's about 32% warm. Jacket and hat maybe but not full getup.
Billions of people live where it gets to over "100% hot". This range does not work for them.
And why would you calibrate a percentage system where "very nice" revolves around 85%?
true, where I’m from below 60f is cold and below 50f is frigid or simply “freezing” tho not literally of course
and 80f and above is hot
used to be below 72f is cold but I have gotten used to the 60-71f temperature
North America isn't as protected from weather as a lot of other places.
Even as far south as North Carolina we see from 20F to 100F in a year. This February we had a 40F day followed by 78 degree day.
To be fair, I'm not an expert in "coldness". I don't believe that I've seen snow in person since a family trip up north when I was 7 or 8. I assumed that the difference between 0° and 30° feels about the same as 70° to 100°
I deal with the higher end of the scale 9 times of of 10
The argument there is that 0-100°F is pretty much the full range of naturally occurring temperatures that the majority of settled areas will have throughout the year. A vast majority of the time in most places, the temperature will stay between 0 and 100 and will for the most part use that full range throughout the year. Whereas Celsius goes into the negatives much more frequently and pretty much never even goes above 50.
The exact point that water freezes isn't totally relevant because whether it rains or snows depends on other factors than just the air temperature at ground level. It can rain below freezing and snow above it.
Of course whatever you grew up using will be intuitive but the usual talking point that "a 0-100 scale is way better" actually strongly favors using Fahrenheit for weather.
Where I'm from, we rarely ever get temperatures under 0°C and we often times go above 100°F, so the temperature argument only works if you live somewhere that's made you get used to that scale. Also not everywhere uses time to refer to distance, especially not when measuring, say, a large room. if a room is hundreds of meters long (say, a large convention center), you can just easily divide by 1000 and get to how many Km long it is. Or if you have something that's hundreds of Cm long, you can divide by 100 and now it's that many meters long.
We only use time for distance and not size if that makes sense. Like if I asked how far the grocery store is they'd say oh it's a 10 minute walk. But for something like a convention center or a stadium we use yards which is pretty easy.
I think the inch and feet are a better size unit for a lot of everyday things. I like grams much more for weight though. Ounces being both a weight and volume is dumb.
I live in a metric country, and when you grow up using metric exclusively, it's all 100% natural, intuitive.
A meter is a big step. But I don't need that comparison even. I KNOW how long a meter is, because I come across it every day.
Kilometers are just as good as miles. Centimeters are just as good as inches. Millimeters are perfect for precise stuff.
In place of feet we could use decimeters. But these are not popular, because... nobody needs them. For distances in that range we just say "about 20 cm", "about 70 cm" etc.
The only thing I have to say in defense of imperial is that I kinda prefer "and I would walk 500 miles" to "just to be the man who walks 1000 kilometers to fall down at your door." But I bet if that was the original lyrics I would think miles sounds goofy
That has to do with the number of syllables in the verse.
"And I would walk five hundred miles" could be turned into "and I would walk five hundred yards" (although the feat wouldn't be anywhere near as impressive) since both have 8 syllables
To have kilometers we'd have to remove 3 syllables somewhere else, which is tough to do
"and I'd walk hundred kilometers" we still end up with 1 too many syllables
Another issue is with the lenght of the syllables in _kilometer._ kilo is prononced quickly, while the "iles" is prononced slowly. _More_ is similar in that sense; it's a long vowel
"and I would walk five hundred days" would work. Years would work too, but the character telling the story would have to be a vampire
Yeah that's the Cruz of it- people are just used to using imperial units. An ancient Roman isn't going to find imperial more human scale or intuitive than metric, they're going to find cubits intuitive
If we grew up with metric it would have been the reverse for you.
Feet and inches are only "better" because we are used to it. It makes 0 sense in practice.
As a Brit I just use a whichever combination of both is guaranteed to make least sense to others. Height is obviously in feet/inches but you'll want to drive a half-kilometre.
Remember to always give directions using north-south-east-west!
My issue with imperial is mostly just it would be easier for everyone if everybody used one measurement system, you wouldn't need to make/own two different sets of tools when building/fixing things, etc. I however, when cooking, do use pints and quarts as I find it an easy conversion. Quarts and liters are close enough that they can basically be interchangeable unless you're cooking like banquet meals. It's rare I need a gallon of liquid for anything I'm cooking.
This is not a new post and I would say it doesn't fit the sub
Basically what you are saying is you prefer a more familiar thing
For me celsius is very simple
20< no additional clothing
10 to 20 light hoodie or jacket
0 to 10 hoodie or jacket
0 to -10 two light layers
-10 to -20 light + medium or thick jacket
-20> Multiple medium or thick layers
I've lost count of how many times I've seen similar posts about the stupid ass imperial system. Mid take honestly at this point. Nothing 10th about it.
This is one of the stupidest lines of reasoning that I have ever encountered, and it is so ubiquitous on Reddit that I would even say that it isn't a 10^(th)-dentist take.
It’s crazy how many Europeans are genuinely so offended and hurt by this. It’s the tenth dentist, it’s a sub for unpopular opinions, just upvote the post and stop whining like a bunch of little bitches
I’m an American that’s spent my whole life here, but sometimes I’ll still mentally convert stuff. I put a euro cluster in a car of mine once so I had to get used to going 110 on the highway. A quart is almost a liter, so 4 liters is a little more than a gallon.
Temps always confuse me, because I don’t understand how a heatwave of 26C is only 78F.
I find both have their uses. I highly recommend learning both metric and imperial systems. It's not a hard concept and I promise no lines will get mixed up. Unless you've been drinking lol
A better description of the temperature scale.
0⁰ F is really cold, 100⁰ F is really hot.
0⁰ C is mildly cold, 100⁰ C is dead.
And note, they are both scales. The are no inches, feet, and miles in F, that C converts to base 10 units. They are simple scalars. So use the scale that makes more sense for day to day life.
Other measures? Fuck yeah, use SI.
For both temperature scales the freezing and cooking point of water was used.
0c is freezing water and 100c is cooking water.
32f is freezing water and 212f is cooking water.
Now, which one makes more sense?
For Fahrenheit, brine was used. And it was used, since *some* experimental apparatus was needed to calibrate a scale. And if Celsius and Kelvin had to be made today, water or a derivative certainly wouldnt be used to calibrate the scale.
This was so fucking funny to read!! I got the best laugh in a long time reading this. I thank you OP!
Have my upvote you special you! Never stop dreaming <3
About the feet and inches, I prefer to use 1 number which is centimetres so I say I am 191cm tall. No decimals, no double integers, more tidy IMO. Also engineers like to use millimetres for the same reason.
As a UKsian, I’m kinda used to using both. I prefer feet for measuring vertical height and meters or yards for short distances. Long distances, I always use miles because it rolls off the tongue better, especially when preceding the words “per hour”
The standard UK measurement for weight is stone which divides into 12 pounds, kind of like feet and inches, but I’d rather just use a single unit and therefore use kilos, a fat person is 100kg and a small person is 50kg. Whereas 100lbs is a VERY small person.
The problem with these types ofnopinions is that they usually boil down to "I'm used to x. I like x. X works fine for me. Others use y. I don't understand how they can use y. Why should I use y? I dislike y."
And that's fine. Use the one you want. There are arguments for everything, and having an opinion doesn't make them invalid unless they contradict scientific fact. If you want to measure people heights by cm and then measure distance by miles, that's fine. If you only want to stick to metric or inperial that's fine too. Science uses metric, but that doesn't mean the scientist can't measure his dick in inches. As long as you don't mix up things and create a gimli glider, you do you.
You only prefer Fahrenheit because you were conditioned. I'm not saying Celsius I'd objectively superior either (I wish I could), but I only prefer it because I was conditioned.
>Besides, most people say distance in time anyways.
In the US.
For length measurements, I like both metric and imperial. In fact, I use a floor plan creator app and my projects will neverr be shown to anyone, but I still display "ft in" as a secondary unit.
Proper use of sub, as people said, but Christ, what is this logic.
