this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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46
Why do people who try to convince others to switch to metric focus so much on the conversions? (herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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It seems like a weird point to bring up. How often do y'all convert your measurements? It's not even a daily thing. If I'm measuring something, I either do it in inches, or feet, rarely yards. I've never once had to convert feet into miles, and I can't imagine I'm unique in this. When I have needed to, it's usually converting down (I.e. 1/3 of a foot), which imperial does handle better in more cases.

Like. I don't care if we switch, I do mostly use metric personally, it just seems like a weird point to be the most common pro-metric argument when it's also the one I'm least convinced by due to how metric is based off of base 10 numbering, which has so many problems with it.

Edit: After reading/responding a lot in the comments, it does seem like there's a fundamental difference in how distance is viewed in metric/imperial countries. I can't quite put my finger on how, but it seems the difference is bigger than 1 mile = 1.6km

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[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

This wall is 3 metres wide, how many 80 cm shelves can I put up on it?

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Is this supposed to be an argument for metric? or for imperial? Or just a question?

If it's the first or second one, I don't see the point. If it's the third one, 3 with some extra space.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It was meant to be an example for a fairly common situation where you'd need to convert between cm and m.

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Fair enough then.

[–] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

This wall is 9 feet wide, how many 2'8" shelves can I hang on it?

I cam guarantee you're likely to do the same thing I did, which is just "That's really close to 1m shelves, so it's 3 with gaps."

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 4 points 2 weeks ago

I grew up with US customary units and I still took a long time to get that compared to metric instantly

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago

I don't know how many 's and "s go in a foot so ¯⁠\⁠(⁠°⁠_⁠o⁠)⁠/⁠¯

And no, I'd go 8 16 24 32, ah, too much, so 3.