this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
299 points (97.5% liked)

Funny

16714 readers
181 users here now

General rules:

Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

European variant:

[ is it displays? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
 ↓ no
[ is it screws? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
 ↓ no
[ metric ]
[–] NightmareQueenJune@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Well, screws are more complicated. We mostly use M sizes which are metric. But when it comes to plumbing and compressed air thread sizes you get into imperial terretory fast.

[–] majster@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 months ago

Tires are in inches, screws really aren't. Who wants 3/8 key?

[–] Shayeta@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No? We use metric for all of these?

[–] RichardDegenne@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

You use metric for displays?

I'm in France, and my TV is 55' and my monitor is 27'. I wouldn't be able to tell you the equivalent is centimeters off the top of my head.

[–] boonhet@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago

Never seen screws in inches in europe (though I'm sure they exist, just don't see them being common), but you're missing wheels, pipes, hoses and fittings, socket wrench drivers, screwdriver bits, clothes (sometimes) and perhaps more

[–] blackshirt@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)
[ is it displays? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
 ↓ no
[ is it screws? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
 ↓ no
[ is it tires? ] -yes-> [ inches ]
 ↓ no
[is if flight altitude? ] -yes-> [ feet ]
 ↓ no
[ metric ]

FTFY

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

[ is it tires? ] -yes-> [ inches ]

both for car and light truck tires. inches for wheel diameter, millimeters for tread width,

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Even in the US we use metric tire sizing apart from a select few offload tires, which is annoying because its not even actual dimensions but more of a ratio or percentage of the overall width of the tire (in addition to the wheel size being in inches as you mentioned).

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 points 1 month ago

Also, floppy disks.

[–] Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Road bike tires? Metric. Mtb tires? Imperial. Car tire inner diameter? Imperial. Car tire width? Metric.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Chrobin@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I agree on the tires, but at least in Germany, we measure flight altitude in meters.

[–] MatSeFi@lemmy.liebeleu.de 2 points 2 months ago

And if you don't know for sure you can always default to a "Saarlands"

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] rbos@lemmy.ca 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's a bit out of date, and definitely varies by individual, but broadly, yes.

Like I'll weigh myself in kg and give height in cm but most people won't understand it outside a medical context.

And most cooking is in grams or Celsius, except my oven, which is F.

[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You must be younger, because this diagram is spot on for me

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] nogooduser@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

We’d need several versions of this in the UK with a decision tree required to select the relevant decision tree. It would need to take age and where you were brought up into account.

I think that the most complicated is distance. For me it is imperial for a person’s height, metric for short distances that I measure, imperial for short distances that I estimate (that one’s weird), miles for ground travel distances and time for air travel distances.

[–] WalleyeWarrior@midwest.social 5 points 2 months ago

Also with a secret third option for measuring temperatures when cooking. Your cookies will be baked for 12 minutes at Gas Mark 4 and you will like it.

[–] egrets@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

It would need to take age and where you were brought up into account.

And which sports you've been involved with, and how nationalistic your parents were when you grew up, and whether you've had chronic health issues, and whether your oven runs on natural gas, and whether you visit mainland Europe often.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

JFC I though America had it fucked up sideways

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

you just see here the remnants of murican influence

[–] mastertigurius@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Canadians are surprisingly confusing with their measurements when they're so easy to understand about most other things.

[–] SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Doubly colonized. Very porous border with supplies all engineered in ‘freedum units’.

Some industries have been extra slow to convert, usually due to supply chain dependencies. Also generations have to die before giving up key habits drilled into them as kids. I distinctly remember grandparents talking about mass in stones, yet canadian-born.

Settler states can sometimes ~~be stuck in~~ preserve old ways while imperial centers move on. Metis fiddlers sent a delegation to Scotland (? or thereabouts) to reteach them forgotten reels from a few hundred years ago.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] observantTrapezium@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is not funny, it's a fucking problem. I'm a metric purist and have an unreasonable negative emotional response when others are not.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

American, can you quantity your negative emotions in a 4 point precision float of 9/11s so I can follow along?

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm an American, I'm comfortable working in metric and normal.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 1 points 2 months ago

Shhh, don't let them know that we use it for food packaging and drugs.

[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Speed I'm bilingual in, I'm old enough to remember when we changed from miles to km and watching the road signs gradually get replaced. Manitoba also runs a grid pattern on roads throughout a lot of the southern province, having at least a gravel/dirt road nearly every mile, so you kinda grow up with that burned into your brain.

Temp wise, C all the way. Fahrenheit totally screws me up. I know 70 is around room temp but beyond that I need to convert it for my simple brain to understand.