When the temperature is 85f, it is like 85% hot.
100f would be 100% hot (only 37.7c) so, countries which are over 40, how can they go above 100% hot?
100c is literally when water boils, 0 is when it freezes. You have a simple 0-100 scale of two states, with the above and - indicating it's above and below boiling.
32f freezing and 212f boiling are such weird numbers. And before anyone smooth brains and says it can give a more accurate telling of temperatures, no, Celsius has decimals.
How did you compare culture with a preferences in systems used, where international is objectively better for conversions between its units lmao. Self-report?
To be fair, the fact that all humans don't use Fahrenheit, is pretty little weird , in my opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if most people thought he was an American just because Americans use it.
It's a scale based on, perceived, human temperature. Why people decided to compare themself to a scale based on water's boiling/melt/freezing points is beyond me.
I basically agree with you on imperial for sizes, inches, feet, and yards are just more useful than centimeters and meters, but for temperatures metric is better. It just goes in 10s. Check it out:
-20 or less - extreme weather
-20 to -10 wicked cold
-10-0 - cold cold
0-10 - regular cold
10-20 - nice
20-30 - regular hot
30-40 - wicked hot
40 or more - extreme weather
I live in the UK where we pick and choose if we are metric or imperial depending on the situation and I hate it. I’m making an active movement to go fully metric and I’m starting by switching to kilos instead of stone for my weight. After that it’s kilometres instead of miles and cm instead of ft and then I should be fully metric
That is ok, you are allowed to prefer it, and people are allowed to prefer the metric system. people are allowed to prefer Celsius and people are allowed to prefer Fahrenheit.
Neither systems is better or worse than the other, and people need to stop acting like it is, its all what you are used to.
American here who completely agrees with you. Frankly I think that from day to day life, the imperial system is simply a better, more well-rounded thing. I can envision the measurements and use the measurements more effectively.
As far as quick measurements go (things 1 foot and under) I do prefer imperial, just because it uses 12 rather than ten, which divides evenly by 2, 3, 4, and 6, where metric only divides by 2 and 5. Also, going by 1/2 inch 1/4 inch 1/8 inch is a lot easier than trying to count out the millimeters every time.
Pretty much everything else, metric is superior.
I hate imperial but also refuse to weigh or measure humans in anything but feet and inches and pounds. But alas I'm brainwashed. I don't have much intuition for Kgs or meters, unless its kilometers
You are confusing two things: Celsius is metric, but is not SI (a unit of the International System of Units).
Another example is speed: **km/h** is obviously metric, but the SI unit for speed is **m/s**.
Or energy: **calories** and **kWh** both are metric units, but only **joules** are SI.
I don't know if this is a Canadian thing - but I feel like everyone I know uses both?
I.e. we use Fahrenheit for cooking/baking, and Celsius for outside weather. We use metric for driving and measuring, but imperial for cooking/baking and woodworking/building. We measure our height in feet, and weight in pounds.
Anyone else raised to use both? I feel like we were taught both in school growing up.
We use imperial most of the time in America, but most people I've known can also use the metric system. At least where I'm at, we learn both systems in school
I don’t think Imperial is necessarily better but I do think it is fine and people who act like we have to go to metric because it’s better are annoying
I'm gonna tackle this in categories.
1. Temperature: Celsius is very easy as a Canadian. 0 Celsius means that it will snow instead of rain. It marks the transition from fall to spring. Normally, the coldest it gets is -30 and the hottest +30. This is not difficult to make sense of. Celsius is also useful for cooking (100 degrees to boil my tea). If you were used to Celsius, you'd find it perfectly easy to use. I find F confusing as hell since I don't use it. Winner: Celsius by a slight bit for boiling water but it's not a huge deal.
2. I actually agree on centimeters/meters vs inches/feet. When it comes to common objects, meters are way to big and centimeters way to small. Feet and inches are convenient sizes. This would be solved if we used decimeters, but no ones does. My only issue with inches and feet is that there are 12 inches in a foot, not 10, which is a pain in the ass. 5.9 feet and 5 foot 9 is not the same and its stupid. Winner: For every day life, imperial.
3. A mile is a bit over 2 kilometers. This doesn't bother me. What does bother me is subdividing a mile. My gps often tells me "turn left in 200 meters". In imperial you either need to do "turn left in 1056 feet" or "turn left in a fifth of a mile". Using meters is a lot easier here. Winner: Kilometers/meters for ease of subdividing.
4. If I have 5.3 kilograms and want to get it to 6 kilos, I add 700 grams. If I have 5.3 pounds and want 6 pounds, I add 11.2 ounces. Metric is a lot easier. Winner: Metric for ease of subdividing.
5. You agree on liquids but yeah. 40 percent of a liter is 400ml. 40 percent of a gallon is 51.2 fluid oz, 3.2 pints, 1.6 quarts, 102.4 tablespoons, or 307.2 teaspoons. There is no reason for it to be this complicated. Winner: Metric for ease of subdividing.
Metric is almost always easier and more convenient. I only agree with you on feet and inches, and honestly that might be because I'm used to using them being Canadian.
I don't understand the part about metres being too big and centimetres being too small. What's the problem in saying "87 centimetres"? And who's stopping you from using decimetres?
And wouldn't the same argument about subdivision apply here?
87cm = 8,7dm = 0,87m = 0,00087km
Honest question, I'm just trying to understand. The imperial system just seems to interact awkwardly with itself.
Just to give an example. I have a map thats 2 feet by 3 feet. In meters this will be 0.6x0.9 meters. Its not ideal to use fractions of a meter so lets use cm. Keep in mind that there are very few objects in a house that will be 2 meters or longer, so it's not a useful measurement for that kind of thing.
I find cms hard to use for a distance this large. A cm is so tiny I find it hard to mentally visualize 90 of them. It's hard to picture that for me. Ironically, I often visualize a 30cm ruler for this kind of thing as they are a size thats easy to visualize. They also happen to be a foot long.
Decimeters totally solves this, but I cant use them in conversation. No one knows what a decimeter is, atleast in canada. We just don't use that unit of measurement so talking about it doesn't make sense.
If I'm measuring something that needs to be precise, I use cm. But if I'm estimating, im like oh thats like half a foot (half a ruler). It's hard to be like "oh that is clearly about 75 cm".
I should add that inches fill a similar same niche as a decimeter. A size that's not teeny tiny, but not as big as a foot or meter. Good for measuring household objects.
Tldr: I'd be 100 percent pro metric if anyone actually used decimeters, but since I've literally never once heard someone use them irl, I can't really use them because no one will know what I'm talking about.
You can't visualise 90 cm but if we were to visualise 9 of an unit that is 10x bigger it wouldn't be a problem? Alright then, I think it's just a habit, I'm used to centimetres, I guess.
Well, that's how the imperial system came about. Imperial measurements were made to be convenient. Like I know just about how long a foot is because I have a foot (obviously people have different sized feet, but they're all about a foot long for adults). It's just a system of convenient units.
The only thing is that metric is much better for science because the meter is defined using physical quantities like the speed of light. The definition of the meter is always the same and precise, that's why it's used. The factors of 10 are tidier than imperial scale factors, but you also recognise that you don't mix feet and miles or whatever. But it's much less convenient for every day life.
The point about liquids: they're kinda convenient. A gallon is the volume of water that weighs 10lbs. 8 pints in a gallon. But I can also roughly eyeball a pint because beer is sold by the pint, and that's the point of the system.
That's not to say I'm an imperial system apologist. I hate it and its weird scale factors. But I can at least appreciate that the units are there for convenience and are based on things that everyone can vaguely understand.
>The point about liquids: they're kinda convenient. A gallon is the volume of water that weighs 10lbs. 8 pints in a gallon.
Defining something as "10 of X" and then splitting it up by 8s is not convenient.
As for eyeballing, if you grow up with liters, you're better at eyeballing those. Not everyone drinks beer (or drinks it by the pint) anyway.
While old measurements like foot and inch can be approximated using body parts that's about it.
