• PostmodernPythia@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s silly. We can have both. You don’t have to die. People like me will continue to use the one that’s based on concrete historical everyday objects and estimates, that’s more useful in daily life (though here we call that USGS, not imperial), and people like you can use the one that’s focused on round numbers and is best for big math and science calculations and maybe cooking.

      • Riskable@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Metric isn’t just important for “big math and science calculations”! It’s also important if you want to print out dicks (and maybe other things) on a 3D printer 👍

      • Mayoman68@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Obviously you can use whatever you want for outdoor temperature measurement or whatnot, but I think the US should switch to metric for anything of any importance. It’s incredibly annoying when your PCB dimensions, your 3d printer, your fasteners, etc, are in millimeters, while your laser cutter is in inches. It introduces a cause of issues and undoubtedly is a headache for foreign entities trying to work with American industry.

      • rbhfd@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Do you think people in countries that use metric units have no intuitive way of linking the units to things we use every day?

        To me and anyone else who hasn’t grown up with imperial (or USGS or whatever), the units seem just as useless in daily life as metric does to you. Probably even more so, because there is no easy way to link between different units.

        • PostmodernPythia@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You have to remember those connections. Guess what a foot is based on.

          I wasn’t saying each system couldn’t be used to do the others’s strong suit, just that each is better at an aspect. You can do big calculations in USGS, as well, but why would you?

          Also, I’m not advocating that countries where people use metric change their system, only that they spend their time on things besides trying to change a system perfectly well suited to most purposes of the people that use it simply because it’s not theirs. When Americans come in and try to change other cultures because “our way is better,” it’s a dick move, yeah? Well, it’s not better the other way.