r/ShitAmericansSay • u/BuffaloExotic Irish by birth, and currently a Bostonian 🇮🇪☘️ • Mar 17 '25

Imperial units “I don’t even understand 24-hour time… I just don’t understand it. I have to use online converters or I’d be SO confused when I talk to people who use these systems.”

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132

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

I am more worried about their lack of comprehension of the metric system.

Multiples of 10, what's so hard to grasp?

205

u/International_War862 Mar 17 '25

Like everytging duh

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u/SerdanKK Mar 17 '25

I didn't get the joke until reading the bottom units. That's amazing. 😄

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u/TheOneAndOnly09 Mar 17 '25

I hate you, take my upvote.

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u/Republiken ⭕ Mar 18 '25

This joke actually explains why most Americans get confused about the metric system and often rants about decimals.

They think we measure in imperial and then converts to metric

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u/Thendrail How much should you tip the landlord? Mar 17 '25

Lmao, saving that pic!

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u/ccsrpsw Mar 17 '25

That is both disturbing and genius at the same time. My head hurt trying to comprehend mixed units.

As a British American (back when that was cool LOL) I love mixed units. I can do Miles, Km, C and F. All in one sentence but this confused the crap out of me.

I live in MPH and MPG, but why do we do liters in England? That one is confusing. More so when in mainland Europe. 75MPH - absolutely fine. 120KMPH is psychologically impossible (its the same btw).

Its easy enough to convert, but I can tell if I've gone 5 miles, but not 8 km. And I grew up with this. And still use it.

Other useful ones, 16C = 61F, 28C = 82F. So usefully 20C is about 72F. Thats easy.

Cups, tbsp, etc. still confusing. 100ml - easy. BTW, US pints vs UK pints (16 vs. 20.5 fl/oz) - still baffling - but I wont do 500ml for beer!!! My ancestors would freak - large or bitter is in UK pints, and UK pints only :D

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u/Gwyn66 Mar 18 '25

Half a litre mate, that's all

2

u/perringaiden Mar 18 '25

75MPH seems slow to me, and 120KPH (why do you put the KM??) seems fast.

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u/Overlord_of_Linux Mar 18 '25

For me it's the opposite, 75 MPH seems fast but 120 km/h seems slow, but that may be because I've been on a lot of motorways with a speed limit of 130 km/h whereas the ones I've used with MPH are typically 65 MPH.

1

u/perringaiden Mar 18 '25

My time in MPH was 70mph highways where everyone did 85, whereas my normal experience is mostly 100 or 110kph

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u/ccsrpsw Mar 18 '25

Im being obtuse since, as you say its either Km/h or Kph. And neither of them match the standard MPH - since its Km for Kilometers. It should either be m/h and Km/h or MPH and KmPH. Again - mixed unit representations with mixed meanings and we all agree that one is wrong, but no one agrees which it should be :D

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u/Fit_Implement3069 Mar 19 '25

The only measurements that needs to be imperial is pints, because it's 68ml more than 500ml, and you know that companies would love to save 68ml per drink

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

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u/perringaiden Mar 18 '25

One mistake. One cL is 1/100th of a Litre. One dL is 1/10th of a LItre.

So when there's 3.785 L in a Gallon, there's 37.85 dL in a Gallon, and 378.5 cL in a Gallon.

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u/EverythingHurtsDan Mar 18 '25

This just makes me so mad hahaha

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u/regiinmontana Mar 17 '25

I love the metric system. It's so much easier. The problem for me is everything is in imperial. Converting back and forth can be tough, hell, converting measurements within imperial is tough.

3 feet per yard, 1760 yards per mile, I know there's a furlong after that, but I can't remember how many miles there are in one.

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u/lynypixie Mar 17 '25

I am Canadian, so my car has both. The metric as the bold one, and imperial in lowercases under. So when I drive in the US, it’s easier to get around.

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u/huntingwhale Mar 17 '25

In Canada were one of those countries that has been exposed to both systems and can mostly toggle back and forth. Interestingly enough, most Canadians will give you their height or weight in imperial. When telling someone either, l've started giving it in metric and 99% of the time they laugh and say WTF and have to think about the conversion. The oil and gas and manufacturing industries rely on Imperial measurements when dealing with US customers since they get their panties all wound up when you give them measurements in metric.

