Hold on, that’s not fair, we also use it to measure how much Coca Cola is in the bottle…hmm never mind that’s not helping… let me start over…we also use it for drugs! Wait, shit…
I love how soda comes in 12 oz cans and 2 liter bottles. Mix and match!
And don’t forget the 20oz bottles too!
My favorite is the 16.9 ounce. It’s such a weird and awkward number that makes no sense until you realize it’s the nicely round 500 milliliter bottle.
But people still call it the 16.9 ounce bottle. -_-
Nice
Drugs too!
Let’s not forget liquor!
But liquor comes in shots, cups, pints, fifths, and handles?
It also comes in my dad :(
Hi it’s me, Liquor.
Saw a great joke on TikTok the other day:
Father: “Okay, why did you call me to school?”
Principal: “Your son was found smashing pumpkins.”
Father: “What? What’s the big deal? Bring him here, I want to speak to him.”
Principal: “Alright, bring him in.”
Father: “What? This isn’t my son.”
Other Student: “Nah, I’m Pumpkins.”
Don’t you want your dad to have a little fun once in awhile?
Also quit spying on us, it’s creepy.
A fifth is 750 mL, a pint is 200 mL, and a half pint is 100 mL. I always assumed it was no coincidence that the amounts in mL are so even, but maybe I’m wrong.
A US gallon is 3.785L which makes a fifth 757 ml. A pint is 1/8 gallon so ~473 ml.
An imperial gallon is 4.54609L which makes a fifth 909ml and a pint 568ml.
If your bartender is giving you 200ml pints you’re really getting ripped off.
A fifth is 750ml!? There’s no way that’s true. So when someone says they drank a fifth, they drank 750ml of ~*40% alcohol!?? That is wild…
Sorry, edited.
Most things that are sold in a fifth are 80 proof, which is actually 40%
Quarts and forties too. And smoots.
I recently converted all my recipes to metric and now I dump everything in a bowl on a scale. Total game changer.
Welcome to the modern times!
That is because weight is more accurate than volume.
Volume was previously used because the measuring tools were cheaper and easier to use than a scale.
It’s more accurate, it dirties fewer dishes, it’s easier to scale recipes for larger or smaller batches, and it’s much easier to fine tune portions. Plus, I make a very consistent coffee. I found something I like a lot, and I want it to be extremely repeatable.
I do, as a metric person, feel like doing things by volume is way more fun though. And I mean visual volume, no measurements. I’m radical like that.
I feel that you are the type of person that is responsible for recipes with instructions like “knead until it feels right” or “make in the usual way” 😜
My favourite recipes are 100 years or older. They usually aren’t very instructive.
What are measurements precious?
But what if you cook on the moon? Checkmate!
Actually doesn’t even matter, but you will cook for 24 people instead of 4.
Huge portions!
I usually use grams to measure things into equal portions, easy maths I can often do in my head.
Metric was too confusing for bullets, so we use both, and but neither of them are actually the diameter of the bullet, most of the time.
.223" is the same diameter as 5.56mm (which is 5.7mm across), but if you use 5.56 in a 223, it might kill you.
223 in 556 is fine, might fail to cycle.
then why is it called 556 if its actually 5.7?
556 was the measure of the inner diameter of the rifling of a barrel of a gun that shot 556.
Metric is confusing. That’s why for most shotguns, we measure the width by the number of lead spheres of that diameter that would equal one lb, eg a 12 gauge shotgun is the diameter of a 1/12lb sphere of lead.
Nobody knows how big 18.53 mm is, but everyone knows what a 12 gauge shell looks like.
Oh, and gun powder is measured in grains, maybe early smokeless pellets were about the same size as grains of wheat.
The problem is it’s impossible to tell whether you’re joking or being serious
Mostly.
he’s serious. The old casting method for round shot was to dump a measured amount of molten lead from a tower into a pool of water 40 feet below. the molten lead would form a sphere in free fall and fully set in the water, so it was convenient to define gauge diameter by fractional weight of a pound. Twelfth pound sphere fits a 12 gauge gun, etc.
The problem is it’s impossible to tell whether you’re joking or being serious. Throwing molten metal off the tower sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever, but apparently is a real thing.
Here’s where it gets political. I learned about shot towers in passing years ago and thought that was a good idea. You learned about shot towers in passing, but then with a detailed explanation, still thought that was ridiculous. One of us is prone to rational thought and the other is not. This is a 17th century conversation happening now.
Ah no, it’s just that from reading this, I imagined it being poured outside, not inside the tower.
