this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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We're taught both metric and US customary units in school. I prefer metric for most things, to the point I have a metric-only tape measure among other things.

However, I'll die on the hill that Fahrenheit is superior for ambient air temperature. 0 degrees to 100 degrees neatly encompasses the range of average surface temperatures seen throughout the year in the contiguous US.

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

metric, since i was in the stems. people would freak out if you use kelvin.

[–] BranBucket@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Excluding a few examples like frequently used gym weights, common fastener sizes, and short distances, I still have to do rough conversions in my head to have an idea of what a metric measurement is, so I guess I'd say imperial.

But I wouldn't be upset if the US converted to metric.

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

I use both all the time, prefer metric

[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago
[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I would prefer that we had continued on the path of converting to metric until Reagan killed it.

[–] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Weight of human beings, weights at the gym, etc.: pounds

Height of people: feet and inches

Height of buildings: mostly feet, but occasionally meters.

Depth of water in scuba: meters

Kitchen weight: grams

Kitchen volume: fluid ounces only between 0-128 oz, then gallons after that. Decimal places, not fractions. So for example, cocktail recipes should all be in ounces, no tablespoons or teaspoons.

Distances in wilderness: meters/km

Distances on a football field: yards

Distances on a basketball court: feet

Distances on roads or in cities: miles

All temps in Fahrenheit.

Energy in calories for food and heat, watt hours for electricity, joules for everything else.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Metric for everything but temperature because 69F is nice.

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I'm comfortable working in both systems, I prefer standard for furniture building because I need to divide by 3 or 4 more often than by 5. I'm also going to fly in knots, nautical miles and feet of altitude.

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 3 points 2 weeks ago

I hop back and forth.

For temperature, Fahrenheit just makes more sense because a human useful range is basically 0 to 100 instead of 0 to ~30.

For measurements I use a mix. Feet and inches are useful for medium size things, but below a quarter inch I use millimeters because fractions of an inch is just a fucking mess.

[–] DoubleDongle@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Fahrenheit is nice for talking about the weather, but metric is just better for everything else.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Most often I don't get a choice. There is one system that makes sense for this because it is already in use.

My house was made in a standard system - the studs are 16 inches on center. The pipes are half inch (there is nothing half inch about pipes if you measure them). Using metric would be a big pain because the house was designed around standard measurements and so things are much easier to stick with it.

Our roads are standard. I can set my speedometer to metric - but then I'm in danger of breaking the law if I forget to convert. I tell someone "go X km and turn right" - but they won't know what a km is, and their odometer won't tell them either.

I work with farmers in Candada who measure crop yields in kg/acre because their local elevator buys their crop by the kg, and their land was measured in acres long before the country went metric - this is mostly about where they put the roads so land makes more sense when you measure in standard even though everything else in the country is metric.

I use metric where there is no reason in the real world to do otherwise. Which means I mostly don't use metric because almost everything I do deals with the world around me.

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[–] NinjaTurtle@feddit.online 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Prefer metric. So much easier conversions. However, it is hard for me to think long distances and weight in terms of metric, on the fly, and ambient temperature.

Also a lot of tools are still in "standard" so have no choice but to use it.

[–] brendansimms@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

metric for math, F for temperature, whatever the fuck ounces/cups are for cooking because thats what my measuring receptacles say

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

I like cm and meters, also like feet and inches.

When I make bread, it's grams and kg for sure.

My phone tells me the temp in C, but I understand F better.

I freaking love the cups to pints to quarts to gallons thing though. It's archaic and beautiful. Gallon divides easily into 4 quarts, 8 pints, 16 cups. 128 oz. I like that doubling pattern. 8 pints in a gallon 8 ounces in a cup, it's just fundamentally pleasant in some way.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

I've converted to metric as an adult. Including Celsius. Does it piss my wife off? Yes. It's better though

[–] Curious_Canid@piefed.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

I much prefer metric, but I live in the US so the Imperial units are what I grew up with and can work with most easily. The rest of the world uses metric, so I end up dealing with metric units quite a lot too. I have gotten to the point where I have a fairly good intuitive grasp of most metric units. I almost always use metric when I'm measuring things for my own use.

