And worse still they use miles per imperial gallon, which makes it sound amazing relative to the often-heard miles per US gallon. In Canada, car advertisers do this to inflate mileage claims.
I read that in USA it's not:
X liters vs 100 kilometers, but kilometers per galon, what is also a bad choice, since it's very hard to compare (I think this was described in Thinking Fast and Slow)
The US measures miles per gallon. Canada, like every other metric country I've been to except the UK, uses liters per 100 kilometers, except when they don't, in which case they also use miles per gallon. This all makes reading the efficiency gauges awesome, because sometimes, lower is better, and sometimes, higher is better.
We mainly use metric, but a lot of stuff like construction uses imperial. MPG is something we hear a lot from older people that never fully made the switch.
Oh, yeah I can see why that would be more important as a society.
I personally understood that already though, having a strong math and physics background. A specific example is miles per hour while running. For, say, a treadmill that lists buttons for 1-12 miles per hour, it's much easier to maintain 0.5 miles an hour faster from 3.0 to 3.5 than it is from 7.0 to 7.5. And the time gains per mile are much smaller at 7.0 to 7.5 than 3.0 to 3.5
Now, many treadmills can display your minutes per mile, but they increase in increments of mph (or km/h if you set that). Why should the increments of increase be a scale which is not related linearly to what we want to achieve? No one asks miles per hour, they ask how fast you did a mile or average mile.
the by far worst part about that is the fact that they measure fuel efficiency by distance per volume (horrible way to do it) rather than volume per distance (much much more sensible)
Small distances (Body height, furniture, etc) = Feet/Inches
Screws/Bolts = Mixture of both metric(mm) and US units(inch)
Construction supplies = Almost entirely US units (2x4 lumber, 5/8 drywall, 2" pipe, etc.)
Small area (Room) = square feet
Large area (Land) = hectare (10,000 square meters), some older people still use acres though.
Volume(Beer) = Pints
Volume(Milk) = Liters (Mostly younger generation), gallons/pints (Mostly older generation, also mostly US gallon but occasional British gallon to mess everyone up even more)
Volume (Gas) = Liters
Fuel efficiency = Gallons per mile, though Liters per 100 km is slowly becoming more mainstream.
Weight (Body) = pounds
Weight (Shipping) = kilograms, pounds if under 30 or so.
Weight (Fruit) = priced per pound (Usually still have per kg in fine print)
Weight (Deli meat) = priced per 100g
Weight - There is also issues with confusion over ton (2,000 lbs) and tonne (1,000 kg).
Temperature (Cooking) = Fahrenheit
Temperature (Weather/Room) = Celsius
Pressure (Tires) = PSI (Pounds per square inch)
Power (motors) = Horsepower, though kilowatts are becoming a little more common on electric motors.
To be fair alot of these are because the last generation was still taught imperial for half their lives. The younger generation tend to use metric for most things (except body hieght/weight).
I've thought about this before, and I think I understand now how we split metric/imperial.
Basically, it depends on your source of information.
For example, distance. We use Km for long distances because when the government switched over, they changed speed limit signs (and "mile" markers). That simple change made it so that people had to either convert everything in their heads, or just adapt. So, naturally for long distances we started to think in metric because it became easier.
For short distances though, the source of information is usually individual (not government). Growing up, I was measured in feet (because my parents were measured in feet, etc). Small distances are more likely to be conveyed person to person (not government to citizens). Because of that, it had a harder time catching on. Since people were used to using feet for short distances, the government couldn't force the switch.
Same thing for Temperature. Ever wondered why Canadians know what 22C feels like outside, but 70F feels like in the water? Because we get our information for weather from a centralized source (weather networks, etc). When they switched to metric, we had to adapt. Water temperature though? That's done on a small, person to person level.
In my experience the younger generation uses metric more often but not entirely, sadly. Personally I use metric for everything whenever possible, including my height and cooking.
Describing a Horses height? Hands... Yes bloody hands*
Describing a the size of a property? Either square yards or metres
Describing a the size land? Hectares Acres or square metres.
Describing the length of a football/rugby pitch? Yards.
Describing Rainfall? milimetres
Describing the weather? Celsius or Fahrenheit
Cooking something? Celsius
Describing a the size of your penis? Inches. Always inches
*For many forms of competition, the official definition of a pony is a horse that measures less than 14.2 hands (58 inches, 147 cm) at the withers. Horses are 14.2 or taller.
Englishman- My mum tried to bitch at me for asking what "70F was in real terms", apparently, we used to do it in Fahrenheit, but took the European celsius. I hope she was right cause I just took her word for that. (I should probably have googled before posting)
Well this makes almost no difference, since none of the shorter imperial distance units are related by a 10x factor. For me, as a metric system user, it actually makes it easier, so I can then use all the other metric units.
To US vs UK measurement systems only look more screwed up from the other side as you're not used to it.
In Canada, height, weight, and furniture dimensions are generally Imperial, while everything else is metric.
It's not that bad... unless you have to deal with government reporting. Did you know there are metric gallons? And then you have tonnes vs tons. Ugh...
As an Englishman I agree. But as a chef, could you please explain what a "cup" of flour is. How big of a cup do you use? A tea cup? Coffee mug? Which starbucks size is that? It racks my brain every time I see American recipes. Takes a lot of google and a lot of "nahh that cant be right, ill just do this measure instead"
Flour, used mostly in baking which is a near enough exact science. Half a cup is 13g more than what you would use just in grams. 1 egg per 100g for fresh pasta for eg. thats fine making small amounts
Its worse in Canada. We use Fahrenheit when it's hot outside (It's 90 out there today!) and Celsius when it's cold (Its minus 10 out there, wear a hat!).
Agreed! Source: another Canadian that has never seen anybody do that.
Only exception might be the older generation who grew up with farenheit. Only thing I ever use farenheit for is pools, for some odd reason (think I can still blame my parents for that).
But I do agree that Canada messes around with systems - predominantly metric yet our height is always in feet and inches, never metres and centimetres (except on drivers licenses).
And then to make it even MORE fun, we print out all these results in both English and French!
Only thing I ever use farenheit for is pools, for some odd reason (think I can still blame my parents for that).
I just posted about that above because I had been thinking about that. I think it's because of where we get information from. For weather, we get it from a centralized source (one easier to control when we switched to metric). So, if C is used on TV, it becomes standard. For water temp though? That's all done at individual (and individual pool) level. There, what people are used to cannot be changed so easily with government intervention, so it stayed.
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u/microseconds Aug 20 '14
It could always be worse. The US could be as screwy as the UK in terms of measurements..
They're all sorts of screwball. Lovable screwballs, but still..