Like, someone looking at Galileo doing his experiments dropping weights off Pisa tower, and saying:
— What if we put a bucket underneath? What a splash it’d make!
And another one going:
— Yeah! And why just weights, let’s throw molten lead off! What safety concerns? Haven’t heard any
That’s actually fascinating. Thank you.
No problem. There’s always a reason, and usually a pretty interesting one, for old odd hold overs like this, but it’s been 200 years since shot towers were a thing, only history buffs and muzzleloader enthusiasts really know about these.
He’s correct and showing the…quirks of the system.
say it ain’t so!
Grains as a measure of weight comes from the Troy weight system, think Troy ounce of gold. It is a very old system that for a long time was mostly used by apothecaries and probably has its origins in Ancient Rome.
Grains Apothecary is used to measure powder charge weight is because it was a “fine” enough scale for measuring small amounts of things that if you get it even a tiny bit wrong, can kill you. So, ammunition manufacturer’s looked around and scales used for accurately measuring small amounts of drugs were commonly available, so they went with that.
Cool side point: Powder charges are checked by weight and dosed out, (or thrown), by volume as it has always been done since the first gonnes were a thing.
Maybe the original was 5.56mm and some dumbass decide “nah, not enough b u l l e t, better make it 5.7mm.”
OK, so there is a 5.7mm, that’s the same diameter as 5.56/.223, but it’s not compatible with either because of the french.
I look into it. 5.7 is shorter than a .223 and is a much smaller grain.
Kinda?
The case is both shorter and narrower than 556/223, so it won’t even sit right in anything not designed for it. But FN makes quite a few guns that use it.
Even the “metric” measurements for firearms ain’t necessarily true measurements either. Lots of them get rounded off or simply depend on just how they made the measurement to start with, (land to land or groove to groove). In any case a bullet diameter is almost always going to be just a tiny bit larger than actual bore size for modern cartridge bullets.
Americans use the metric system… to define the true values of the entirety of our customary measurements!
If the dollar is the reserve currency of the world, metric is the reserve system of measurement.
By the way, the dollar is metric. 🤯
We’re really all just depending on SI at the end of the day.
That’s not fair. We also use it to weigh drugs
Only below 3ish grams or above 1000 grams though.
You must think us Americans are just really stupid because we still use imperial, and violent because we’ll only modernize our units for weapons, but you’re wrong.
We also use metric units for dispensing soda, and measuring engine displacement.
So we’re fat and we’re obsessed with cars too!
We also using when weighing drugs!
dispensing soda
Only the 2 liter bottles. We still generally use 12 ounce cans and 20 ounce bottles. Our gas station/fast food fountain drinks are also measured in fluid ounces.
We’ve got 1 litre bottles as well.
The 1 liter bottles aren’t common throughout the US, and from what I’ve seen, seem to mainly show up in the northern states near Canada.
20 ounce bottle? that sounds British, aren’t they usually 16 ounce pints in the states?
Our vending machines usually dispense sodas in 20-ounce bottles, or 12-ounce cans.
16-ounce pints are a very common size for beers (and even coffee), but not for sodas.
Also for marathons. To work off all that soda.
That’s not true. We also use it in medicine. To measure, in mm, our progress to universal healthcare.
Medicine, you say? Well explain THIS. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the “French” scale of measurement, used to denote the diameter of catheters. WHERE:
1 Fr = 1/3 mm
Sickening.
Also drugs. You just try buying meth in imperial.
The values are all negatives aren’t they?
I wish the US had made the switch to metric back in the 70’s. I remember having to learn it in grade school, and there seemed to be a push for it, but never went anywhere. I now work as a chemist where everything is done in metric, but then go back to US measures once I punch out for the day. Would be nice to have a single system instead.
In fairness… Most of the “behind the scenes” are done in metric so we kind of did convert to metric. It’s mostly just the public that is imperial still.
back in the '70s*
Right? OP paid attention in math class but not in English.
And only some of the bullets.
Some of them we disguise the metric cause it’s anathema to us, 30 aught 6 for instance.
Look at what we’ve done just to not have to refer to millimeters!
30-06 is a 30 cal bullet which should be 300 thou but is really 308 thousandths of an inch and is commonly designated a 7.62 mm NATO which it isn’t because that’s measured at the inside of the lands, so its actually 7.82mm.
Simple.
7.62 NATO isn’t the same thing as 30-06. 7.62 NATO refers to a specific cartridge, not the bullet projectile itself. It’s the same as .308 Winchester. 7.62x51mm.
30-06 is 7.62x63mm
Damn, you’re right.
I did not expect that response when I saw a notification. I’m so used to the old place where dropping insightfull info is met with arguments.