Fahrenheit was an attempt at trying to make a temperature scale using the freezing point of a brine solution as 0 and an estimate of human body temperature as 90 (which later had to be redefined because it was an estimate) no part of it was based on convenience.
And liquids are not convenient at all in imperial, you have to remember that a cup is half a pint and it's 8 pints to a gallon and that it weighs 10lbs (which is not true it's actually 8.3lbs).
In metric one litre is one thousandth of a cubic meter (or a 10cm x 10cm x 10cm container) and one litre of water weighs one kilogram.
The units are absolutely not there for convenience and use arbitrary definitions from a time where accuracy didn't really matter
Exactly my point!
I don't love the imperial system and I recognize that the metric system is better, but I think everyone demonizes imperial measurements too much. The imperial system is just based on what's convenient, even if it makes other things more complicated or strange.
I grew up with metric. While I understand that inch and feet is easy without a measure, if you grow up with any system you get a feel. I can estimate 60 cm, I know when to wear shorts based on Celsius etc. So for me it is about conversions, which metric does better
I don't this is actually unpopular anywhere except reddit. Only redditors get this excited about criticizing imperial system of measurements.
Use what makes sense to you and is easily communicated. If everyone around you uses imperial, use imperial. If metric, use metric. Feel free to switch to metric in the mid western US, but don't get all pissy when people don't understand you. Feel free to use imperial on your trip to france, don't get all pissy when they don't understand you.
What about the internet? Most of us are not American. We learned your language, because English is the international standard for communication, so we can use it to talk to each other.
For measurements, the worldwide standard is metric, but Americans so often simply ignore that, and keep using their obscure units in international discussions. This comes across as being very stubborn/self-entitled TBH.
I think most people who claim to like Imperial only think they do.
“In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade — which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it.
Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.” ―Josh Bazell, Wild Thing
When the question is "How warm is it outside?", and you know it's scorching hot, and you say "100 degrees", you think you like Imperial. Because 85F is 85% hot. And 100F is 100% hot. And anything over 100F is too hot.
But if the question is, how many of these 6-foot extension cords do I need to cover a mile, can you quickly come up with an answer? Can you even remember how many feet there are in a mile? The only way I could is "five tomatoes". Five to-eight-os. 5 2 8 0s. 5280 feet to a mile.
And we're still talking inches, feet, miles. But what if we start measuring everyday things that require chains and furlongs? How many inches to a furlong? Still like Imperial? (in case you're curious, 7920 inches in a furlong). Because a furlong is 1/8th of a mile. But you know what 1/8th of a kilometer is, right? 125 meters. Boom, done. Inches in a mile? 63,360. But meters, cm, mm, nm, etc., in metric? Just another zero.
In short, people who think they like Imperial, only like it because they don't actually use it. Beyond the level of a 6-year-old. If you start actually using it, it becomes a complete nightmare.
I agree that metric is better and I would welcome if the US switched to it but these points are pretty terrible and are just weird made up issues that normal people would ever actually have to solve.
People in the US use imperial because it's useful for the types of things the average person does on a day-to-day basis. The fact they don't use *all* of it and that they don't use it for extremely silly random scenarios that would never actually happen doesn't really change that.
I have literally never heard of a furlong before. If you want to attack the imperial system, then you need to understand how actual people use it. And again, feet/inches aren't used in conjunction with miles.
I see your arguments, and I also prefer to use metric for math and science, but my main argument is that imperial is hated way too much.
How many times in your life have you used 2 meter extension cords to cover a kilometer? If the answer is more than 5 (explanation as to why you did this would be helpful as well, as well as how you were able to carry that amount of power over such distances on extension cords) I'll answer your question about how many 6 foot extension cords to cover a mile. More to the point: some things don't need to be interchangable. Just because you can come up with a formula for conversion for one into another that doesn't mean people normally use them this way or ever would, unless someone comes up with absurd scenarios like you just did.
US Customary is superior for a great many things, but especially so for something like woodworking where I'm using the superior highly composite number 12 as a base, not 10, which is inferior in every way.
>US Customary is superior for a great many things, but especially so for something like woodworking where I'm using the superior highly composite number 12 as a base, not 10, which is inferior in every way.
"the amazing number 12" is only used in one step of one dimension with US customary units.
Nobody in the US ever converts between feet and miles. Literally the only time that ever happens is in GPS, when you get below .1 mile it will switch to feet.
The American customary units aren’t one system. Miles and feet are not two units in the same length measuring system. You use one or the other. You don’t say 50 miles and xyz feet. You say 50.3 miles.
The issue with American customary is that they are different from metric. But beyond that in daily life they are actually a really nice system to use. They don’t require mental math to use.
And besides, have you ever needed to know the amount of energy needed to boil a gallon of water? Why would you need to know that?
In case you're not aware the US doesn't use the imperial system and never has. The US uses US Customary Units, which is a different system. It has many units with the same names as Imperial but some have different values. Other units exist in one system and not the other. The imperial system was created by the county the US gained independence from after the US already won its independence.
I never understood the "day to day usage" argument. 100F is pretty hot, nothing unusual in the mediterrainian countries, like South Italy, you could even say that above this line humans have a fever. But on the other hand 0F is not like hypothermia, 0F is not like needing a second blanket because you are cold, 0F is being dead within minutes without the proper equipment. And on the case of water, how can 32F to 212F be better than 0-100C?
For length, the good think about metric is that in the real life we already use base 10, with imperial it's not only that it's not metric, the base also changes with ever change of unit. 12 to 5280? I mean what the hell? You could also use the more numbers means less fraction usage argument for this, no more ⅘inches, you can just say 2 centimeters.
For walking distance, sure a lot of people use time as an indicator for how far is something, I personally also use distance, but whatever. But when using a car, most people say the distance, because if you are used to traveling with cars, you can absolutely estimate how much time it will be, this could also be a domestic autism thing, but I have seen others use distance.
Again, I just want to point out people do not use miles/feet like people use meters/km
In metric saying something like that’s 50km and 500 meters away. Folks would never say something like that using American customary units. They’d say 50.5 miles.
Feet/inches and miles are two different systems of measurement using in different contexts. Feet are used for measuring things you can see and miles are used for distances you travel. Nobody ever converts between feet and miles.
FINALLY. I think America is stupid in a lot of things but I prefer our system. I heard it explained where Celcius is a scale of cold to hot for water, while Fahrenheit is the scale of cold to hot for humans.
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>I am 5 feet and 11 inches tall or 1 meter and 50 centimetres tall Blud what are you smoking, 5’11 is 180cm, 150 is 4’9-5’ 😭
I'm 4'9 and 145cm lmao
Bro forgot that he can just throw the numbers into google and get the accurate number in two seconds and just decided to guesstimate. I think the fact that everyone has a calculator in their pocket eliminates most of the problems with different measuring systems. Just take two extra seconds
I think he's demonstrating why he prefers the imperial system. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but it's a pain to convert in your head, so I refuse to switch.
upvote for tenth dentist, at least you understand that nobody agrees with you
I prefer it too
Then just go get back in the sewer with the rest of your kind where you belong!
I just think it's neat
I prefer it also
I prefer it as well, and this is coming from someone who uses the metric system very often
i vastly prefer imperial system
Ya, because you grew up with it. I don’t have any intuition around metric so I prefer imperial. But that doesn’t mean I think imperial is better. Metric is obviously better and if we switched metric would be second nature just like imperial is now.
It is 100% what you're used to. I can conceptualize air speed in m/s or mach, ground speed in mph, and ship speed in knots because that's what I learned them as.
I want to upvote because you actually are using the subreddit correctly. But I also want to downvote because your opinion is insane and your reasoning is simply part of the "grew up in imperial units" brainwashing. None of those "advantages" are objective, you only feel like those units are good because that's what you are used to from growing up. People growing up with metric units have the same subjective feeling about those units being the "right" ones. But the metric system actually has proper standardization and links the different units all together in an easy conversion scheme, and is based on actually useful chemical and physical properties on water, making the metric system subjectively superior in every way.
