Comment on A metric tonne (1000 kg) should be called a megagram (1 Mg).
yA3xAKQMbq@lemm.ee 1 year agobut its more convenient to have smaller units depending on what you’re measuring.
See, that’s what apparently many people don’t understand: with metric you don’t have „larger or smaller units“. You have one unit and you scale it to your needs. It’s not like we have „the meter“ and „the centimeter“ and have no clue what’s in between. There’s absolutely nothing more convenient about having multiple units for the same physical property.
I find the size of a foot to be convenient for measuring things in casual situations where accuracy and precision aren’t priorities.
Again: There’s nothing more or less precise about metric or imperial. You have a mental image of a „foot“ the same way I have a mental image of a ruler or a sheet of paper, i.e. 30 cm.
I don’t really know what a litre is. I know what a beer bottle looks like, or a milk carton, the same way you know what a quart of milk looks like. Pour a quart on the floor and ask someone how much that is, they probably don’t know.
We don’t literally measure it with our feet, that’s just what its called.
Oh, I definitely had other people tell me imperial is „more human“ because a foot is the size of your foot and an inch is the size of the tip of your thumb.
sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
That’s the same thing, the units are just proportional.
I know, its just easier to say a foot than 30 centimeters. That’s why I use it in casual conversation, and not in anything important.
That’s not the part I’m saying is convenient.
They can both be used to measure things precisely, but metric is more convenient in those situations usually. If I need to accurately measure something, I would use metric because the advantages of imperial are probably not applicable. If I’m just estimating and it doesn’t matter much, I’ll probably use imperial because I won’t have to do any conversions with that number, or anything else imperial struggles with.
Those people are wrong.