posted in Asklemmy

NightOps@NightOps@nord.pub

Is US defaultism real or a farce?

I’ve seen posts online or memes about it, mainly discussing American people who think the internet as a whole is US-centric despite the topic at hand taking place in another country (nothing to do with America), for example: someone wrote the date format as 30/10/2020 (using the EU format) but some American was like “THE CORRECT WAY IS 10/30/2020” when they fail to realize that user is not American at all.

Is US defaultism real when they travel abroad? They assume the $ is legal tender worldwide in countries where their own currency is used more (the only thing that’ll work is exchanging it but not for direct transactions). I’ve heard an American woman went on a tirade whilst in France as the cashier refused a $20 bill when the prices are in EUROS (WTF?) or being like “SPEAK ENGLISH!” in non-English speaking countries.

groet@groet@feddit.org

Replying to @⁨Peppycito@sh.itjust.works⁩

If 1 meter = 1 yard, inches would still not exist in this metric system. Every individual imperial unit is fine. Inches are fine. Yards are fine. Gallons are fine. But the ratio between inches and yards is not. The ratio of cubic yards to gallons is insane.

Even if one metric unit would exactly equal an imperial unit, the systems would still be incompatible. Metric is not superior because of how “big” each individual unit is, but because it is a coherent system. The only conversions between units are by factors of 10 (except for units of time but I think that’s the only measurement the whole world agrees on). You never need to learn a conversion rate with an arbitrary factor like in the imperial system.

Peppycito@Peppycito@sh.itjust.works

Replying to @⁨groet@feddit.org⁩

This exactly proves my point again. I like imperial. I like factors of 8 and 12. I don’t want factors of 10, in my occupation in a cut/sew shop I don’t find it as useful.

If a metre was a yard we could talk between the systems. We could use the preffered system for the application. If someone said 2.5 meters, because I know my twelve times table, I would understand instantly that it’s 90" or 7 1/2 feet. I honestly have no clue how many feet are in a mile, I use kilometers for that.

groet@groet@feddit.org

Replying to @⁨Peppycito@sh.itjust.works⁩

What volume does one pound of water have? How long are the sides of a cube of that volume? How much energy do you need to raise a one pound object up by one yard?

In the respective metric units the answer to these conversions is either 1 or a factor of 10

How many of those conversions are a factor of 8 or 12?

Metric is a lot more then just meters and centimeters and all of those conversions make sense

Peppycito@Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
edited

Replying to @⁨groet@feddit.org⁩

That is all information I don’t need in my day to day existence, you missed the part about cut/sew I guess. If I did need it I’d use metric because it’s good for that. For my needs measuring things on the table or around the house inches work better for me. My point was if there was a common reference between systems we could speak between them, but my original point was that if you say you like inches around here you’ll never hear the end of it from lemmy. QED.