Bicycle parts entered the chat
The entirety of the American scientific research community, which happens to be the most productive research community in the world, slides in with a wink 😉
I thought, you were saying that the USA is still researching how to build one of these “bicycles”. 🙃
The instruction manuals got banned.
Oh fuck the bicycle world for that, as much as I like working on my bike, it’s a fucking pain to figure out the size of parts!
At least in this case it’s not America’s but Britain’s fault. I primarily blame the small arms industry in Birmingham! :)
Europeans literally see no irony in throwing shade at Americans for hanging onto their traditional measurement system, while also speaking 27 different languages in the span of a few hundred miles.
Maybe come down off your high horse until you get that situation sorted, eh? >.>
Whenever I post something on the internet, I do so in English, since that’s a language most people on this world speak. I’d love it if Americans did the same with measurements when writing down recipes on the internet. I’m sorry for this offensive opinion.
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Als ge liever wilt, kan ik het ook in het Nederlands doen. Op het internet spreek ik over het algemeen Engels, aangezien dat een taal is die nagenoeg iedereen spreekt. Ik zou het vree tof vinden als Amerikanen dat ook zouden doen met maten en gewichten in hun recepten. Sorry om zo kort van antwoord te zijn.
well, language is culture, and we all know how cultured the states are.
Being colonised be the English does that to your native languages
Source: am Irish
Ayo the car thing is absolute bullshit.
10mm bolt for the fuckin brake caliper but 3/8 for the fuckin slide bolts?
Get the fuck outta here
GM has been using all metric for years now.
I especially hate the T series bolts
Don’t know what car you’re driving but I think you’re just using the wrong size wrench/Allen key
My last car was a 2012 ford fiesta. The lug nuts are 19mm. The caliper bolts were 10mm and the slide bolts were 3/8.
The car before that was a 2001 cavalier. Not only did it have metric and standard bolts but the slide bolts were fuckin Allen heads.
Like literally why?
Probably because they were made by American car manufacturers and couldn’t make a logical or consistent design decision if their lives depended on it.
Like I’m not even an engineer and I’m just screaming about the dumbest decisions made by people who make more in a week than I make in a year 😭
Yeah, but the difference is that they made it so you need an extra socket or an alan wrench. I think you’d have made dumb decisions that were a little bit more deadly.
It’s usually cost. They have tooling for components that have probably been around decades. The cost of retooling just to change the fastener sizes may not be economically viable. Eventually these legacy components will be phased out and it will be 100% metric.
I was just in the states and I didn’t think the budtender understood grams so I was careful not to use that language lol
This is hilarious. What did you ask for?
An amount of ounces probably
Quarter ounce
Oh yeah that would work lol
Not until you’re talking pounds of it. What would you even ask for? A tablespoon?
I imagine a US bartender would know what a gram is but there’s basically nothing in there you’d ask for in grams, or by weight in general.
I don’t think budtender was a typo
Like many strains, weed is a hybrid situation
The army uses metric almost exclusively. It’s where I learned it.
Yep. One “klick” is one km.
I think the main problem US people have with metric is their aversion to anything that has more than two syllables.
Far worse: It’s laziness.
I was teaching a friend how to make ravioli (yes, really) from the class I took while over in Italy. I bring my scale to measure the dough and the first thing she does is use the scale to get the right measurements and then, scrapes the contents into an imperial measuring cup. Worse, she was totally pissed when the semolina was not a perfect match to the 00 flour (mass and all that).
She is a tried and true American. She just wants to whip out her 1 cup without measuring weight and can’t fathom why the dough just “wasn’t like I taught her”.
By the way, the super secret Italian recipe is this: Ingredients per 2 people (spaghetti or tagliatelle) 100 grams total of: 50% white superfine flour 50% semolina Add 1 egg per 100 grams of flour
For ravioli, you want more superfine (00) flour so the pasta sticks together better. So like above, 100 grams total of: 60% superfine flour 40% semolina
Add 1 egg per 100 grams of flour.