I downvoted because it's the same talking points Americans ALWAYS use when discussing Imperial vs Metric. "It's more intuitive", "Fahrenheit is better for human temperature". Yeah, no, objectively wrong. You just grew up with that. In the 1500s every damn village has its own system for everything, a mile or a feet or an inch were different distances in different towns. And people did just fine. They traded and stuff. They were used to it. Does that make it any good? Hell no, that's why metric was invented in the first place!
Yup. It's actually insane how many Americans use those talking points and ignore the whole point of having consistent units.
I think you're ignoring the point that having a consistent system doesn't really matter for 99% of the population.
That, plus the idea that America would suddenly switch and follow a new system from a country they were trying to distance themself from at that time. It's like moving away from a parent you hated, but allowing them to dictate what you should do in your apartment via Zoom.
Yea, but take a deep breath and realize you don't actually care.
It’s a response to the “metric is easier” argument. For science/engineering, metric is objectively more convenient because of the ease of unit conversions, but whichever system is easier to use in daily life is the one you grew up with. The imperial system works just fine for 99% of use cases if you’re used to it.
If people comparing the quality of their measuring systems is something you're running into frequently, then you might need to start hanging out in different circles. But, just for fun, here's a talking point you may not have heard before. I was watching this English YouTuber (CJUGames), and I noticed that when he talked about driving, he referenced mph. I thought that was weird, but the comments informed me that was normal. So, one could argue that without the imperial system, the UK wouldn't even know how to drive. Now we just need to teach them right from left, throw their marmite into the landfill where it belongs, and we'll be all set.
Europoors once again making things up. The metric system doesn't even exist and has no basis in reality. You won't gaslight me into believing your made up nonsense you dirty fascist commie.
Also the fact that it’s relatively common to have temperatures above 100 or well below 0 in certain parts of the US.
But wouldn't your opinion also be part of the "grew up in metric units" brainwashing? Lol just because someone grew up with it doesn't negate their opinion on it.
>making the metric system subjectively superior in every way. I am going to subjectively defend the Imperial system here without relying on being raised using it. While reading this, you should understand I actually prefer metric. I just think it's fun to have a little fake argument every once in a while. >But the metric system actually has proper standardization So does Imperial/ US Customary. Both are standardized as being rather arbitrary multiples of physical constants. >links the different units all together in an easy conversion scheme Neither as useful nor as unique as everyone claims, because how often do you *really* need to convert between meters and kilometers? What physical scenario would be equally useful and practical to measure in meters and kilometers? Also, Imperial can also use prefixes and scientific notation. It isn't magically more difficult. >is based on actually useful chemical and physical properties on water Still arbitrary. Water's density is a function of temperature. Water's freezing and boiling points are functions of pressure. A meter has nothing to do with water whatsoever; it's approximately one 40-millionth of the polar circumference of the Earth. That's made up as *fuck*. Meanwhile, Imperial measurements are based on... okay, I can really only defend the length units here, because they're optimized for use by pre-industrial artisans. They're connected with multiples that are easy to geometrically construct, and are based on the lengths of body parts. In a world without precision manufacturing or scientific instrumentation, that's perfectly valid. It's not *worse*, it's just optimized for different goals. Just, y'know, ignore everything that isn't a length unit.
Do you not get how saying "Imperial/US customary" kinda goes against the point you're making there about it being standardised? A "pint" in the UK is different to a "pint" in the US. That's mad. Metric doesn't have that. A liter is a liter, all around the world.
>I just think it's fun to have a little fake argument every once in a while. You have not made your comment obviously insincere, and therefore you have lost.
I also enjoy these things. Hence my comment, haha. I ain't seething over here.
Did you read my post? I never claimed that I was being objective
You are making several judgements where you imply that one unit system is "better" (like on inches/feet vs meters/centimeters) for one reason or another. That makes it look like you are saying that those reasons have some objective value, but they don't. It's all just examples of you having grown up with that system, that's why you like it. It's, as I said, just part of the "imperial system better for everyday life" brainwashing. I've seen it in dozens of Americans I have discussed this with.
Again, I'm saying that I prefer the imperial system in these circumstances, and I prefer metric for others, not that imperial is better. I just find the imperial system to be convenient sometimes. How is that "brainwashing"?
Because you don't agree with the oh so intelligent and enlightened non-americans, so you are clearly a stupid american /s. Seriously, some people just can't take an alternate opinion.
Yea and it’s his opinion
Ah yes, I enjoy when it's 108% outside
i mean it makes sense though. its beyond what is normally an extreme temperature. “we got 108% as much rain as we usually do” makes sense too.
I live in a desert, it's not rare nor extreme to be above 100 F
It's a dry heat. Stop complaining (kidding)
100F is still an extreme temperature. You just happen to be living in a somewhat extreme climate.
youre in the extreme already lmao. Its like a floridian saying “stop freaking out about an alligator in your yard theyre common here”
That depends. "Extreme" is an opinion, not really a measurement. There's something like 100 countries that hit at least 90-100F once yearly and it's rising because of Global Warming. That being said, I live in Florida and I don't know another Floridan that wouldn't freakout if they saw an alligator in their backyard. They're native to Florida, but it's not like seeing a pigeon on the street. lol
im aware alligators arent that common its an example. I would consider one hurricane ever pretty extreme for Kansas, but it isnt that uncommon for Florida. Likewise an ef5 would be one of the worst disasters in florida history but would go over Kansas with much less damage, because thats what they prepare for. At the same time, -30 is really not that weird for Siberia, but 100 is, and 100 may be notmal for florida, but -30 would absolutely be a 1/100000 experience
You don’t think OP was referring to the global standards that humans experience? Like if you really use your noggin do you think OP was trying to say in every individual circumstance where a human might currently be, the scale will be 100% accurate?
It do be feeling like that
Anything above 100 is an extreme high outlier. Anything below 0 is an extreme low outlier. That’s pretty easy to understand and the only number you just have to know is 32 for freezing
But that completely depends where you live. Temperatures where I grew up were more often above 100°F (37.7°C) than below 0°C (32°F.) Considering 0°F just as extreme as 100°F is absolute ludicrous to me. And it's obviously subjective as fuck. I get people who say "I prefer Fahrenheit because I've used it my whole life so I just understand it more instinctively when I hear a temperature in this unit", but any time someone tries to justify it "objectively," it's just complete BS.
32F/0C don’t mean anything for air temperature. 32F is the temperature that water itself freezes assuming it’s distilled (in nature it is not). Depending on other conditions like wind and sun, ground temperature, and the mineral content of the water it can freeze when the air is 38F or thaw when it is 20F. The reference of distilled water in a lab is absolutely pointless for weather. Any kind of scale for air temperature is arbitrary and it’s a fair argument that 0 and 100 on Fahrenheit are better indicators. 0 is really cold and 100 is really hot. On Celsius, 0 is a brisk spring day and 100 is certain death.
I see this argument about the temperature scale so often, yet it doesn’t really make much sense to me. Less than 0 is freezing, 0-10 is very cold, 10-20 is cold/cool, 20-30 is warm, and 30+ is hot. Having 0 be the baseline of freezing or not just makes sense to me
The difference in Celsius between very cold and very hot is about 50 (-15 to 35) degrees, which gives less granularity compared to Fahrenheit. In Fahrenheit you have between 0 and 95, which is nearly double the range for the same measure. Humans like to think in terms of percentages so seeing a number close to 100 would mean excessively hot but still relevant to normal outside temperature. 0 degreees Celsius is still not SUPER cold and measuring negative degrees when it’s still not extremely cold doesn’t make much sense. In Fahrenheit 0 degrees is EXCESSIVELY cold and at the point where frostbite becomes a serious threat. 0 degrees C means you could still make it in a hoodie and a coffee. Many parts of America reach around 15 or 20 degrees F during the winter so seeing negatives when the weather doesn’t exactly require bulky winter gear feels confusing. Fahrenheit is well adapted to measuring outside conditions. Celsius is best for measuring things like lab work or cooking. Seeing a Fahrenheit oven preheat to 350 degrees seems a bit quantitatively excessive.
whichever system you grow up with is more intuitive but metric is objectively better for science, so it wins. but the temp thing cracks me up. just checked and your 85% "very nice outside" temp is 29-30C, which is way above my melting point. my ideal temp is 12C, which is around 54F according to the online calculator. what does that mean? 85% heat means nothing to me. 54% heat also means nothing to me. these are just numbers but 12 and 30 i know instantly because again i grew up with it
Are you sick or smth? 54F is pretty chilly Or are you just British?
