• themeatbridge
    link
    -21 year ago

    For someone so belligerent about something so inconsequential, you’re also entirely wrong about almost everything. Ice your britches.

    You do understand that precision has absolutely NOTHING, at all, to do with the units you’re using? Right?

    Baldercrap. One of the primary advantages of the metric system is that it can scale down for additional precision as necessary. Metric easily scales infinitely in both directions, so you only need one unit of measure for each type of measurement. Imperial units don’t easily scale, so the level of precision is tightly bound to the unit you select. You’re not going to get the same precision from miles that I will from inches. So that was a stupid thing to say angrily.

    And yes, when you’re baking, you need precision. Try making consistently good bread just by rule of thumb, I’ll wait for your results.

    Yeah, that’s why I brought up baking as an example. But the cool thing about baking is that recipes exist in both metric and imperial units. I can measure my flour in ounces if I want, and take a teaspoon of salt, half a cup of milk, one large egg, and there’s never any reason to convert between those units because who cares? I’m not making dough for 1,000 loaves, nor would I ever need to figure one one-thousanth of a loaf, so metric doesn’t provide any advantages for the typical home baker.

    BTW, measuring things by weight is not just more precise by far, most of the time it’s also easier and faster.

    With a digital scale, sure. I have one and it’s great. I highly recommend it especially for baking. But digital scales weren’t always widely available or inexpensive, and most people don’t own one. Nearly everyone who uses a kitchen to cook will have access to measuring scoops. And not for nothing, but my grandma never measured anything and was an excellent baker. It took years of trial and error but she could adjust her recipes to a humid day to make perfect baked goods.

    And yes, if your butcher sells you meat, you would like to pay what you bought, and not 5% more.

    And it doesn’t matter if that’s g, lbs, oompah loompahs or whatever. 5% of something is 5%.

    That’s why butchers use scales. Grocery stores also use scales for produce and deli produces like cheese. Would it surprise you to learn that the vast majority of humans in America are not butchers or grocers? Their math might be easier with metric, especially when ordering bulk quantities, but for the typical customer, they want an 8 oz steak and a half pound of cheese. So why don’t butchers and grocers use metric?

    Because their customers don’t use metric, and there are more customers than butchers or grocers. The conversion between units of measure, the entire reason metric exists, just isn’t a daily consideration. It makes no difference if the steak and the cheese weigh the same, or if you can scale up and down.

    Also, another tangential point, most of the math today is handled by computers. Figuring the unit price of a side of beef or a pallet of cheese isn’t something people need to do in their head anymore. The inventory database will effortlessly convert between pounds and ounces and stones and tons. It can even convert everything to metric if you like.

    FFS is this a knuckle-dragging contest here?

    Gosh, you’re rude. Maybe spend less time attacking me personally and try to think of a valid argument. Or better yet, just go back and actually comprehend what I wrote, and maybe you’ll understand that our positions aren’t really that far apart.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      11 year ago

      To be honest I regularly convert between units. Especially mm, cm and m (sometimes km) and liters to kg. And g and kg. So I dont really understand how that isnt neccessary for the majorjty of America. Does noone build stuff, or I dont know, put a picture up a Wall, stuff like that? I know you said it is easy to half stuff in imperial. I dont really half stuff that often? When measuring stuff I mostly add, subtract etc. I very rarely just take 50% off whatever I measure. What do you do to need so much halfing stuff? If I need rope I want a specific length of rope not half the rope that is on the wall.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      01 year ago

      Yeah, I’m not reading your wall of text on „something so inconsequential“, lol. Clown.

      You can take any unit and break it down or scale it as much as you like. You can have a milli-inch if you want do, it’s 1/1000th of an inch.

      Now get lost.

      • themeatbridge
        link
        01 year ago

        Ok. Hope your day is as pleasant as you are.