View Poll Results: Imperial or Metric
Imperial
41
59.42%
Metric
18
26.09%
Units...I don't need no stinkin' units
10
14.49%
Voters: 69. You may not vote on this poll
POLL for Americans...What kind of units do you use?
#51
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For cycling distance, big distances are in miles, smaller ones in meters. I lived in a metric country for awhile, so I'm fairly comfortable with it, but for daily life it's pretty much imperial.
#52
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#53
Senior Member
Bikes are sort of a lawless Wild West of measurements. We happily weigh components in metric units of mass, not force, and then list the weight of the complete bike in Imperial units of weight, which is a force. One psychological advantage of the metric system is that speeds read higher and your weight reads lower, on the dials.
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#54
High Plains Luddite
Like most Americans, I think, my mind thinks in Imperial simply from a lifetime of using it. I think in miles and pounds and gallons.
I can understand volume and length in Metric without too much trouble, but Metric weight is something I can't seem to grasp.
They say a paperclip weighs about a gram. So a kilogram weighs as much as a thousand paperclips? I have a hard time imagining how heavy or light that would be. And when you get into lots of kilograms, I'm just lost.
Metric tools are no problem at all.
I can understand volume and length in Metric without too much trouble, but Metric weight is something I can't seem to grasp.
They say a paperclip weighs about a gram. So a kilogram weighs as much as a thousand paperclips? I have a hard time imagining how heavy or light that would be. And when you get into lots of kilograms, I'm just lost.
Metric tools are no problem at all.
#56
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mm cm
When ever I see something in kilometers , meters , cm, mm, celsius, I have to convert in my head into miles , feet , inches, pounds degrees, before I can determine what size it is or how far away it is or how cold it really is.I dont know how big ten meters is until I convert in my brain
#57
Zip tie Karen
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WAIT!!! Who cooks with their wife? I come to a recipe and it calls for "ounces" of an ingredient...
Is that "ounces - mass" or "ounces - volume"? She rolls her eyes. Am I the only one?
Is that "ounces - mass" or "ounces - volume"? She rolls her eyes. Am I the only one?
#58
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Does the rest of the world need to two sets of wrenches like we do?
#59
I am potato.
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Our relationship now exceeds 40 MegaFonzies.
Last edited by base2; 02-19-21 at 01:43 PM.
#60
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I spent most of my adult life living overseas and simply got used to thinking in metric units. Since returning to the US about ten years ago, I have constantly had to "translate" in my head to make sense of imperial measurements.
#62
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#65
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Furlongs per fortnight, FTW.
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#66
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I happen to have an old 19/32 wrench from my wife's grandpa's toolbox that's a perfect pedal wrench. Like it was made for the job.
#67
Randomhead
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U.S. customary units are defined in terms of metric units. So I suppose I can say I'm using the metric system.
#69
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I’m comfortable working in both. On one of my first jobs out of college I had to convert a load of house dimensions from the feet and inches on the plans being provided to the public, into millimeters for the brickies who would be building the walls. The most efficient way to do this was to pull out a tape measure that had both, to the length required.
When I first came to California, I found out that engineering here is done in feet as the base units, and 10ths and 100ths of feet. It was a true facepalm moment.
in fairness, I will say that when I go home to Ireland and see the newly developed roads, buildings etc that weren’t there when I was younger, I see a bit more sterility in the modern designs there than in the US, and I wonder if it’s that things there are built to decimal ratios of 10 and 5 and 2, versus the more organic ratios of 2, 3 and 4 that can more easily be done with feet and inches.
When I first came to California, I found out that engineering here is done in feet as the base units, and 10ths and 100ths of feet. It was a true facepalm moment.
in fairness, I will say that when I go home to Ireland and see the newly developed roads, buildings etc that weren’t there when I was younger, I see a bit more sterility in the modern designs there than in the US, and I wonder if it’s that things there are built to decimal ratios of 10 and 5 and 2, versus the more organic ratios of 2, 3 and 4 that can more easily be done with feet and inches.
#70
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Like most Americans, I think, my mind thinks in Imperial simply from a lifetime of using it. I think in miles and pounds and gallons.
I can understand volume and length in Metric without too much trouble, but Metric weight is something I can't seem to grasp.
They say a paperclip weighs about a gram. So a kilogram weighs as much as a thousand paperclips? I have a hard time imagining how heavy or light that would be. And when you get into lots of kilograms, I'm just lost.
Metric tools are no problem at all.
I can understand volume and length in Metric without too much trouble, but Metric weight is something I can't seem to grasp.
They say a paperclip weighs about a gram. So a kilogram weighs as much as a thousand paperclips? I have a hard time imagining how heavy or light that would be. And when you get into lots of kilograms, I'm just lost.
Metric tools are no problem at all.
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#72
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I find for normal general use, measuring tapes should be solely imperial. I stopped buying those that also have metric side to them since depending from which side you need to read the tape, the metric side of it gets in the way. Metric on measuring tapes is for nerds or geeks, and for European mentalities. Big difference between the two worlds, Europeans like to have their appliances knob controls marked with fine divisions and give way too many choices while North American appliances have fewer knobs with much fewer choices, so you don't need to read the manual when doing your laundry. It is a totally different mindset.
And mind you, I grew up in Europe but live long time in Canada.
#73
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in fairness, I will say that when I go home to Ireland and see the newly developed roads, buildings etc that weren’t there when I was younger, I see a bit more sterility in the modern designs there than in the US, and I wonder if it’s that things there are built to decimal ratios of 10 and 5 and 2, versus the more organic ratios of 2, 3 and 4 that can more easily be done with feet and inches.
#74
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#75
Not lost wanderer.
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As an American living in Cambodia I use both.