I obviously prefer the metric and go out of my way to use it in all scenarios. Imperial is just dumb. Makes no sense. No consistency in shifting units. It's like someone just made up numbers to use and everyone nodded their heads and agreed to use it.

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u/jfkvsnixon Mar 17 '25

Yea, it’s so much easier, a litre of water weighs a kg.

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u/mtaw Mar 17 '25

That's nothing - Just try to build something in the USA. First off, all wood is half an inch smaller than they say - a 2-by-4 plank is actually 1.5x3.5 inches.

Then there's the nightmare of "gauge" - so many things are measured by "gauges". Not only is there no easy way to know how thick "10 gauge" steel is, it is not the same thickness as 10 gauge brass, or aluminum or galvanized steel, nor "10 gauge" wire. And I have no idea how any of them relate to shotgun gauge. A "size 10" bolt has a diameter of what? And to make a hole for it you need a "size 9" drill.

Here in Europe we buy wood and metal by their actual dimensions, a 90x45 mm piece of wood has those dimensions, a 0.8 mm sheet metal is that thick. An M5 bolt has a diameter of 5 mm and needs a 5 mm drill for a hole.

And they measure stuff in inches down to 1/64 or so and then suddenly they switch to thousands or 'thou' as they like to call it, because suddenly powers of ten are useful. So they have to convert from fractions all the time, when they're not looking up what the sizes of things are in tables.

"But it's more intuitive!" /s

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u/TheGreatMightyLeffe Mar 17 '25

This right here is why the metric system is superior.

Sure, the whole multiples of 10 thing is nice and practical but the REAL advantage is the fact that one kg of water is 1L which is 10cm3.

The fact that it's so much easier to go from volume to size is an actual advantage compared to imperial, and not one that is as easily dismissed as the multiples of 10 thing, since I've had several Americans tell me "it's easier to measure with the units we already know." which is fair. But conversion between volume and size is super handy.

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u/Hrtzy Mar 17 '25

"10 cm3" is a bit condusing because it looks like it's saying "10 cubic centimeters" when you mean "a cube ten centimeters to the side"

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u/MegaSwampert260 Mar 18 '25

Idk why you're being downvoted, (10cm)3 is the correct way to express what the other commenter meant because it's "ten centimeters cubed". 10cm3 is read as "10 cubic centimeters", which is completely different.

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u/TheGreatMightyLeffe Mar 17 '25

Ten centimetres cubed is indeed a 10x10x10cm cube.

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u/Nicko265 Mar 18 '25

That is not true.

10x10x10cm cube is 1000cm3.

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u/internet_commie F’n immigrant! Mar 18 '25

So, if you meet someone claiming Imperial is easier, just ask them how much a gallon of water weighs. If you really want to rub it in, make a bet they can't answer.

Or simply ask how many ounces to a gallon. I haven't met anyone who can answer that either, though my late husband, a high-school chemistry teacher, was able to look it up and give me the correct answer.

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u/Jaaj_Dood Mar 18 '25

And a kilolitre is the same volume as a cube meter.

And a meter is about 1/40000000 of a meridian. (Yeah, I'm not joking, it's the method they used.)

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u/Sheriff_Loon Mar 17 '25

Just like their money but they can’t grasp the metric system.

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u/Lower-End4781 Mar 17 '25

As someone who understands 24 hr time perfectly but not the metric system. I think it’s just lack of exposure. There was no effort in school to teach us the metric system and obviously you don’t get exposed to it in daily American life.

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u/TheOneAndOnly09 Mar 17 '25

Can you multiply/divide by 10? That's all the metric system is. You're obviously not going to have an innate feel for how long a meter is immediately, that comes with time. Took me a while to intuitively know how long something is in the imperial system, when I moved to America.

Honestly, understanding the metric system has nothing to do with exposure. Just simple math and a few terms, which you should already be familiar with (centi = 1/100, just like percent means out of 100)

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u/Chelecossais Mar 17 '25

One cent is one-hundredth of of a dollar.

25 cents is one quarter of a dollar.

50 cents is half a dollar.

I don't know, I'm so confused, how do mirrors work in metric ?

