Yes, I am American, but I have lived abroad and am familiar with both systems. But I feel like I’m always hearing Americans aiming to seem worldly or intellectual always express a strong opinion that the metric system “makes more sense”. Obviously you hear this from people living in Europe and Asia and most other places as well. The only argument is that it it’s “even” and easier to visualize or something because it’s all in 10s? And Celsius makes “more sense” because it’s 0-100? But think about it. Fahrenheit tells the temperature in relation to our body temperature, not just the boiling/freezing point of water- which bares no significance to us. And measurements are so much easier! I can literally use my body to measure things! An inch is the exact length when I bend my pointer finger from top knuckle to middle knuckle. As an artist/DIY-er/craftsman/HUMAN this is very helpful in daily life. A foot is the exact length from my elbow to wrist. It’s not perfect for everyone, but going about life with these reference points is very helpful. It makes more sense for humans. There’s no reason to relate things to 10s or to water because that’s not relevant to us. In cooking, professionals use the palm of their hands to measure and make delicious food- life is not an exact science. The imperial system is dirt under the feet, a rushing river, a sunset. The metric system is a stark, cold and alien outlook and it is hard to grasp and reference. Am I missing something?
Comments
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I completely agree when it comes to temperature Fahrenheit is superior by far, but I’ll take kilometers over mile any day of the week
Unpopular but arguably thruth
As a fellow American, the Imperial system is easier because your entire (American) world is built on the framework of it.
I truly think Fahrenheit is the best for weather, at least in the US.
In general, we will have a temperature range of 0-100F throughout the year. Of course it’s not rare to exceed either limit by 20, but that’s a generalization of the yearly temperatures across the US, in a standard year
Metric is way more precise … especially when you depend on other people with 3/8, 7/16, 1-1/4, etc. Even illiterate people can read 1586 mm and tell you what the measurement is … instead of guessing … “uh, it’s 5 and 1/4, 5 and 3/8, not sure”
Baking is an exact science, you don’t do it by eye … you have to measure, and like above, metric is way more precise
600g of flour is more precise than the equivalent you’d get using “x cups of flour”
Fahrenheit is the absolute worst unit of measurement on the entire planet.
Metric is superior in every single way. Arguments in favour of Imperial are based solely on familiarity.
Absolute dogshit take, have my +1
Your post has been categorized as trash after the first 4 words
As an interesting exercise I’d love to see someone take the inch and the foot and redesign imperial into a “metric for dozenal” kind of deal. Inches and a foot would be the perfect based for that kind of a thing, but the scaling of going from foot to yard to mile is just ridiculous.
That said the best argument for Fahrenheit is this: Is 69° a realistically comfortable temperature for it to be outside in your system? In Fahrenheit, yes. In Celsius? Uhhh…. that sounds like death. I mean yea, death by nice, but still death.
Uh, would you explain how 98.9 degrees is more relatable to a person than 37?
Or how a desk being measured at 72 inch is more relatable than 45 cm?
Or driving at 60 mph is easier to measure than 50 kph?
Not unpopular
The unit doesn’t really matter, what matters is that you’ve used it enough to be able to relate it.
Obviously the freezing temp of water is pretty easy to relate to weather.
And I’m pretty sure people have differently sized forearms.
Based
Dude you can relate Celsius to how it feels in your body just fine, you just use different numbers to do it.
Base 12 number systems are objectively better than base 10 for most things, which is why the imperial system was so good. It built upon centuries of the practical use of base 12 on an international scale, especially for volume and length. The specifics of “mY kNucKLe is aN iNCh thO” is not really a good argument tbh
Agree with temperature but measurement makes more sense to me in metric and I hardly use it
It’s just fortunate that everyone in the World shares the same body measurements (fingers, arm length, etc).
This will particularly apply when people first learn about measurement, i.e. when they are children.
Want to hear a physics joke?
In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities – Josh Bazell
Must up vote becuase this is a terrible opinion.
95% of the world uses the metric system. Sit down, son, you aren’t winning this one
Anyone thinks measuring volume in cups and pints and quarts is better than simply measuring in grams is a jack ass. Same really goes for inches, feet, yards, miles vs meters.
Theres no way a unit of measurement that is random is better than a system that is prime.
As someone who is also big on DIY/crafty stuff, the imperial system’s dependence on fractional measurements is supremely obnoxious. Trying to do something like woodworking with humanistic “vibes” and approximations based on the lengths of your body parts is how you end up with very wobbly tables
Also the Imperial system measurements (volume, length, weight) are based on fractions which in some ways are more intuitive to use than decimals. I will concede though that the Metric system is much easier to use for science.
I think pounds will be more useful for multi planet species. Like something is 100 kg it could weigh 1000 lbs depending on the planet.
boiling and freezing water bares no significance to humans
inch is the exact length […] it’s not perfect for every human
imperial system is a sunset
…absolute quality shitpost
The only possible argument can be made for Fahrenheit purely for being slightly more “precise” just because the number is bigger.
But by every single other metric (heh), Metric is better and easier to understand. There’s no argument for not having clean and simple increments of 10, 100, 1000
Your obsession with measurements “relating to us” is just goofy. Not to mention none of your examples work because every human has slightly different proportions and we invented tools for a reason. If you for some reason wanted to use your body parts as measuring tools… You could just measure them and remember it.
There being an inch between your anus and your ballsack is a shit argument for why to use such an inferior system.
Humanist system is better for everyday life.
life is not an exact science
Yeah but measurement is..
Fahrenheit is better for comfort since there are more whole numbers within the scale/range of human comfort.
Farenheit only seems to make more sense because you grew up with it. I grew up with Celsius and I find it makes far more sense.
I’m with you on temperature, but measuring with fractions instead of decimals is just dumb. How many teaspoons in a tablespoon? How many tablespoons in a cup? How many cups in a pint? Yes, you can memorize this stuff if needed, but what’s the point of that when you can just intuitively know that 500cc is half a liter?
By the way, relating things to 10s is absolutely relevant to us. It’s quite literally the basis of our entire global system of mathematics. We’d probably count by twelves if we had that many fingers and toes, but we have ten, so that’s how it works.
We’ve found him guys John Imperial. A man with feet that are one foot, thumbs that are one inch and a perfectly balanced body temperature of 50°F
Metric is counted in 10s because we inexplicably chose a base 10 number system. The whole argument of which system is better is stupid because there is no issue using both. People have a problem with imperial, yet they don’t complain about 360 degrees in a circle or 60 seconds in a minute. In any case, imperial measurements are now defined by metric counterparts. 1 inch =2.54 centimeters EXACTLY.
I agree with the Fahrenheit. Disagree with measurements
The Metric Marvels…brought to you by The Schoolhouse Rock people. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MCdP3mRb29M
Uh, no.
I’ll be honest, Fahrenheit only works in the U.S. because of how vast the geography is. All types of temperatures, humidity levels, and storm systems. The ‘fells like’ temps system helps piece it all together for the entire nation so everyone understands what it will feel like being somewhere. People in the U.S. will understand why a person in Arizona might not be complaining about a 100°F day in the summer, but a person in the Midwest definitely will about a 90°F day
Somebody once told me something like, both systems are saying 0 is cold and 100 is hot, but Celsius is from the perspective of water and Fahrenheit is the perspective of humans. So you may be right for temperature.
Don’t think you’re right for weight, distance, anything else lol