It was an international group that met in France that created the metric system.
The British didn’t even begin to adopt the metric system until in the last third of the 20th century or so, and even then thr transition was not immediate.
Or complete
I’m just an American but I feel this is probably offensive to French people.
French created the metric system.
But isn’t it very British to take everyone else’s shit and claim it as their own?
Very true. It’s also a very French thing too though, to be fair
Only if it’s something really old and they can put it in a museum.
Or words from another language.
But they don’t do that with the metric system.
The image in the OP literally says “British: hey guys, we developed a thing called the metric sy-” so your argument is with the creator…
Except I don’t hear british people actually say that.
Not when it’s French… spit
The English measure weights in stone.
Actually we use both. For example, body weight is (traditionally) stone and lbs, but parcel weight is usually kg.
The same is true for length; height in feet, but stuff like room measurements in cm.
I think the only area where we’re actually consistent is traveling distance? All signs and gauges are in Mph rather than Km/h. In fact the only time I can think of someone talking about distance in kilometres, is to do with sports (IE a 5k/10k running event).
In Canada, which transitioned to metric in the 70s and 80s, people’s height are still measured in feet in casual conversation. Weights for groceries still often have lbs and kgs with them.
Glad to hear we’re not the only country with an imperial hangover! Our experience is pretty much the same. Bathroom scales, gym weights etc all have both kg and lb on them. Over time society here does seem to be shifting more toward metric; most people tend to know their height in both these days, whereas 20 years ago it would have been predominantly ft rather than cm.
Brits should never lecture someone on having a sane measurement system when even Americans are more consistent.
Like say what you want but a pound is a pound whether it’s at the grocery store or on my bathroom scale.
Do you think lbs change depending on what we’re measuring? A lb is a lb here too…
I’d argue a comprehension of both metric and imperial is superior, as well as provides insight into which the inferior measurement is, but you do you mate.
Shit, did we move on from Giraffes?
French invented metric system…
yeah this is imperial washing. they setup a colony and left it with an antiquated system of measures, then cheated off their neighbor for a better one.
And the worst part is, they didn’t even adopt it completely. They were not even going the complete mile.
Whatever happened to going the whole nine yards?
Oh, you!
And legally America does use the metric system…
Yes, since the 60’ in the US the measurements are based on the metric system.
In 1959 the inch was redefined to be exactly 25.4mm.
So the US and any other country using the imperial system is just using metric but which weird conversion just to make things harder.
I think it technically suggest the use of the metric system but doesn’t mandate its use. And so practically speaking its not used much outside of science fields.
And at least Americans use a consistent system of measures. Not the weird half breed that the UK uses.
the more metric the better. in that regard, the UK is better than the US. of course, both are inferior to any other country which only uses the metric system
Are there any? E.g. here in Germany we use kcal instead of kJ for food energy density. Also horsepower is used instead of W for engines. But for the most part we use only metric.
I’m wondering if there are countries where they completely conform to the metric system.
At least when you use calories and kilocalories you don’t have to multiply by 12 or 3 or 5820 when you want to compare a big and a small number.
Of all the terrible non-metric things Americans use the Fahrenheit is the most defensible. It’s just idiotic when the rest of the world uses metric.
Why do you guys have so much identity tied up in the metric system
misses the point completely
it’s not about identity, it’s just fucking weird to meassure length in bananas, volume in how much water the puddle on your street contains, or temperature in how hot the inside of your asshole is on two different days
Says I miss the point and then straw mans an entire system of measurement. Seems like you’re just a little too invested in the metric system.
I merely compared the idiotic randomness behind the imperial system to those behind my made up measurement system, showing that both are similarly stupid
You think you’re proving me wrong but you actually keep proving me right. Why is this so personal to you?
If I might make an argument for the imperial system? I’ll acknowledge that it is bad, particularly from a scientific perspective, but one advantage that imperial has over metric is its use case for human related issues. Most of the stuff you interact with daily is much more easily measured in feet and inches vs meters and centimeters (this ignores decimeters, but I’ve literally never seen anyone use decimeters in my entire life). Another good example is temperature. Celsius is more objective, but when dealing with the standard sorts of temperatures humans are generally concerned with, Fahrenheit gives you more granularity within that range.
All that is to say: If I’m at work and someone uses imperial for an official measurement, I’m putting my fist through the drywall, but from a day to day perspective, I actually prefer imperial.
Also, the mile is fucking indefensible. I’ll happily leave all 5280 of its feet out to rot.
It is not best for “human related” issues at all, imperial is pretty bad for those as well, but because you have grown up with it it seems so to you.
Yeah, I’m realizing this is just a bias toward familiarity on my part. There’s several bad assumptions that I made in there which I hadn’t really given too much thought; bad practice on my part, I’ll admit.