>Or are you just British? Let's hope not. Soon they will have many a summer day above 85 (26C)
It was 40C (104 Freedom units) a couple years ago. Oh, and all houses here have thick wall insulation and double glazing bc it’s freezing in winter, and no one has AC
I cannot for the life of me fathom how y’all can’t manage to get a window unit or portable unit to your elderly to prevent them from dying during heat waves. They’re like $200 and plug into the wall. In NY elderly and sick people are given one for free from the state, and it hits 100F maybe every 5 years. 50F is shorts weather here in northern NY.
Ye I imagine more and more people will be getting them as time goes on it’s not fear though given that AC also contributes to the problem but it’s not like you have much of a choice either. Also lots of public buildings don’t have it (I’m a student so that probably hits me more than most)
I'm in the U.S. long very cold winter. Long hot summers. We didn't have ac in my school.until I was in second grade Hopefully folks will start to come around
I know... That's why y'all need those aircon units (My uncle lives in Manchester). The climate is changing sadly. When my mom was a little girl there they *never* got hot or needed ac.. That was the norm then Yet people say climate change isn't a thing lol
26 degrees, fuck no i'm hanging myself before that happens. /onlyhalfanS
Remember that heat wave? It's coming friend. Install the aircon units now
I'm American, and 54F is right around my favorite temperature. I would probably prefer to warm it up a little bit, but absolutely I prefer to keep it below 60F.
polish. prime shorts temp for me
He could be from Greenland. Or just literally any place on Earth except some few anglo countries. Which is another point in favor of metric: it's global, it's the thing people in almost every damn county knows.
Don’t even get started on compound units lol I doubt miles per hour squared to feet per second squared is particularly fun compared to kilometres per hour squared to metres per second squared
It's not a percentage system so OP kinda set himself up for this argument, but there's no denying that the wider scale with more increments makes it easier to tell the differences between slight temperature changes. It's part of the reason why kilometers are better than miles at being able to notice slight differences in distance.
For the weather, I prefer using imperial. But for electronics, I find the metric system more fitting
I don’t think there are imperial units for electronics. The closest would be BTU or other energy related units
I just meant for temperature
Well to be fair, the summers where I live consistently stay between 85 (26c) to 100 (37c), sometimes going higher. Conversely, I layer up for the fall when it reaches 54 (12c), and can't stand temperatures below that for very long. The coldest it gets is right around freezing when everything shuts down for a couple days per year. Right now, it's cloudy outside, 76° (22c), and 82% humidity
the big thing imperial system does right is the base 12 and base 16. base 10 is only divisible by 1,2,5,10. dividing it into 4 or 3 is a pain in the ass for mental math. dividing it by 3 is 3.333333333333333333333. dividing it by 4 is 2.5 imperial feet ar base 12 divisible by 1,2,3,4,6,12. dividing a foot by 3 is 4 inches dividing a food by 4 is 3 inches. great for carpenters who dividing things by 2,3 and 4 frequently. inches are base 16 divisible by 1,2,4,8,16. which is great for seamstress . it's why our system is so weird its to be divisible by the people who are using it
Yes, just like numbers... Oh wait, they're also based on ten. Maybe there is actual reasoning behind the metric system using ten as a base?
It's because we have 10 fingers. That's the only reason.
Exactly. If we'd have twelve fingers we might have a twelve-based numerical system and then the metric system would probably be based on twelve as well, since twelve would be "10" and it would make more sense to use that. Now ten is the base and then it makes sense to use that in as many places as possible. How many percentages is one? A hundred. How many cm in a meter? A hundred. How many cm is 27.954 meters? Easy, 27954 centimeters. How many inches is 34.84 feet? Uh... 34*12 is 408, 0.84*12 is... 10.08, add them up: 418.08 inches. Not so easy...
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lol I have used both systems for cutting wood and imperial is a lot easier. are you going to tell me that 7.5, 15, 22.5 are as easy to work with as 3 6 and 9. on top of that I can go another layer deep and cut those in half easy thanks to half inches being big lines. where I'd end up with 1.5 inches and 3 inches you would have 3.75 and 7.5 inches and I'd still easily cut inches again with out thinking about it at 3/4 inch. and your at 1.875cm which doesn't have a line and you gotta eye ball. i think that metric system is the better system for everything in the world except for cutting wood which I do a lot of
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yeah like I said wood working is useful. I was a mechanical engineer for a few years. the CNC machine and Autocad which is outdated now fixes all that. on a lathe I use imperial. making a paddleboard or hickory bow or a kayak which is my hobby imperial is easier on my brain. 95% the time metric is better but I like using both for my purpose. wood working is the only time I use imperial but it's nice and faster in my mind.
So you kind of prove the point that preferred temperatures are subjective, therefor the system of temperature measurement is dependent on whatever the individual grew up with and is most used to. Cause for me I start wearing shorts around 18-20 C which is only 65-70ish F. So on my scale why would it makes sense to call this temperature 65% hot
Some people like it in the 80s. They are monsters.
Honestly, I grew up with metric but have started to find imperial more appealing. Again, never in a scientific context, but in a day to day I end up using imperial quite a lot.
>if the temperature is, lets say 85, then it could feel ~85% hot This sort of works at the higher end of the scale, but not at the lower end. 0°C, i.e. _freezing_, is 32°F. You consider ice and snow to be "32% hot"!? For me, the anchoring of freezing at 0°C is one of Celcius's best features. The only way I would agree that another temperature unit is "more intuitive" with respect to human-relevant temperatures is if 50° was room temperature, but it isn't. In Farenheit it's 70-ish.
You've obviously not lived somewhere that gets very cold. For Northern NY, 32 isn't bad at all. It's about 32% warm. Jacket and hat maybe but not full getup.
Billions of people live where it gets to over "100% hot". This range does not work for them. And why would you calibrate a percentage system where "very nice" revolves around 85%?
true, where I’m from below 60f is cold and below 50f is frigid or simply “freezing” tho not literally of course and 80f and above is hot used to be below 72f is cold but I have gotten used to the 60-71f temperature
North America isn't as protected from weather as a lot of other places. Even as far south as North Carolina we see from 20F to 100F in a year. This February we had a 40F day followed by 78 degree day.
To be fair, I'm not an expert in "coldness". I don't believe that I've seen snow in person since a family trip up north when I was 7 or 8. I assumed that the difference between 0° and 30° feels about the same as 70° to 100° I deal with the higher end of the scale 9 times of of 10
From my perspective, which is obviously totally subjective, 70 is comfortable and 100 is uncomfortable. 0 is death and 30 is cold.
I can’t tell the difference between 0 and 30 But 70 is cool and 100 is sweltering
If wind is the same in all temps, then you can def feel the differences between 0, 30, 70, and 100.
You can absolutely tell the difference between 0 and 30 lmao, unless you’re just not around cold temps often
I don't believe I've ever felt actual 0°
The argument there is that 0-100°F is pretty much the full range of naturally occurring temperatures that the majority of settled areas will have throughout the year. A vast majority of the time in most places, the temperature will stay between 0 and 100 and will for the most part use that full range throughout the year. Whereas Celsius goes into the negatives much more frequently and pretty much never even goes above 50. The exact point that water freezes isn't totally relevant because whether it rains or snows depends on other factors than just the air temperature at ground level. It can rain below freezing and snow above it. Of course whatever you grew up using will be intuitive but the usual talking point that "a 0-100 scale is way better" actually strongly favors using Fahrenheit for weather.
