Unit Conversion

I suppose I didn't notice too much because it's the middle of winter, and it's been about 15f/-9.44444444c here, but this is definitely the problem of dysphoria hoodies in the summer....

Chrissy Hart

Hehe. See, I'm so celsius-brained that Emmet's confusion/subsequent reaction made perfect sense to me. Personally I grew up entirely metric, in Aus. But loving in the UK means I'm having to constantly convert. I'm pretty good with feet/inches now, but stone, or miles? Forget it.

Gillian Brown

You'd figure snow would be easier to draw.

Jax

I remember winter in QC once... Was it 8 years ago?

Yola Leroch

A single foot is 30cm. So 3 feet is 90cm, 10cm short of a meter. The whole 2 meters/6 feet thing recently has been very annoying for me because of this.

Nick Hodgson

I used to first go to yards being roughly a meter, but with the current situation, I know that you stay about 6ft away from other folks in the US and 2 meters in the EU (I think I've seen Canada and UK stuff with both), so my brain took that route

Carin Maja Brooks

@Paul Hodges- true, though I never much think in fifths of anything. Except that the standard liquor bottle in the U.S. was once a fifth... though now it's 750ml so I suppose metric is winning there, too. ;-)

Hugh Eckert

@Ayivara - thanks, I'd never heard those before!

Hugh Eckert

That Canadian child is so freaking adorable.

Vic or Vyxter

“Whassat in meters?” About one.

EnterTheHero

True for thirds, quarters, and fractions built on those factors, but not fifths. Also, it's true of the *numbers*, but not necessarily the units and their nonsensical conversions. I mean, who uses barleycorns these days to measure anything? (They aren't very standard, anyway.)

As a metric partisan, you do have a point: Fahrenheit makes sense as a weather-survival system. If you're near 0 or near 100, you need to take special precautions or you're going to get ill and die. If you're near the middle-ish (40 to 70) you're probably very comfortable. These are very instinctive responses, which is what you want in a public alert system. The rest... maybe it's working in the sciences, but I don't really agree. If I'm subdividing a foot I've already got the measuring tape out, and centimeters are more granular than inches. Yes. "Inch" and "pound" are shorter and more fluid than "centimeter" and "kilogram" ...which is probably why we don't actually call them that. Our warehouse guys started us on the trend where everything is weighed in "ki's" (pronounced keys), and anything we measure with a ruler in the lab is in c's (pronounced seas). eg "This five-ki weight is only thirty c's to a side, it'll fit on that balance."

Aviyara

At the risk of getting brigaded by the metric partisans, I will say that 12 (as in inches to a foot) is much easier to divide into smaller units than 10. Aaaand most of the words for the "old system" are shorter and IMHO more... poetic? than metric. Aside from "klick" for kilometer, of course. Agree that Celsius is more logical than Fahrenheit, I just think in the latter and will always need a conversion table.

Hugh Eckert

Close, but long distances are actually measured in Time. Ie, Toronto is 3 hours away.

William Handrigan

I experienced this in Bangkok. 39℃ with a dew point of 35℃. Yuck.

Miyaa

I’m aware of the parallel problem of people visiting dry climates passing out dehydrated because they never felt hot.

KCkittysnores

Hot take: people in dry climates who claim that high 20’s C isn’t hot don’t know jack about heat. Set your thermostat to 27C, and then start humidifying the air until water is condensing on the walls. Then try and think, “oh, a sweater would be lovely!”

KCkittysnores

How to Measure Things Like a Canadian: https://www.clivemaxfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/maxncb-0234-01-how-to-measure-things-like-a-canadian.png

James Redekop

I *am* really into hockey, but I love that shirt!

Matt Pedone

Personally I just round 3ft to 1m. Tolerance stacking effect is noticeable at large values...but even at a mile it's close enough to not care too much for rough estimates. And once you hit a mile I'm measuring in miles anyway.

Chris Crowther

*Looks outside at the -2°F/-18.9°C* I wish it was 80...

Alex H