Most of the stuff you interact with daily is much more easily measured in feet and inches vs meters and centimeters…
… only if it’s what you’re used to.
Most of the stuff you interact with daily is much more easily measured in feet and inches vs meters and centimeters
Hard disagree. The centimeter is the best measurement there is for everyday stuff, you can easily express both round values or weird ones, and don’t need to switch between two scales as you do with feet and inches (and the stupid fact that there’s 12 inches in a feet, wtf). Meters are for distances.
(this ignores decimeters, but I’ve literally never seen anyone use decimeters in my entire life)
BECAUSE THE METRIC SYSTEM IS DECIMAL AND YOU DON’T NEED STUPID CHANGES BETWEEN UNITS, MOST PEOPLE JUST SAY TEN CENTIMETERS!
Celsius is more objective, but when dealing with the standard sorts of temperatures humans are generally concerned with, Fahrenheit gives you more granularity within that range.
If you’re measuring ambient temperature, 99% of the time being more precise than 1°C is pointless, in a room you may have more variance than that from a corner to another, same goes for outside. For things where you need better precision you sure as hell wouldn’t be using the imperial system, and you could instead take advantage of this neat trick called DECIMALS.
Edit: addendum for everyday convenience: buying shit at the supermarket. The label expresses price per kilo but the packaging is in grams? You don’t even need to think about it. Drinks? They can even mix litres and kilos, no problem, the difference would be below negligible.
Here in Italy we usually ask for meat cuts in “etti”, aka hecto grams aka 100grams, so I look at a cut, I see it’s 35€/kg, I ask for 3 etti, immediately know it’ll be 10.5€ (ALSO BECAUSE SALES TAX IS INCLUDED ON THE LABEL FFS)Fair. I’ll acknowledge I’m biased here in retrospect. In particular, I’ve realized my argument for Fahrenheit (increased granularity) is directly contradictory to my argument against centimeters (too much granularity). Indeed, my view (however poorly conveyed) was that imperial units of length measurement, and the foot in particular, lend themselves to day to day estimation of size, as meters require estimation with fractions/decimals and centimeters require estimation in quantities too large to be reasonably accurate, so I was of the view that the lack of decimeters in common usage was a problem, but you make a good point that this is a fundamentally flawed assumption. After all, if you’re familiar with metric already, it’s not particularly difficult to just say ‘10cm’ and estimate in relation to tenths of a meter.
Well argued, and certainly more impassioned than my tepid defense of imperial. Consider me convinced; I’m switching teams lol.
Good! Here your kilo of sea-level water, use it wisely.
No, actually 12 inches in a foot goes hard. base 12 >>>>> base 10
I mean if we used 12 numerals it could be good, but we don’t, so…
fucking stones.
they measure thing in stones, still. the uk acts all uppity about metric shit and still uses imperial garbage variably all over.
This meme wasn’t created to ridicule Americans, it was created to enrage the French, and to a lesser extent the Germans.
American recipes are the worst. Two fingers of milk, a cup of sugar, one box of pre-packed cake mix, a glass of corn syrup…
They’re allergic to actual measurements.
Sugar, cake mix, and corn syrup!? Better add a pinch of salt (to taste) to balance out all that sweetness!
The British have a stupid mix of Imperial and metric. We usually measure distance in meters/centimeters but feet and inches are still used fairly regularly especially if you’re measuring the height of a person. Large distances are usually measured in miles unless you’re going for a run in which case you probably use km. Then you go for a drive and measure your speed in miles per hour, and your fuel efficiency in miles per gallon. Except you now need to fill up so you go to the petrol station where the prices are listed in pence per litre. Most other liquids are also measured in litres unless you’re buying milk or beer.
Then if you’re weighing things you probably use metric, unless you’re weighing a person or you’re an old person cooking. Temperature is also measured in celcius unless you’re old.
Beer depends on where you get it. Bottle/can? ml. Glass at the pub? Pint.
Don’t forget to give your weight in stones and a horses height in hands…
And the size of your land in acres/hectares. And a lot of ingredients in cups (which has never been a set amount in the UK since its beginning). And distance sometimes in yards
If you are nobility perhaps, I only have 37 miliacres if you combine the house as well as the garden.
At least area in acres does avoid the issue of 10 square unit. Does that a 10 by 10 square or a square with a Total area of 10?
Don’t forget that distance is somehow different on water, though.
Don’t forget to thumb your nose at the Americans for using these systems you made up in almost the same way you guys do, just a different mixture.
We even measure the same thing using different standards. The three tyre measurements are taken in mm, mm, and inches.
I put it down to us being smarter than everyone else.
I guess the silver lining for the British is they have more familiarity with both types of measurements than the purests.
Except they only know the amounts/frame of references for the specific things they’re used to, so it’s not like they can do the conversion any better than the rest of us. Canadians have a similar (though different) system as well.