[–] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It is easier for me to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. The actual equation is (9/5)C+32. I usually just double the Celsius, add 32, then subtract a few. Gets it close enough.

[–] Akasazh@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Add and then subtract an indefinite amount is what gets me

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

100 is body temp so you can use that one to convert the highs. No idea what freezing would be in F

[–] ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Is it for agriculture?

Imperial. Sorta.

I literally use units like mL per acre for something like boron application with fertilizer.

[–] darthelmet@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is somehow worse than Americans using just imperial. Congrats Canada that's no small feat.

[–] Bad_Ideas_In_Bulk@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

No no, they use United States customary units.

They're similar and some units are the same. But not all. Some only have the same name.

[–] farmgineer@nord.pub 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

As a Canadian-American living in Japan.

Height/Distance: metric

Cooking: metric (ml for volume, but I normally translate all recipes into weights and just throw things into a bowl on the scale) for both amounts and temperatures

Weight: metric

Speed: metric (m/s for wind, kph for basically anything else not science-y enough for other units)

Certain products: bicycle tires (maybe frames?), screen sizes, and more I'm forgetting.: inches but not called inches and almost always with the size in mm/cm written next to it. I have never met a Japanese person who knows what an inch actually represents unless they lived in the US or work closely with the US in certain industries (e-commerce is one for unit conversions)

Property sizes: In my own usages, metric (square metres). Dealing with Japanese real estate, home centers, etc: 帖 (jou the counter for tatami mats) and 坪 (tsubo the counter for area).

Consuming:

  • soda, milk, water and whatnot: metric
  • 日本酒 (nihonshu, what most people would call "sake" in the west): x合瓶 (x goubin; where x = 1 -> 180ml, 2 -> 300ml, 4 -> 720ml or so); masu (a box being around 8 shaku -> 144ml); xお猪口 (x ochoku) for x sake cups.
  • other alcohol: I still sometimes will refer to a 750ml liquor bottle as a fifth if I'm not thinking about it

This is ignoring all of the counters Japanese has (一枚 one flat object like a sheet of paper, 一本 one cylnindrical object like a pencil/cigarette/whatever, and dozens more). Bonus: they're not all the same between Japanese and Chinese which feels weird. I don't know about Korean on that part since I think the counters are mostly written in hanguel anyway.

[–] Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I use metric far more than this chart indicates. While I might say something in a recipe calls for a cup, if I need to be specific, it's 250ml. Even height and weight I ususally know them in both metric and imperial. I was starting elementary school when the metric changeover began which made shopping confusing but eventually retail mostly caught up. I do agree with the travel distances though. Time is a much more common measurement: it will take 10min or 1/2 hour or 15 hours is more likely measurement than x km because it is specific to mode of travel: walk, bike, car, transit, plane.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] khannie@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Can't believe Canadians use fahrenheit for cooking. Must be because of American cookers.

Any Mexicans here? Is it the same there for cooking?

Ireland: everything is metric except....

  • human height, very slowly changing
  • pints in the pub
  • human weight for older people who still use "stones" (this is quickly declining towards zero). A stone is 14 pounds.
  • I think some plumbing stuff as a hangover
  • edit: oh yeah, TV's as someone else pointed out
[–] Shea@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

I think mexico is weird because officially it uses metric and a lot of people know that, but as you go north closer to US you get people who say millas, libras etc. This is my experience as a non-mexican who spent a few months over there and drove all throughout it.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I never understand why Imperial shows up so much in these posts.

[–] filcuk@feddit.uk 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does... the chart help at all??

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

While I set my oven to 180 and measure out how many grams of flour to use, I pause to see my pool temperature is 28. On my way back I stepped on a bathroom scale that read 80kg and I thought back to secondary school weigh ins where I was in the under 60 bracket.

No, the chart doesn't help. As I said, I don't understand how Imperial shows up so much on them.

Using Imperial for construction is true because we buy/sell to the US. But that's really it, maybe one day we'll weigh things in stone and cook using gas mark.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 2 months ago

I wonder if this will change thanks to the current and likely long-term antagonism between the USA & Canada.

[–] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

also,

construction drawings: mostly imperial Office paper: imperial (8.5x11, etc)

[–] cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Canadians may not be bicontinental, but they are a little euro-curious.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Why limit youreelf to only 1 or 2 ways of measuring things?

12 miles away? 12 kilometers away? Boring.

126,720 hot dogs away is much more whimsical and fun.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] OpenStars@discuss.online 1 points 2 months ago

I guess the Canadian being so measured must be that 4th route, Mass. 😜

load more comments
view more: next ›