What most people miss about weight vs volumetric measurement when cooking is that it’s all about ratios. And if you had been paying attention in math class, you would know that ratios are unit less. Which means as long as you keep the proper ratio between the ingredients, it matters not one whit on how you measure them. You can weight, you can use cups or spoons or handfuls and pinches to achieve the correct ratio. You even demonstrate this by stating that the ratio of flour to semolina is 1:1 or 3:2 depending on the end use. And one extra large egg, (about 55 grams or 2oz), should make for a decent conversion.
But before you change units of measure, you need to be sure that the changes still hold to with the tolerances of the recipe. Something most people can’t do very well - much like your friend.
And never forget - the true masters of fresh pasta making at home are all those little old Italian Grandmothers. And they are probably just eyballing it all anyway.
Which means as long as you keep the proper ratio between the ingredients, it matters not one whit on how you measure them. You can weight, you can use cups or spoons or handfuls and pinches to achieve the correct ratio.
The problem with converting a 1:1 ratio of ingredients measured by weight and a 1:1 ratio of ingredients measured by volume is density. Two different kinds of flour may pack differently and thus have different densities enough to effect the consistency of the dough. And with something like flour, a cup of sifted flour is less wheat and more air than a cup of scooped flour.
It’s all about the ratio. The density does not matter as much as you seem to think. Plus there is a tolerance built in. Just think, you so carefully measure everything out with weight (did you get the weight exact?). Then you randomly toss a bunch of bench flour down when you kneed the dough. You have literally no clue as to how much weight of flour/semolina the dough picked up. So it really doesn’t matter as much as you might think. Now your scale does make it easier for you. And that’s fine, I have a kitchen scale and use it regularly myself. But I understand it doesn’t matter as much as you seem to feel it does.
And again, those Italian Grandmothers are just eyeballin’ everything anyway.
But I want it to be one cup of egg!
Go for it
Medium or large eggs, (the most common size) is about 5 eggs per cup, 4 per cup of extra large. - YMMV slightly depending the exact eggs your have.
Of course there’s a cup measurement for eggs.
What was I thinking.
To be fair you sound like Data from TNG Season 1 if you say something like “Give them a centimeter, soon they have a meter.”
Except in electronics. Everything is still .1 inch headers. We invented too many electronics and it’s stuck now.
It is also annoying that the electronics industry prefers the term “mil” for 1 thousands of an inch. Why not use “thou” like machinist use?
The whole world uses both for various things. Even the countries that “officially” use metric. Specific global industries still use imperial. Canadian and British people are perhaps the most famous for combining the two, but most of Europe also mixes things in here and there.
And of course the whole conversation is Euro-centric and ignores the historical use of traditional measurement systems in Africa and Asia, but somehow that never gets brought up.
Yeah TVs/screens for example are typically in inches anywhere I’ve seen. There might also be the metric listed.
Rims are also commonly referred to in inches, at least in germany. But just as with screen sizes, it’s 50/50 with cm, the latter being more useful especially with screens.
The wheel is in inches but the tire is in metric!
At least in the United States, tire sizes are a goofy mixture of the two, plus an indirect measurement.
A 205/75R15 tire is 205mm wide bead to bead, fits a 15 inch diameter rim, and is 153.75mm from bead to tread (75% of its width).
Yes, the measurement system is the same everywhere and you need the wheel size somewhere in there, but the size of the tire (if you were to take a slice of its profile) is in metric.
No, like I said, tires are sized in both. The width of the bead is given in millimeters, the diameter of the bead is given in inches, and the height of the sidewall is given as a percentage of the width aka Aspect Ratio.
Cut it and you’re left with a U shaped slice measured in mm (even if it’s a ratio that’s used for both legs, if you apply a ratio to a measure in mm, the result is something you measure in mm).
They are indeed usually in inches but that’s probably bleeding back to Europe from the US. And most people don’t actually know how much that would be in metric. It’s sometimes listed but no one I know actually uses those numbers. We just know that 65 is bigger than 55, etc. If we want to know if it fits in our living rooms, then we look at the actual size in cm. I also couldn’t think of anything else that’s imperial, at least here in Germany.
It’s a diagonal measurement so it’s literally only useful for comparing screens.
Yep. Which is probably why no one bothered to use metric.