I do prefer Celsius to Fahrenheit for temperature. Fahrenheit may have made sense in the era and location where it was created, but in the larger world, where climate change is well underway, it no longer fits. The idea that the normal range of temperature fit into 0 F to 100 F was never true outside of the temperate zones. Just within the lower 48 states in the US we regularly experience temperatures above 110 F in the south and below 0 F in the north.

Also, it has always been true that the temperature that matters most is the freezing point. Putting that at 32 has never made any sense.

It frustrates me that the US came so close to adopting metric, then backed away, while the rest of the world moved forward. Now we're stuck with the worst of both systems.

[–] Tedesche@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

It depends how you mean it. I prefer Imperial measurements because they’re what I’m used to but I honestly think the U.S. should join the rest of the world and use the Metric system.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I'm in Canada, I swear I use both on a daily basis

[–] paultimate14@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Whatever is the most appropriate for the task at hand. Sometimes it makes sense to make your own.

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

I was not taught both, but I try to use both when I post stuff on Lemmy, for the sake of readers. I typically have to look up the conversion.

Beyond that, I’ve started baking in metric because my super-precise scale handles it nicely, and there are an absolute ton of metric weight-based recipes but not a lot in imperial. Volume-based baking is just bad. It never turns out consistently. Volume is ok for cooking, not baking.

I also use Celsius for temps in games because that’s usually the default, but not meatspace because everything around me is presented in freedumb units. I don’t really have a preference between the two, but I’d just love if we switched to kelvin. I’m a big fan of scales that start from 0. It’s not even remotely practical for everyday use, but it IS precise!

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I use grams for weighing food in the kitchen, because the imperial units toggle button doesn't work on my cheap scale. I use metric when designing for my 3D printer. I use imperial for everything else, because that's what I'm surrounded by, and of course, I'm used to that.

I agree about the temps, but I'd pick a better hill to die on. In the increasingly unlikely event that the U.S. ever officially embraces the metric system, I'll be happy for the change.

One more reason to say "Fuck Ronald Reagan", he killed our attempt to switch to metric. Asshole.

[–] dwt@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

Non American here…. Why not just use the same units as the rest of the world? Just to be less confusing? So fareinheit you might like better, you’ll get along with Celsius too after getting used to them.

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[–] Boneses@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

I prefer metric for stuff I can use it for but in my industry everything small is measured in thousandths of an inch and everything big is measured in inches + fractions of inches so I usually use that in my day to day.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

woodworking, house stuff, cooking, imperial all the way.

engineering, modeling, etc, metric city.

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

IMO measurements are actually one of the few areas in life where we are living in a decent timeline because US Customary is basically an affine rescaling of SI Units (affine but not linear because (at least) of x [K] = (x [°F] − 459.67) × 5/9) with exact conversion factors if you're careful. And then my personal preference for the units I was socialized under become irrelevant for practical work.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

5/9 is close enough to half for most purposes, and 30 is close enough to 32 - you can be within a reasonable margin of error converting to F/C with much easier math. Sure it isn't perfect, but most of the time you don't need that accuracy in the first place.

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

much easier math

No thank you, I like hard math. I didn't learn all this math to not use it 😆

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 2 points 2 weeks ago

Just make sure you don't get too many significant digets in your answer and so get the wrong answer.

[–] Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I prefer metric but the C vs F I’m completely indifferent

[–] SecretSauces@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

The only reason I prefer Freedom Units is because that's what I've grown up with and know. If I had grown up using metric, I would choose that all day. It just makes more sense, there's no random "12 inches to a foot" or "16 tablespoons to a cup" (I had to look this one up).

Metric is easy. A decameter is 10 meters. There are 10 decimeters in a meter. Each step up or down is 10 of the previous.

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