this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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35
Why do people who try to convince others to switch to metric focus so much on the conversions? (herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol)
submitted 21 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) by klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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It seems like a weird point to bring up. How often do y'all convert your measurements? It's not even a daily thing. If I'm measuring something, I either do it in inches, or feet, rarely yards. I've never once had to convert feet into miles, and I can't imagine I'm unique in this. When I have needed to, it's usually converting down (I.e. 1/3 of a foot), which imperial does handle better in more cases.

Like. I don't care if we switch, I do mostly use metric personally, it just seems like a weird point to be the most common pro-metric argument when it's also the one I'm least convinced by due to how metric is based off of base 10 numbering, which has so many problems with it.

Edit: After reading/responding a lot in the comments, it does seem like there's a fundamental difference in how distance is viewed in metric/imperial countries. I can't quite put my finger on how, but it seems the difference is bigger than 1 mile = 1.6km

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[–] fenrasulfr@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I actually do conversions on the regular but than again I live in Europe so I use the metric system and all conversions are base 10 so it is super easy. Take distance for example:

  • 0.5 km
  • 500 m
  • 50 000 cm
  • 500 000 mm Etc...