The ironic thing is that the imperial system comes from Britain. It’s just that US decided to keep it.
The imperial system and the US customary system are different for volume and weight
Also, the metric system is french.
Yes, it was implemented during the French revolution.
FRENCH‽
Fer it
Again it
its hagrid
So same as soccer
Called football everywhere except north America where you use the term football for the game you play with your hands…
Also called soccer in Australia, South Africa, Japan, and a couple other places
i just want to call soccer “footie”. i still prefer sepak takraw though.
You Malaysian?
nah i just know a good time when i see it. played soccer (as I’m statesian) for ten or so years, but my team started absolutely dominating the local rec league when we’d start and end every practice with 15 minutes of sepak takraw.
Well, at least it fits the theme with the ass backwards imperial system.
In the same theme I think they can now add the Gulf of America…
Soccer was only ever a nickname tbf, It stood for a(socc)iation football.
I guess an equivalent would be like calling your police the bobby force.
And was mostly used by public schoolboys who called rugby “rugger”.
37 degree commie = 98.6 degrees freedom.
310.15 degrees King
This is offensively incorrect.
Deer are closer to 1.75 bicycles tall.
Yeah, most deer are taller than bicycles
Unless it’s a muntjac deer. Then it’s more like 0.4 bicycles.
One Imperial deer is 1.74832 bicycles. If you’re going to use a retarded system, you must also use retarded significant figures.
It’s 1 3/4 bicycles. Not the weird ass decriminalized number you seem to think it is. We do fractions in daily life not decimals.
I saw a yearling buck eating grass along the driveway yesterday afternoon that had only one antler. I wondered if he was 1/2 a buck or a .50 buck since he had just the one spindly fork horn antler. Will all the does think he’s ugly and not breed with him? Will the other bucks laugh at him and refuse his challenges? He will probably end up in someone’s freezer later this fall anyway, so perhaps my story doesn’t really matter.
But the story isn’t about changing anyone’s views on what is the “best” measuring system to use. It’s about the foolishness of it all. G20/G21 the machines no longer care, why do you?
Did Donald Trump just reply to me? That rambling story intertwining word salad, along with the misreading of DECIMALIZED has me convinced.
Although I’m enjoying the thought of decriminalized numbers now.
OK, more directly.
Worrying about about which measurements systems are best and making fun of them is for fools. Use the units that best fits that task at hand. And shockingly enough, it ain’t always Millimeters, centimeters, kilometers or degrees Celsius. Maybe it’s pounds, feet, miles, or AU’s and Light years.
The US is a metric country. The federal government passed a law in the early 1970’s to make it so. They just didn’t pass a law forcing the change at a set time and date. They decided, for better or worse, to let the change happen organically. And change it has. Go in any grocery store and look at the food on the shelf, it’s all clearly marked in US customary and grams/kilos. I know every pound of butter I buy is 454grams. My whisk(e)y/wine, (choose the spelling you prefer), comes in 750ml bottles. A bottle of soda comes in 2 liter bottles.My FDM printers use 1 kilo spools of filament. We are all looking for that same missing 10mm socket just like the rest of the world. And no one gives a rat’s arse about how many feet are in a mile. Except surveyor’s and civil engineers, a very small and specialized subset.
Did you know there is a error in what the meter actually is? And it’s been there from the very beginning. One of the guys sent to make the original measurements decided that drinking wine in sunny Spain was better than climbing mountains and dealing with bad weather just to measure some silly distance. So he fudged it. The error has been known for quite a while and never corrected. It’s still there even after the switch from using a physical item to define a meter to how far light travels in a set time, (now THERE’S a silly random looking string of numbers). Not very scientific or accurate to ignore the error now is that? I thought the metric system was better than that.
Again for the slow learners, G20/G21 the machines don’t care and no one else should care anymore either.
Maybe they’re as tall as bicycles are long?
One problem metric solved was that each country had their own value for inch, mile, pound etcetera. This is partially fixed by everyone but the US going to metric. But I highly encourage everyone to ask “Okay, but is that a Swedish mile, nautical mile, Roman mile, or Chinese mile?” whenever miles comes up with Americans. Similar for inches, feet, and so on.
He jokes on you i only use kilofeet when talking about long distance. Now everyone is confused by saying 318 kft.
But I highly encourage everyone to ask “Okay, but is that a Swedish mile, nautical mile, Roman mile, or Chinese mile?” whenever miles comes up with Americans.
I find it tedious when someone pretends not to understand a conversation just to make some academic point, don’t you?
Yeah but the 800 hamburgers are including bones, how many legit venison burgers could you make out of a average deer?
I have seen American food standards, it’s 800.
People like you are the reason that they invented the guillotine on the very same occasion.
