It’s not that it’s hard to learn, it’s that we don’t have a strong intuition. It’s not that difficult to know there are 12 inches in a foot and 3 feet in a yard or that metric is entirely based around factos of 10. But its the intuition of what an inch looks like, what a pound feels like to hold in you hand. Most people wouldn’t be able to pick up an object and say, “that weighs about a pound” or look at an object and say “that’s about 3 feet long” but a lot of people do have an intuition what an energy drink can looks and feels like and can imagine getting hit by one, a lot of people have picked up a pineapple at the grocery story, people have the intuition of how big a football field is or how big a city bus is.
I agree, that’s why I said, “… they simply don’t use the units enough.”
I know imperial VERY well, but that’s because I lift weights listed in lbs and craft things all the time, which takes measuring. I also do 3d printing in metric, so I have a solid feel for millimeters, centimeters, and decimeters, but less so full meters because I seldom work on that scale.
Considering I had an intuition for lbs as a child, though… I don’t really buy that people suck at their native units as adults. If they do, they’re simply not paying attention.
It’s not that it’s hard to learn, it’s that we don’t have a strong intuition. It’s not that difficult to know there are 12 inches in a foot and 3 feet in a yard or that metric is entirely based around factos of 10. But its the intuition of what an inch looks like, what a pound feels like to hold in you hand. Most people wouldn’t be able to pick up an object and say, “that weighs about a pound” or look at an object and say “that’s about 3 feet long” but a lot of people do have an intuition what an energy drink can looks and feels like and can imagine getting hit by one, a lot of people have picked up a pineapple at the grocery story, people have the intuition of how big a football field is or how big a city bus is.
I agree, that’s why I said, “… they simply don’t use the units enough.”
I know imperial VERY well, but that’s because I lift weights listed in lbs and craft things all the time, which takes measuring. I also do 3d printing in metric, so I have a solid feel for millimeters, centimeters, and decimeters, but less so full meters because I seldom work on that scale.
Considering I had an intuition for lbs as a child, though… I don’t really buy that people suck at their native units as adults. If they do, they’re simply not paying attention.