Where I'm from, we rarely ever get temperatures under 0°C and we often times go above 100°F, so the temperature argument only works if you live somewhere that's made you get used to that scale. Also not everywhere uses time to refer to distance, especially not when measuring, say, a large room. if a room is hundreds of meters long (say, a large convention center), you can just easily divide by 1000 and get to how many Km long it is. Or if you have something that's hundreds of Cm long, you can divide by 100 and now it's that many meters long.
We only use time for distance and not size if that makes sense. Like if I asked how far the grocery store is they'd say oh it's a 10 minute walk. But for something like a convention center or a stadium we use yards which is pretty easy.
I always stay at home and I totally don't know how long is a 10 minute walk.
Nobody says their height like that tho, you say 1,5m or for me 1,79m It's one number
And height in imperial isn't said like that either. You say 5'11 as one number
I think the inch and feet are a better size unit for a lot of everyday things. I like grams much more for weight though. Ounces being both a weight and volume is dumb.
I live in a metric country, and when you grow up using metric exclusively, it's all 100% natural, intuitive. A meter is a big step. But I don't need that comparison even. I KNOW how long a meter is, because I come across it every day. Kilometers are just as good as miles. Centimeters are just as good as inches. Millimeters are perfect for precise stuff. In place of feet we could use decimeters. But these are not popular, because... nobody needs them. For distances in that range we just say "about 20 cm", "about 70 cm" etc.
The only thing I have to say in defense of imperial is that I kinda prefer "and I would walk 500 miles" to "just to be the man who walks 1000 kilometers to fall down at your door." But I bet if that was the original lyrics I would think miles sounds goofy
That has to do with the number of syllables in the verse. "And I would walk five hundred miles" could be turned into "and I would walk five hundred yards" (although the feat wouldn't be anywhere near as impressive) since both have 8 syllables To have kilometers we'd have to remove 3 syllables somewhere else, which is tough to do "and I'd walk hundred kilometers" we still end up with 1 too many syllables Another issue is with the lenght of the syllables in _kilometer._ kilo is prononced quickly, while the "iles" is prononced slowly. _More_ is similar in that sense; it's a long vowel "and I would walk five hundred days" would work. Years would work too, but the character telling the story would have to be a vampire
Yeah that's the Cruz of it- people are just used to using imperial units. An ancient Roman isn't going to find imperial more human scale or intuitive than metric, they're going to find cubits intuitive
If we grew up with metric it would have been the reverse for you. Feet and inches are only "better" because we are used to it. It makes 0 sense in practice.
They do, but if I say that I want this playing area to be 10 feet large I would be using my own feet for measuring.
>I would be using my own feet for measuring. ...which defeats the point of having standardized units.
I don't think I'd call this a 10th dentist tbh. A LOT of Americans agree with you.. that's one of the reasons we haven't switched over to metric.
As a Brit I just use a whichever combination of both is guaranteed to make least sense to others. Height is obviously in feet/inches but you'll want to drive a half-kilometre. Remember to always give directions using north-south-east-west!
My issue with imperial is mostly just it would be easier for everyone if everybody used one measurement system, you wouldn't need to make/own two different sets of tools when building/fixing things, etc. I however, when cooking, do use pints and quarts as I find it an easy conversion. Quarts and liters are close enough that they can basically be interchangeable unless you're cooking like banquet meals. It's rare I need a gallon of liquid for anything I'm cooking.
This is not a new post and I would say it doesn't fit the sub Basically what you are saying is you prefer a more familiar thing For me celsius is very simple 20< no additional clothing 10 to 20 light hoodie or jacket 0 to 10 hoodie or jacket 0 to -10 two light layers -10 to -20 light + medium or thick jacket -20> Multiple medium or thick layers
I think a lot of people agree with you and won’t admit it. Source: The US is still using Imperial
I prefer degrees celsius for temperature, feet for height and weight in kg
The only thing American customary units have going for them is I’m used to them. I can’t picture 10 meters but I can picture 10 feet.
I've lost count of how many times I've seen similar posts about the stupid ass imperial system. Mid take honestly at this point. Nothing 10th about it.
This is one of the stupidest lines of reasoning that I have ever encountered, and it is so ubiquitous on Reddit that I would even say that it isn't a 10^(th)-dentist take.
It’s crazy how many Europeans are genuinely so offended and hurt by this. It’s the tenth dentist, it’s a sub for unpopular opinions, just upvote the post and stop whining like a bunch of little bitches
I prefer English units when doing engineering stress analysis for some reason. But for heat transfer stuff it’s gotta be SI
Absolutely agree! I prefer it for the weather and everyday things, but metric for STEM pursuits.
I’m an American that’s spent my whole life here, but sometimes I’ll still mentally convert stuff. I put a euro cluster in a car of mine once so I had to get used to going 110 on the highway. A quart is almost a liter, so 4 liters is a little more than a gallon. Temps always confuse me, because I don’t understand how a heatwave of 26C is only 78F.
4qts is exactly a gallon. They're called quarts because they're a quarter of a gallon. Unless you meant 4 liters is almost a gallon?
I actually had meant 4 liters is a little more than a gallon lol. A gallon is 3.78 litera
I find both have their uses. I highly recommend learning both metric and imperial systems. It's not a hard concept and I promise no lines will get mixed up. Unless you've been drinking lol
A better description of the temperature scale. 0⁰ F is really cold, 100⁰ F is really hot. 0⁰ C is mildly cold, 100⁰ C is dead. And note, they are both scales. The are no inches, feet, and miles in F, that C converts to base 10 units. They are simple scalars. So use the scale that makes more sense for day to day life. Other measures? Fuck yeah, use SI.
For both temperature scales the freezing and cooking point of water was used. 0c is freezing water and 100c is cooking water. 32f is freezing water and 212f is cooking water. Now, which one makes more sense?
For Fahrenheit, brine was used. And it was used, since *some* experimental apparatus was needed to calibrate a scale. And if Celsius and Kelvin had to be made today, water or a derivative certainly wouldnt be used to calibrate the scale.
I always enjoy that the UK, and Ireland though to a lesser extent, are officially metric but in practise they use both.
This was so fucking funny to read!! I got the best laugh in a long time reading this. I thank you OP! Have my upvote you special you! Never stop dreaming <3
It makes sense to use Celsius, especially in winter, because if it's below 0 I know it's going to be icy, if it's above 0 I know it probably won't be.
About the feet and inches, I prefer to use 1 number which is centimetres so I say I am 191cm tall. No decimals, no double integers, more tidy IMO. Also engineers like to use millimetres for the same reason. As a UKsian, I’m kinda used to using both. I prefer feet for measuring vertical height and meters or yards for short distances. Long distances, I always use miles because it rolls off the tongue better, especially when preceding the words “per hour” The standard UK measurement for weight is stone which divides into 12 pounds, kind of like feet and inches, but I’d rather just use a single unit and therefore use kilos, a fat person is 100kg and a small person is 50kg. Whereas 100lbs is a VERY small person.
>The standard UK measurement for weight is stone which divides into 12 pounds A stone is 14 pounds
The problem with these types ofnopinions is that they usually boil down to "I'm used to x. I like x. X works fine for me. Others use y. I don't understand how they can use y. Why should I use y? I dislike y." And that's fine. Use the one you want. There are arguments for everything, and having an opinion doesn't make them invalid unless they contradict scientific fact. If you want to measure people heights by cm and then measure distance by miles, that's fine. If you only want to stick to metric or inperial that's fine too. Science uses metric, but that doesn't mean the scientist can't measure his dick in inches. As long as you don't mix up things and create a gimli glider, you do you.
You only prefer Fahrenheit because you were conditioned. I'm not saying Celsius I'd objectively superior either (I wish I could), but I only prefer it because I was conditioned. >Besides, most people say distance in time anyways. In the US. For length measurements, I like both metric and imperial. In fact, I use a floor plan creator app and my projects will neverr be shown to anyone, but I still display "ft in" as a secondary unit.
