Comment by mulmen
3 years ago
> Because as of right now, only 3 countries in the world (US, Liberia and Myanmar) officially use imperial units
This is not true. The US has never used the Imperial system, we use the US Customary system, which has been based on the metric system since 1893.
> If I have to figure out hundredweights per acre, given that X inches of rain fell, I'm gonna need a calculator, a conversion table, and social context to know which kind of "hundredweight" I'm supposed to use.
Nobody is doing this.
> and social context to know which kind of "hundredweight" I'm supposed to use.
Since as you say everyone else uses the Metric system it should be pretty easy to figure out. As an American I have never even heard of a hundredweight, not sure why you are so fixated on this unit.
> This is not true. The US has never used the Imperial system, we use the US Customary system
So how is using yet another different system defining arbitrary measurements that cannot be easily converted, do not directly correspond with the radix 10 numerical system, and are also not widely used make things better?
> Nobody is doing this.
Yes, people are doing such calculations all the time. How many concrete transports will a construction company need to make a foundation, if the depth is 2.2 m², the size is 97.2 m² and the specific weigth is 2.5 tons per m³?
How much rain did fall on Hamburg in 2022 given a city size in square kilometers, and an average fall of cm/day.
What kind of energy output can a solar farm provide given a conversion rate, panel efficiency, panel angle, and land size? Easy to do if all is in SI.
> As an American I have never even heard of a hundredweight
It's an official unit of the us customary system:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredweight
> So how is using yet another different system defining arbitrary measurements that cannot be easily converted, do not directly correspond with the radix 10 numerical system, and are also not widely used make things better?
For the same reason the metric (literally international standard) system was created. There were many similar systems in use. US Customary was a standard system for the whole country. The problem being solved was different standards for the units. US Customary solves that problem. Only the standard definition of the unit changed. This has been done within the metric system as well, even very recently.
> > Nobody is doing this.
> Yes, people are doing such calculations all the time.
What I mean is that specific conversion with hundredweights.
I’m unclear why anyone would do any of your example calculations in their head. They’re all so important that it would be done precisely on paper or electronically. All a worker pouring a foundation meeds to know is the desired dimensions. All the truck driver needs to know is the quantity ordered. Nobody is actually converting precise quantities of concrete or solar panels in their heads.
Not to mention, you can do those calculations in your head if you're familiar enough with the subject matter, concrete guys do it all the time.
Yes hundredweight is an official measurement, but it's not a widely used one (I think it might be used in the sale of nails only?) - which is the parents point. We'd just calculate it in pounds or fractional tons.
You act as if these calculations are simply impossible in customary units, they're not and we do them all the time.
To go on from this, we've converted everything that meaningfully effects our external competitiveness, as I said in a parallel comment I dont think our competitiveness would be helped or harmed if meat was sold in kilograms vs lbs or if we have temperature on the weather forecast in Celsius.
Hundredweight show up in agricultural settings -- you'll see the price of pork being $123/hundredweight, instead of $1.23/lb. I assume this is because the price of meats used to be pennies per pound, and people wanted the numbers to be bigger, $12.50/hundredweight instead of $0.125/lb.
> You act as if these calculations are simply impossible in customary units, they're not and we do them all the time.
No I don't. I said they are more difficult than they have to be, and for no good reason.
> I dont think our competitiveness would be helped or harmed if meat was sold in kilograms vs lbs
https://gizmodo.com/five-massive-screw-ups-that-wouldnt-have...
Maybe not, but it would probably have helped in not having a 125 million dollar space probe go up in flames.
2 replies →
> How much rain did fall on Hamburg in 2022 given a city size in square kilometers, and an average fall of cm/day.
Oh, now you're in US customary unit territory.
Let me introduce you to the acre-foot.
The acre-foot is the unit of measure for reservoirs. For instance, the Ashokan reservoir is 8300 acres with an average depth of 46 feet. Its volume is 381,800 acre-feet.
If an area 10,000 acres received 3 inches of rain, you need 2500 acre-feet of reservoir to put the outflow in.
How big do you need to make your 2500 acre-foot reservoir? Well, if you're working with 100 acres, you make it 25 feet deep.