As long as they’re the same ratio 🤪
It makes sense as an Inch is a good measurement for that. You aren’t going to use mm or meters
That’s why they have centimeters (cm). When I buy a TV in Europe the diagonal size is expressed in cm.
People here have a better feeling of what 138cm is than they do for 55’ because they are just more used to it.
Neither is a better measurement, it’s just a matter of what you’re accustomed to. If you were used to banana scale you’d think 8b is easier to understand than 55’.
’ is feet, " is inches.
TV sizes in Europe are in cm.
Funnily enough, I’m in a metric company and buy my weed in imperial
- talking to my european friends
- talking to my african friends
- talking to my asian friends
- talking to my south american friends
- talking to my north american friends (exceptions apply)
- talking to my oceanian friends
- talking to my antarctican friends
talking to my antarctican friends
Gotta go to [email protected] for that.
Quote from article(translated)
Few years ago I’ve seen post on Pikabu, which was recruitement of sysadmins and penguins flippers.
Alright friend-haver, no need to flex that hard on us
bro measured stuff with his friends
what’s better than hanging out with boys, measuring your things?
Americans will use anything to measure, except the metric system.
How many friends to a furlong?
hypothetically
- talking to my north american friends (exceptions apply)
As a Canadian, boy do they ever
pool
Are you sure about Antarctica? I wouldn’t be surprised if emperor penguins measured distance in feet and flippers.
Some of us are comfortable going both ways.
But don’t tell anybody because I live in Texas.
Wine and other liquor bottles too. Go check that sticker, I guarantee you it’s measured in milliliters.
When I was young I lived in Puerto Rico for a few years (1980’s). Milk was sold in either one litre cartons or one gallon jugs. Distances in road signs and road markers were in kilometers but speed was in miles per hour. Fuel was sold in litres but fuel usage is in miles per gallon.
I believe Canada and the UK do similarly.
Milk yes, car distance no, fuel usage no
Km and L/km are used in Canada.
Gallon jugs aren’t as common as 4L bagged milk here though
Do you say kilometers per litre or miles per gallon?
Edit: re-read. The UK still uses mpg, I believe
No, liters per 100 km, edited because I forgot the 100
But just to fuck with everyone we still refer to it a “mileage” in speech. Cause being a Canadian is suffering.
Seems like a good way to become proficient in both so that you’re more adaptable.
Nah. People just talked distances in fuel tank fractions, fuel dollars or travel time. For example, “how far is the mall?”, ‘about a quarter tank’. Or “how far is San Juan?”, ‘$5 will get you there’. Or " how far is Rio Grande" ’ about ten minutes that way’.
Soda bottles larger than 20 ounces…
You forgot measuring bullets.
Bullets are a weird, dumb one. Yes, kind of. But also: .308, .303, .30-06, .50 BMG .30-30, .45-70, .38, .32, .44, .45, .50AE. Then nonsensically basically all “30 calibre” are the same diameter, which is exactly not quite .3 of an inch. Most of those are calibrated by the metric system (as many imperial measurements are today), but the terminology exists in the imperial system.
And then there’s fuckin gauges for shotguns smh.
Everyone uses guage descriptor for shotgun bores. It’s been around longer than the metric system. And it’s doubtful it will ever change.
Except .410 for some reason. I guess 67 gauge is starting to sound a bit crazy.
But yeah I know. I just think it’s silly.
While it’s pretty much traditional at this point, there was a very good reason for a long time to do it that way. Gauge for muskets/Fowlers is related to the number of round balls of bore diameter that weights 1 pound, (remember this predates the metric system by about 100+ years). And if you owned a firearm, you had to own the proper mold and cast your own lead balls to shoot over an open campfire. You just couldn’t pop down the the sporting goods store and buy some ready made round balls to shoot. Knowing how many round balls per pound lasted into the 1800’s. Because if you were a Longhunter or mountain man fur trapper, it was important to know that your .45 caliber Pennsylvania rifle shot 47 to the pound and a .50 caliber Hawken’s rifle shot about 35 round ball to the pound. so you could easily know how much lead you needed to bring with over the next year in the lonely mountains.
So if you owned a .72 caliber/12gauge musket you knew you would get 12 round balls per pound of lead. If you had a .69 caliber/14gauge, you would have 14 balls. A 20gauge/.62 caliber will give you 20 round balls.
