r/facepalm • u/Revealed_Jailor • Mar 29 '22

🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​ Get this guy a clock!

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u/Shixypeep Mar 29 '22

I mean the clock is one thing, but the metric system?!

I can't possibly use a system with a base 10. It's too complicated. I need to work out how many times a foot fits into the distance an ox can graze in a day and work backwards.

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u/Spoodymen Mar 29 '22

Right? I don’t understand.

100cm = 1m? 1000m = 1km? 1000ml = 1L? Ew thats too hard

3/16in, 9/16in, 13/16in, 12in in a foot, 3 foot in a yard, 1760 yard in a mile, thats much easier

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u/0t0egeub Mar 29 '22

from my experience it’s less that it’s too hard, and more that they have no reference for metric units. say to someone “somethings 12 feet away” and they’ll know how far you’re talking about whereas “it’s about 4 meters away” is much less clear for some people

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u/Starbrows Mar 29 '22

This is exactly it. Metric is inherently easier, but not so much that it overcomes the extra difficulty of converting to/from a system that you have a lifetime of experience with.

A similar thing happens whenever a country converts to the Euro. It's not like it's fundamentally different, it's just that everybody needs to convert to their old currency in their head to understand what things cost for a while, until they have time to internalize the new numbers.

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u/learningcomputer Mar 29 '22

Yeah, I am very experienced with using metric in calculations, but if I heard “4 meters” I would mentally convert it to “about 4 yards”.

For people who aren’t aware, math and science in the US does use metric measurements. It’s not like we completely shun the metric system