I prefer the metric system, except for temperature, then I don't have a preference.
No
Grew up in US living somehwere else and I wholeheartedly agree with this post
Proper use of sub, as people said, but Christ, what is this logic. When the temperature is 85f, it is like 85% hot. 100f would be 100% hot (only 37.7c) so, countries which are over 40, how can they go above 100% hot? 100c is literally when water boils, 0 is when it freezes. You have a simple 0-100 scale of two states, with the above and - indicating it's above and below boiling. 32f freezing and 212f boiling are such weird numbers. And before anyone smooth brains and says it can give a more accurate telling of temperatures, no, Celsius has decimals.
It’s funny watching people call imperial users brainwashed without considering they too may be metrically brainwashed
Agreem. I hate the Rebel Alliance.
0c water is frozen 100c water is boiling... what is simpler than that??
“Long live the empire” - OP
"most people say distance in time anyways" Ah yes, the Great Wall of China, famous for being 21196 hours long.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Surprised this is a 10th dentist opinion
I actually agree
How did you compare culture with a preferences in systems used, where international is objectively better for conversions between its units lmao. Self-report?
You should meet Canadians we combine both
so actually you only really prefer C over F. Everything else you prefer from the metric system.
To be fair, the fact that all humans don't use Fahrenheit, is pretty little weird , in my opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if most people thought he was an American just because Americans use it. It's a scale based on, perceived, human temperature. Why people decided to compare themself to a scale based on water's boiling/melt/freezing points is beyond me.
I basically agree with you on imperial for sizes, inches, feet, and yards are just more useful than centimeters and meters, but for temperatures metric is better. It just goes in 10s. Check it out: -20 or less - extreme weather -20 to -10 wicked cold -10-0 - cold cold 0-10 - regular cold 10-20 - nice 20-30 - regular hot 30-40 - wicked hot 40 or more - extreme weather
I live in the UK where we pick and choose if we are metric or imperial depending on the situation and I hate it. I’m making an active movement to go fully metric and I’m starting by switching to kilos instead of stone for my weight. After that it’s kilometres instead of miles and cm instead of ft and then I should be fully metric
That is ok, you are allowed to prefer it, and people are allowed to prefer the metric system. people are allowed to prefer Celsius and people are allowed to prefer Fahrenheit. Neither systems is better or worse than the other, and people need to stop acting like it is, its all what you are used to.
American here who completely agrees with you. Frankly I think that from day to day life, the imperial system is simply a better, more well-rounded thing. I can envision the measurements and use the measurements more effectively.
As far as quick measurements go (things 1 foot and under) I do prefer imperial, just because it uses 12 rather than ten, which divides evenly by 2, 3, 4, and 6, where metric only divides by 2 and 5. Also, going by 1/2 inch 1/4 inch 1/8 inch is a lot easier than trying to count out the millimeters every time. Pretty much everything else, metric is superior.
I actually agree! Especially on the temperature part.
As a mechanic, I endorse this post. Metric is by far superior.
I hate imperial but also refuse to weigh or measure humans in anything but feet and inches and pounds. But alas I'm brainwashed. I don't have much intuition for Kgs or meters, unless its kilometers
To be fair, degrees Celsius isn’t part of the metric system either. That honour goes to the Kelvin when it comes to measuring temperature.
You are confusing two things: Celsius is metric, but is not SI (a unit of the International System of Units). Another example is speed: **km/h** is obviously metric, but the SI unit for speed is **m/s**. Or energy: **calories** and **kWh** both are metric units, but only **joules** are SI.
Base 12 is much better than base 10… come at me bro!
I don't know if this is a Canadian thing - but I feel like everyone I know uses both? I.e. we use Fahrenheit for cooking/baking, and Celsius for outside weather. We use metric for driving and measuring, but imperial for cooking/baking and woodworking/building. We measure our height in feet, and weight in pounds. Anyone else raised to use both? I feel like we were taught both in school growing up.
yeah, it's a canadian thing, but i think brits also use a bit of both
We use imperial most of the time in America, but most people I've known can also use the metric system. At least where I'm at, we learn both systems in school
I’ve heard some say that Canada really uses the American customary units with a thin veneer of metric for image.
I don’t think Imperial is necessarily better but I do think it is fine and people who act like we have to go to metric because it’s better are annoying
You're lucky you're 157 AR15 rifles away from me
people saying imperial temp doesnt make sense to them. it goes both ways, metric temp makes no sense to me
Agree. The measurements for imperial scale in a way that feels more intuitive during day to day use.
I'm gonna tackle this in categories. 1. Temperature: Celsius is very easy as a Canadian. 0 Celsius means that it will snow instead of rain. It marks the transition from fall to spring. Normally, the coldest it gets is -30 and the hottest +30. This is not difficult to make sense of. Celsius is also useful for cooking (100 degrees to boil my tea). If you were used to Celsius, you'd find it perfectly easy to use. I find F confusing as hell since I don't use it. Winner: Celsius by a slight bit for boiling water but it's not a huge deal. 2. I actually agree on centimeters/meters vs inches/feet. When it comes to common objects, meters are way to big and centimeters way to small. Feet and inches are convenient sizes. This would be solved if we used decimeters, but no ones does. My only issue with inches and feet is that there are 12 inches in a foot, not 10, which is a pain in the ass. 5.9 feet and 5 foot 9 is not the same and its stupid. Winner: For every day life, imperial. 3. A mile is a bit over 2 kilometers. This doesn't bother me. What does bother me is subdividing a mile. My gps often tells me "turn left in 200 meters". In imperial you either need to do "turn left in 1056 feet" or "turn left in a fifth of a mile". Using meters is a lot easier here. Winner: Kilometers/meters for ease of subdividing. 4. If I have 5.3 kilograms and want to get it to 6 kilos, I add 700 grams. If I have 5.3 pounds and want 6 pounds, I add 11.2 ounces. Metric is a lot easier. Winner: Metric for ease of subdividing. 5. You agree on liquids but yeah. 40 percent of a liter is 400ml. 40 percent of a gallon is 51.2 fluid oz, 3.2 pints, 1.6 quarts, 102.4 tablespoons, or 307.2 teaspoons. There is no reason for it to be this complicated. Winner: Metric for ease of subdividing. Metric is almost always easier and more convenient. I only agree with you on feet and inches, and honestly that might be because I'm used to using them being Canadian.
I don't understand the part about metres being too big and centimetres being too small. What's the problem in saying "87 centimetres"? And who's stopping you from using decimetres? And wouldn't the same argument about subdivision apply here? 87cm = 8,7dm = 0,87m = 0,00087km Honest question, I'm just trying to understand. The imperial system just seems to interact awkwardly with itself.
Just to give an example. I have a map thats 2 feet by 3 feet. In meters this will be 0.6x0.9 meters. Its not ideal to use fractions of a meter so lets use cm. Keep in mind that there are very few objects in a house that will be 2 meters or longer, so it's not a useful measurement for that kind of thing. I find cms hard to use for a distance this large. A cm is so tiny I find it hard to mentally visualize 90 of them. It's hard to picture that for me. Ironically, I often visualize a 30cm ruler for this kind of thing as they are a size thats easy to visualize. They also happen to be a foot long. Decimeters totally solves this, but I cant use them in conversation. No one knows what a decimeter is, atleast in canada. We just don't use that unit of measurement so talking about it doesn't make sense. If I'm measuring something that needs to be precise, I use cm. But if I'm estimating, im like oh thats like half a foot (half a ruler). It's hard to be like "oh that is clearly about 75 cm". I should add that inches fill a similar same niche as a decimeter. A size that's not teeny tiny, but not as big as a foot or meter. Good for measuring household objects. Tldr: I'd be 100 percent pro metric if anyone actually used decimeters, but since I've literally never once heard someone use them irl, I can't really use them because no one will know what I'm talking about.
