deluxetrashqueen:

epersonae:

hyper-dorphin:

hymnsofheresy:

hymnsofheresy:

hymnsofheresy:

hymnsofheresy:

apparently europeans have the impression that US Americans never learn the metric system.

like our science curriculum from day one is entirely done in the metric system. we just don’t use metric in our day to day lives.

yeah actually we kinda just do it for the bit :)

I have had people try to gently and kindly explain to me the workings of the metric system, as if Americans are having trouble with the concept of a base ten system. like no. we get it. we were taught this when we were like eight. it’s just that like. we don’t really wanna do it that way. for the bit.

It’s like formal and informal tense.

It’s kind of even more fucked up than that, really

Soda: big bottle is liter, small bottle is 20oz, can is 12oz (buying a soda with a meal is just small/medium/large, don’t ask what the numbers are)

Fun runs are often measured in kilometers, but literally no other distance uses metric

People who get fancy with coffee use grams for weighing the grounds but the final beverage is measured in ounces

On the whole, Americans just use whatever unit makes the most sense for the thing in question. Whatever rounds to the cleanest number or is the easiest to estimate/calculate.

Like, we know we want about a certain amount of soda in a larger bottle and a “2 liter bottle” is easier to say and estimate than a “70oz bottle” but a “foot long sandwich” is easier to say and estimate than a “0.3 meter sandwich”. It’s 70 degrees Fahrenheit outside because small increments of temperature make a big difference in how comfortable I’ll be, but my 3D printer, which gets up to extremely high temperatures, is printing at 215 degrees Celsius.

I might drive a mile (a larger unit, because the exact distance doesn’t need to be as precise) but I ran 2k (a smaller unit that allows for a more precise measurement of the distance without breaking the units down to fractions).

It’s all about what works best for the situation at hand.