Originally Posted by
himespau
This whole having to say "food calories" every time I talk about energy storage with my students (for example comparing /g the energy stored in carbohydrates vs. lipids) is really annoying, but it's the only way to get it across to them. When I talk kcal or joules, it just doesn't sink in the way talking in terms of things they think about when dieting does.
True, but I think there's some benefit to using "human-size" units. You know, like a man's knuckle is about 1", my shoe is about a foot long, 60 mph is a decent highway speed that takes you a mile to go a minute. Let's be honest, we weigh things instead of measuring their mass, even if our measuring devices translate weight into mass. And a pint's a pound, etc.
Of course, I make sure everything at work is metric.