But yes, the era of the metallic cartridges sent things off the rails in naming cartridges. And post WW1, everyone just completely lost the thread. We have .38 Short, Long, Special, and .357 - all the same bullet diameters. And a seemingly infinite number of .22 caliber cartridges that not even god himself can keep track of.
Yeah, but you still have work tool measurements in 5/8, 7/32, and 13/64 or whatever the fuck dumbass measurements.
I say this as an American that hates the way tools use measurments here.
Depends what kind of work you do, mechanics work in metric only, construction is in Imperial…
Mechanics work in metric mostly. You still come across some imperial sizes occasionally. Though recently that’s been getting standardized a lot better.
Recently?
Metric has been standard in cars for decades…
Then there’s planes, and trains and also ships. Ships can have parts and systems from god knows when
I mean, that might be true, but I work on a lot of shit that’s right around 20 years old. It’s mostly metric. But I keep a set of standard sockets around that I’ve had to pull out once or twice. Sometimes it’s been because of swollen bolts but sometimes I’m pretty damn sure that’s a 5/16.
I can guarantee it’s either someone that put the wrong bolt there or it’s due to rust.
All American cars have been fully metric since the 90s (with a push during the Carter years as well), Japanese cars since the 60s… Maybe you’ve had to work on a x.5mm bolt but that’s extremely rare.
I specifically prefer woodworking in fractional inches. I’ve had this argument on Lemmy before and it basically goes:
“But inches bad! Metric good! Fractions bad! Powers of ten good!”
“I mean yeah okay but I nearly never have to divide by ten in the wood shop, I do have to divide by two or three or four, and since we mill stock to finished dimensions that are usually 3/2*x inches, most commonly 3/4” or 3/2" it’s trivial to do. Cutting mortise one third the board’s width in 3/4" stock ends up being exactly 1/4" wide. Easy. The metric world usually mills boards to 19mm, which is pretty close to 3/4" so it’s suitable for the same applications. Show me the line on a metric tape measure that indicates one third of 19mm."
“But Americans use inches so it must be dumb and bad!”
I use metric for quite a lot of things, I learned chemistry and physics in metric in school, I vastly prefer doing mechanical and engineering things in metric. I learned carpentry (structure building) in inches but I could cope with metric there, I learned how to fly in mostly US customary units (distances in nautical miles, speeds in nautical miles per hour aka knots, altitude and runway lengths in feet, pressures in PSI, temperature in °C) I could cope with different units there. I’m not giving up inches in the furniture shop though, because working in fractions works to well.
But yeah the faster we can erase fractional inch wrenches from the world the better. “What’s one size louder than 3/4?” “Ah shit 6/8…12/16, plus 1…13/16.”
Except there’s an easy way to mark thirds: if you have a, let’s say, 27 cm wide board you take the measuring by skewing a little the tape and measuring 30 cm. You mark 10 cm and 20 cm and there you have it: a third of the wide. You don’t even need the precise measure. If you have something with proportional marks you just use it and you get a third no matter the width. It’s like a center finder but with thirds (or fourths or…)
That will likely work for the length or width of boards, but what about thickness? Mark out a mortise and tenon on a 19mm thick board with that technique and tell me how it goes.
This is the kind of shit I’m talking about. You see these kinds of “Nuh uh, it’s not a problem, you just learn all these hacky workarounds” excuses out of the inch-ounce crowd, where you “just have different measuring cups for that” or “our butter packaging has tablespoon markings on it” but in the wood shop it’s the other way around because the physical tasks are inherently easier to express as fractions rather than decimals, so I’m the one saying “I just measure it with my tape measure or combo square or ruler and it’s right.” and the metric crowd keep going “Nuh uh, it’s not a problem, you just learn all these hacky workarounds.”
Or you can do a division and that’s it.
19mm / 3 = 6.3333mm. Come on over here and show me the six point three three three three millimeter line on my metric tape measure.
2" / 3 = 0.666666666 Show me that point in you tape measure 😜
And both cases can be fixed by just skewing a little the tape (19 mm -> 21 mm and 2" -> 2.1". Close to 20°)
