230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metric system

Re:230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metr... by perilunar on Sunday January 22, 2023 @10:25AM (#34478215)

We do the same in Celsius: mid to high twenties is a hot day. Over thirty is very hot. Low teens is cold. Zero is freezing (literally).

Nobody every talks about the weather in fractions of a degree.

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Re:230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metr... by elcritch on Sunday January 22, 2023 @08:12PM (#34484233)

Thanks, that's a good point. I've only used Celsius in technical situations, so it always felt technical.

I wonder if that could be part of why Americans don't tend to dislike metric -- we associate it with technical work. Without a forcing function none of use grow up using it in common daily usage, sort of like how emotional words in second languages tend to not be as impactful. They just never match your first language's import.

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