this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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45
Why do people who try to convince others to switch to metric focus so much on the conversions? (herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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It seems like a weird point to bring up. How often do y'all convert your measurements? It's not even a daily thing. If I'm measuring something, I either do it in inches, or feet, rarely yards. I've never once had to convert feet into miles, and I can't imagine I'm unique in this. When I have needed to, it's usually converting down (I.e. 1/3 of a foot), which imperial does handle better in more cases.

Like. I don't care if we switch, I do mostly use metric personally, it just seems like a weird point to be the most common pro-metric argument when it's also the one I'm least convinced by due to how metric is based off of base 10 numbering, which has so many problems with it.

Edit: After reading/responding a lot in the comments, it does seem like there's a fundamental difference in how distance is viewed in metric/imperial countries. I can't quite put my finger on how, but it seems the difference is bigger than 1 mile = 1.6km

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[–] Otiz@sopuli.xyz 23 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Ooh what are the problems with base ten?

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Dividing my thirds sucks.

Base 12 ftw

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

3 1/3.

You don't have to use a decimal point...

[–] Otiz@sopuli.xyz 12 points 3 days ago

Hey! There's nothing wrong with a little 3,333333333333333333333.......∞

[–] DoubleDongle@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I'm pretty sure metric plywood is 120cm by 240cm. You can have twelves in your tens.

[–] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In order:

  • Dividing by 3
  • Dividing by 4
  • Dividing by 6
  • Dividing by 7
  • Dividing by 8
  • Dividing by 9

It's really, really bad at handling dividing by anything but 1, 2, 5, or 10. Dividing by 3 is very frequently useful imo

[–] Otiz@sopuli.xyz 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's fair, I am pretty jealous of that 12 inches in a foot conversion. That a juicy one.

But then again, we rarely divide 1 or 10 of something. A third of a meter. 0.33333 meters? Wtf is that? Nah, just use centimeters instead. A third of a hundred. 33 cm! There we go. That's the length of the rulers we had in school. I can even measure that shit using just my eyes.

Need even more precision? 333 millimetres, fuck it's getting hot in here 🥵

I gotta chill out

[–] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If we need precision it's 333.333 mm xD

[–] Otiz@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 days ago

Dude, we round that shit. But don't worry, I got more precision that you can even fathom. Let's go, 3333 μm... 33333nm... to the moon

Yes I'm high

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago

BOOOR-IIING!