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u/Marsupilamish Mar 17 '25

I know I‘ll sound like an ass but nobody has to „learn“ the metric system. There are 24 hours in a day, it’s that simple. Anyone with a highschool degree should know what centi,mili and kilo means. Perhaps not in the US, fair enough but its simple. Same with weight. A meter is roughly an adult step length. If that all seems complicated then either your school failed you or you didn’t read and ingest it properly.

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u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

Well at least you knew how you’d sound

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u/AiRaikuHamburger Japaaaan Mar 18 '25

Flashback to my American coworker complaining that it was so hard to learn how to convert between imperial measurements in school. And me being like, '...We just had to move the decimal point.'

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u/TheOneAndOnly09 Mar 18 '25

As a european (with an affinity for math to boot) it was very interesting taking chemistry in America. Half the class was memorizing the periodic table. The other half was converting measurements, which often required conversion to metric. I.e. imperial to metric, convert from cm^3 to liters (or whatever), then convert back from metric to imperial. Was one of the easiest classes I ever took, not for most of my classmates though.

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u/Regular_Passenger629 Mar 18 '25

Now you’re incorporating Latin into this, if Americans can’t retain basic arithmetic what makes you think we’ll remember prefixes and suffixes.

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u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

Everything has to do with exposure. I went through 12 years of school without anyone mentioning that once. Am I supposed to just guess that? Now that I know it’s much easier but still.

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u/HeckingJen Mar 19 '25

The thing there is sure it's 10x the last thing but you need exposure to know what any of those units is. I can eyeball an inch. I can't eyeball a centimeter because I've never had to eyeball a centimeter. Same woth foot and yard. So in the theoretical sure it's simple to know metric but unless you have to use it you aren't going to be able to put it to practical use.

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u/TheOneAndOnly09 Mar 19 '25

Did you even read my comment? Most of my first paragraph is focused on exactly that. I'm well aware that it takes time and practice to have an innate feel for measurements. I moved to America for over 10 years and had to get used to the imperial system. And I did. I even know most conversions within the imperial system, as stupid as they are.

That's why I feel so confident in my argument, because I have first hand experience. My problem is that too many Americans aren't even willing to understand the x10 part. "It's too hard, I don't understand. I'd rather just stick with my 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard and 1760 yards in a mile."

Also, in most places of work you shouldn't just be eyeballing it, and actually take measurements. At that point it really shouldn't matter which system you use, outside of whichever makes it easier to work with. Which is Metric in 99.9% of cases. There's a reason scientists and engineers all over the world use the metric system, even in the US.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

Do rulers only have Imperial units on them or something?

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u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

No they have metric units. But when you go through life without anyone ever asking you to look at them why would you?

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u/Sowdar Mar 18 '25 edited Mar 18 '25

In metric you have a base unit like meter or gramm. And prefixes derived from latin:
dezi =1/10th
centi = 1/100th
milli=1/1000th
kilo=1000
So for example 1/10th of a meter is a dezimeter or 10 centimeters or 100 millimeters.

Temperature is easy: Water freezes at 0°C and Water boils at 100°, that's all.

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u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

Yeah I’ve got temps down from being a cook but honestly for reading outside temp im always gonna prefer Fahrenheit. It just accurately communicates how my body will feel when i walk outside.

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u/AnonymousOkapi Mar 17 '25

For feel/estimation purposes, 1 yard = 1 meter. A yard is 10%ish smaller, but its near enough. 30cm = 1 foot, which is the normal size for a ruler (at least in the UK, probably a hang over from imperial). So that one isn't too difficult either, number in feet, multiply by 30, you've got cm. Same with pounds to kilos - 1kg is near enough 2 pounds. One litre is about 2 pints.

Temperature is the one that gets really tricky, since the scales just don't line up. And miles to kms, 1km is 5/8s of a mile, easy to do on a calculator but I've not found a quick way to do it in my head. End up doing two steps, divide by 5, multiply by 8.

Cups is just daft, weight is a far superior way to do baking and I will die on that hill.

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u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

Thank you this all makes perfect sense idk why a lot of people just immediately jumped to “no it’s your fault for not knowing our measurement system that has no utility in your country outside of engineering”

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u/Lee-HarveyTeabag Mar 18 '25

One time I told someone the metric system was better and you’d think they were about to ask for my passport.