😀
I’ll try to be more combative in the future.
Let me get my AR10, brb.
That’s the spirit.
Now I’m thinking about that copy-pasta about the military guy.
Which one?
Not too get to off topic, but the wildest shit to me is that with a 308 I can buy 7.62 ammunition that was made by Greece during WW2 and recently discovered in a sealed bunker and just straight up shoot with it like no time has passed.
I think it started for the same reason we have metric tools; foreign imports.
Chad rest of the world: We only use imperial system to measure pizza, height, body waist and dicks.
What part of the rest of the world does that?
I’m from the rest of the world that would measure all those things in centimeters. I think only screen sizes and some tools would be in inches
Canada
screen sizes
Where I’m from, even that has a cm rating right next to it.
Canada is one of those “rest of the world places”. Officially uses metric but the general population here (unless they are recent immigrants or work in the medical field) will tell you their height in feet and inches, their weight in lbs, they will tell you a recipe using Fahrenheit. Pizza is measured in inches. If you buy food, like deli meat, it is displayed in grams on the scale but a lot of people will ask for a half lb or whatever still. We use km for speed but we still use square footage if you are selling a house. Unless they are boomers or older, we will use Celsius for the weather though. I remember growing up learning metric and it was fine, everything made sense, then when I hit college was forced to learn American imperial for my job field cuz that’s what the American standard was. I hate that I think in inches and feet for a lot of crap now. It’s irritating switching back and forth depending on what you are doing.
There’s ton of weird niche stuff. Mostly cycling related here but you get the point…
Bicycle pedal axle thread size
Bicycle wheel and tire sizing (actually metric standard but inches in common language)
Also wheel size on cars
Bicycle steerer tube diameter
10mm qr axle diameter on hubs (3/8" actually)
25.4mm handlebar clamp diameter sounds oddly familiar…In Australia it’s fairly common to see pizza sizes in inches. The body stuff not as much, but sometimes.
Most proper denim pants are sized in inches, even from non-US countries.
But of course vanity sizing is a thing so a size 36 is closer to 38in unless explicitly specified, and most online retailers provide true sizing in cm anyway, so there’s that.
I guess also bike wheel sizes, screens sizes. Height and body waist? Are you talking about the UK? Europe only uses inches for products that have certain expected sizes.
(may be a bit of an off topic rant)
The cluster fuck that is the UK’s measurement system can be easily summarised by looking at fueling a car.
You fill your car from a pump that sells you litres of fuel. Then your car reports its fuel economy in miles per gallon.
How the fuck am I supposed to relate the 40 litres of diesel that I just bought to the 35 MPG on my dashboard without a fucking calculator?
I fucking hate it here. It’s the exact same British exceptionalism that brought us fucking Brexit.
Then your car reports its fuel economy in miles per gallon.
Is that Imperial or US Gallons? 😉
Who the fuck knows honestly? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
!Imperial!<
And yet you call Americans dumb for not adopting the metric system. Why would we think we would do a better job than you? I would much rather use the system my grandpa grew up with rather than use the hybrid abomination that the UK uses.
I suppose the thinking is that you lot might learn from the mistakes of others
Though you’re possibly right, that’s maybe a bit too charitable
I’m a Scottish nationalist and republican (in the British sense). It’s one of my pipe dreams to see an independent Scotland adopt the metric system fully but I kinda doubt it will ever happen.
How long you been there you ain’t figured out 4 and half liters in a gallon? you bought 8 3/4 gallons.
It’s about 3.8 liters to a gallon (for a total of about 10.55 gallons).
Nah, he said he was in England. The Imperial gallon is 4.5 liters. Ounces are smaller (40 in a quart) but the pints are bigger
Wild, I didn’t know there was a different gallon measurement (There’s a few apparently).
mostly unrelated, but after poking around on Wikipedia, I’ve also learned that there’s two different versions of fluid ounces (Edit: that are used actively in the US, forgot to add that), and both are used on food labels simultaneously, but relating to different things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_ounce#Definitions_and_equivalences
US food labeling fluid ounce
For serving sizes on nutrition labels in the US, regulation 21 CFR §101.9(b) requires the use of “common household measures”, and 21 CFR §101.9(b)(5)(viii) defines a “common household” fluid ounce as exactly 30 milliliters. This applies to the serving size but not the package size, package sizes use the US customary fluid ounce.