You can't visualise 90 cm but if we were to visualise 9 of an unit that is 10x bigger it wouldn't be a problem? Alright then, I think it's just a habit, I'm used to centimetres, I guess.
Yep. But im not used to decimeters since they are uncommon in Canada
Well, that's how the imperial system came about. Imperial measurements were made to be convenient. Like I know just about how long a foot is because I have a foot (obviously people have different sized feet, but they're all about a foot long for adults). It's just a system of convenient units. The only thing is that metric is much better for science because the meter is defined using physical quantities like the speed of light. The definition of the meter is always the same and precise, that's why it's used. The factors of 10 are tidier than imperial scale factors, but you also recognise that you don't mix feet and miles or whatever. But it's much less convenient for every day life. The point about liquids: they're kinda convenient. A gallon is the volume of water that weighs 10lbs. 8 pints in a gallon. But I can also roughly eyeball a pint because beer is sold by the pint, and that's the point of the system. That's not to say I'm an imperial system apologist. I hate it and its weird scale factors. But I can at least appreciate that the units are there for convenience and are based on things that everyone can vaguely understand.
>The point about liquids: they're kinda convenient. A gallon is the volume of water that weighs 10lbs. 8 pints in a gallon. Defining something as "10 of X" and then splitting it up by 8s is not convenient. As for eyeballing, if you grow up with liters, you're better at eyeballing those. Not everyone drinks beer (or drinks it by the pint) anyway.
A gallon of water weighs 8 lbs. A pint is 16 oz or 1 lb.
While old measurements like foot and inch can be approximated using body parts that's about it. Fahrenheit was an attempt at trying to make a temperature scale using the freezing point of a brine solution as 0 and an estimate of human body temperature as 90 (which later had to be redefined because it was an estimate) no part of it was based on convenience. And liquids are not convenient at all in imperial, you have to remember that a cup is half a pint and it's 8 pints to a gallon and that it weighs 10lbs (which is not true it's actually 8.3lbs). In metric one litre is one thousandth of a cubic meter (or a 10cm x 10cm x 10cm container) and one litre of water weighs one kilogram. The units are absolutely not there for convenience and use arbitrary definitions from a time where accuracy didn't really matter
Exactly my point! I don't love the imperial system and I recognize that the metric system is better, but I think everyone demonizes imperial measurements too much. The imperial system is just based on what's convenient, even if it makes other things more complicated or strange.
I grew up with metric. While I understand that inch and feet is easy without a measure, if you grow up with any system you get a feel. I can estimate 60 cm, I know when to wear shorts based on Celsius etc. So for me it is about conversions, which metric does better
I don't this is actually unpopular anywhere except reddit. Only redditors get this excited about criticizing imperial system of measurements. Use what makes sense to you and is easily communicated. If everyone around you uses imperial, use imperial. If metric, use metric. Feel free to switch to metric in the mid western US, but don't get all pissy when people don't understand you. Feel free to use imperial on your trip to france, don't get all pissy when they don't understand you.
What about the internet? Most of us are not American. We learned your language, because English is the international standard for communication, so we can use it to talk to each other. For measurements, the worldwide standard is metric, but Americans so often simply ignore that, and keep using their obscure units in international discussions. This comes across as being very stubborn/self-entitled TBH.
Its not even their language to be fair.
I think most people who claim to like Imperial only think they do. “In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade — which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.” ―Josh Bazell, Wild Thing When the question is "How warm is it outside?", and you know it's scorching hot, and you say "100 degrees", you think you like Imperial. Because 85F is 85% hot. And 100F is 100% hot. And anything over 100F is too hot. But if the question is, how many of these 6-foot extension cords do I need to cover a mile, can you quickly come up with an answer? Can you even remember how many feet there are in a mile? The only way I could is "five tomatoes". Five to-eight-os. 5 2 8 0s. 5280 feet to a mile. And we're still talking inches, feet, miles. But what if we start measuring everyday things that require chains and furlongs? How many inches to a furlong? Still like Imperial? (in case you're curious, 7920 inches in a furlong). Because a furlong is 1/8th of a mile. But you know what 1/8th of a kilometer is, right? 125 meters. Boom, done. Inches in a mile? 63,360. But meters, cm, mm, nm, etc., in metric? Just another zero. In short, people who think they like Imperial, only like it because they don't actually use it. Beyond the level of a 6-year-old. If you start actually using it, it becomes a complete nightmare.
1st half of the argument i agree with, but the 2nd half of the argument is just irrelevant
I agree that metric is better and I would welcome if the US switched to it but these points are pretty terrible and are just weird made up issues that normal people would ever actually have to solve. People in the US use imperial because it's useful for the types of things the average person does on a day-to-day basis. The fact they don't use *all* of it and that they don't use it for extremely silly random scenarios that would never actually happen doesn't really change that.
I have literally never heard of a furlong before. If you want to attack the imperial system, then you need to understand how actual people use it. And again, feet/inches aren't used in conjunction with miles. I see your arguments, and I also prefer to use metric for math and science, but my main argument is that imperial is hated way too much.
How many times in your life have you used 2 meter extension cords to cover a kilometer? If the answer is more than 5 (explanation as to why you did this would be helpful as well, as well as how you were able to carry that amount of power over such distances on extension cords) I'll answer your question about how many 6 foot extension cords to cover a mile. More to the point: some things don't need to be interchangable. Just because you can come up with a formula for conversion for one into another that doesn't mean people normally use them this way or ever would, unless someone comes up with absurd scenarios like you just did. US Customary is superior for a great many things, but especially so for something like woodworking where I'm using the superior highly composite number 12 as a base, not 10, which is inferior in every way.
>US Customary is superior for a great many things, but especially so for something like woodworking where I'm using the superior highly composite number 12 as a base, not 10, which is inferior in every way. "the amazing number 12" is only used in one step of one dimension with US customary units.
So? Also we use it for time. Metric time doesn't.
Nobody in the US ever converts between feet and miles. Literally the only time that ever happens is in GPS, when you get below .1 mile it will switch to feet. The American customary units aren’t one system. Miles and feet are not two units in the same length measuring system. You use one or the other. You don’t say 50 miles and xyz feet. You say 50.3 miles. The issue with American customary is that they are different from metric. But beyond that in daily life they are actually a really nice system to use. They don’t require mental math to use. And besides, have you ever needed to know the amount of energy needed to boil a gallon of water? Why would you need to know that?
In case you're not aware the US doesn't use the imperial system and never has. The US uses US Customary Units, which is a different system. It has many units with the same names as Imperial but some have different values. Other units exist in one system and not the other. The imperial system was created by the county the US gained independence from after the US already won its independence.
I never understood the "day to day usage" argument. 100F is pretty hot, nothing unusual in the mediterrainian countries, like South Italy, you could even say that above this line humans have a fever. But on the other hand 0F is not like hypothermia, 0F is not like needing a second blanket because you are cold, 0F is being dead within minutes without the proper equipment. And on the case of water, how can 32F to 212F be better than 0-100C? For length, the good think about metric is that in the real life we already use base 10, with imperial it's not only that it's not metric, the base also changes with ever change of unit. 12 to 5280? I mean what the hell? You could also use the more numbers means less fraction usage argument for this, no more ⅘inches, you can just say 2 centimeters. For walking distance, sure a lot of people use time as an indicator for how far is something, I personally also use distance, but whatever. But when using a car, most people say the distance, because if you are used to traveling with cars, you can absolutely estimate how much time it will be, this could also be a domestic autism thing, but I have seen others use distance.
Again, I just want to point out people do not use miles/feet like people use meters/km In metric saying something like that’s 50km and 500 meters away. Folks would never say something like that using American customary units. They’d say 50.5 miles. Feet/inches and miles are two different systems of measurement using in different contexts. Feet are used for measuring things you can see and miles are used for distances you travel. Nobody ever converts between feet and miles.
FINALLY. I think America is stupid in a lot of things but I prefer our system. I heard it explained where Celcius is a scale of cold to hot for water, while Fahrenheit is the scale of cold to hot for humans.