I suspect that might relate to the smaller english/canadian fluid ounce and imports. they’re very close, you only start to easily see a difference around 5 ounces. I run a bar in Canada, and i catch inspectors and suppliers constantly playing fast and loose with Imperial and American standards ounces and pints. Canadian law saws if you are serving a pint of beer, it has to be a proper Imperial pint of 20 ounces, from the big English gallon, if you call it a pint. you can serve any size you want if you don’t call it a pint. i constantly see competitors passing off 16 American ounces as a pint. The revenue guys check that your dispensing machines are putting out an ounce but won’t tell you whether they are using a Imperial or Standard ounce, i’m pretty sure they’re using American ounce devices when they shouldn’t be. Supposedly we’re a metric country but liquor and cattle definitely aint.
I’m the one that doesn’t want to learn anything then you drop an “England” on me? I’m Scottish or does that not matter because is it too much for you to learn that the UK is more than England?
The difference of Scotland, Wales, and England matters to you and maybe the French. To people on another continent talking about measurement systems…well,I’m aware Scotland has their own passport. If you want me to know you’re at at a Scottish gas station, say that. I’m sorry, but Scotland didn’t run a giant empire for 200 years, England did. It’s kinda funny you live in one of the very few countries the English never conquered and no one cares.
I do know that but my point is that I shouldn’t have to know that. Imperial fluid measurements outside the pint aren’t used anywhere else in my life.
Oh God forbid you learn something. Are you made every country hasn’t switched to English too?
My brain is filled with far too much shite about measurements. I love all of it. I’m a great lover of odd and obscure imperial units. Please don’t try to tell me I don’t want to know.
The fuck? You literally said you don’t want to.
and surprising fun fact, TVs
Television screens, hard drive sizes, PCB dimensions, car tires, rims, nails (though they’re usually 9 inches)?
And bicycle parts… for some reason. Might be a UK thing.
If you’re gonna start somewhere; it makes sense to start with the schools…
The US does in fact teach the Metric System in schools, it just doesn’t get used for much outside of the Sciences, Firearms, Alcohol, illicit and Prescription Drugs, and Soda.
We see far more metric measurements than we actually notice every day. Almost every item in your grocery store shows both US Customary and Metric measurements right next to each other on the label. And we buy whisk(e)y in 750ml bottles.
But I would argue there is probably little reason to stop buying butter by the pound(454 grams) vs switching to selling butter in 500 gram packages. And no one misses buying whisk(e)y by the fifth rather than in 750mL bottles. Even when traveling no one really cares how many miles or kilometers it is from New York City to LA. All anyone really cares about is “how long” will it take to get there. Nor does matter if you measure your dick in inches or centimeters - it’s still gonna be too short according to that woman you picked up at the club last weekend. I honestly suspect we are going to keep using a bastardized mixed system for a very long time for common everyday usage while doing “official” things metric.
The real question is: Where did all those 9/16" wrenches disappear to during the “good ol’ days.” And why can’t I find that bloody damn 10mm socket today? What is up with that?
We really need to just slowly leech it into everything.
That’s pretty much what we’re doing. If you look the list of things that use, or at least have, metric measurements is actually pretty long. Most of the fuss gets kicked up because of we still use Miles / Feet / Inches and for mass we use pounds.
Hey we also use it in medicine to treat all those bullet wounds!
We also use it for engine displacement.
Basically all cars are all metric (for fasteners, etc.) these days. Even my '90s Ford is metric.
GM past about 1978 is almost entirely metric too, depending on the engine combination and specific plant. I took an 1984 Cadillac apart a few weeks back and the entire drivetrain is Metric while most of the body stuff are SAE/inch. Very confusing amalgamation.
3.8l was almost all metric except for the intake bolts for some reason.
I have a '93 Ford and it’s a bastards mess of SAE for one bolt and Metric for the next one.
You will never regret buying a lot of extra 10mm sockets and wrenches. Bonus points if you have some spare 12s as well.
Bonus points if you have some spare 12s as well.
Nah, it’s 13mm that’s the other common size. (Why? Because it’s secretly 1/2" in disguise, LOL.)
The lugnuts are the only place you will find SAE on a modern passenger vehicle.
Don’t you just love how tire width is measured in millimeters, but diameter is measured in inches?
Tire treads are measured in 32nds of an inch, brake pads are measured in millimeters, brake rotor thickness is usually inches but sometimes millimeters, brake rotor diameters and offset are usually millimeters but sometimes inches, alignment measurements are usually degrees or minutes of angle sometimes also inches, pressures of coolant or tires are psi or bar…
It’s also used in measuring soft drinks like the 2 liter bottle
I often see posts where people say that they weight like 260 liter bottles and lost 7 liter bottles over a week or something. Americans are crazy.
