• @[email protected]
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    48 months ago

    Hate to point this out, but the fact there is a “C” on the sign kinda shows that no America did not adopt the metric system. If the US did there would be no reason to have “F” or “C” by the degrees as they are the last hold out.

    • @[email protected]
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      28 months ago

      No, even if you only had one unit for a physical quantity, you would still need to specify that unit to know which physical quantity you are describing. E.g. “That object over there is 15” vs “That object over there is 15 kg”.

      The symbol for temperature, measured in Celsius, is “°C”. It’s atomic and can’t be separated, since that would result in °, which represents the angle of something, not the temperature, and C, which is the symbol for Coulomb, which measures electric charge.

      • @[email protected]
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        8 months ago

        In the reference picture of this clock the degree symbol does that. This is something you can see outside of the US on almost all temp readings, my phone for example does not have F or C next to it. (It is still in Celsius since I am not a monster)

        • @[email protected]
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          18 months ago

          I disagree, and would argue that both are about equally frequent. For example, my phone shows °C in the weather widget, while the weather app only uses °. That does not change the fact that the actual unit is °C, and that would not change even if the whole world switched away from °F, and your original comment about the display having °C implying that °F still exists is therefore incorrect.

  • @[email protected]
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    548 months ago

    America officially switched to the metric system decades ago. We just don’t use it on a daily basis, but officially the US is metric.

    In 1988 Congress passed the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act, which made the metric system the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce.

    In 1991 President Bush issued Executive Order 12770, which mandated the transition to metric measurement for all federal agencies.

    • nocturne
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      208 months ago

      I remember learning all metric in elementary school in the early to mid 80s much to my mother’s chagrin (any thing I learned that was different than what/how she learned in Catholic school was bad, including a second language). Then having to relearn standard in middle school. I still have to count all of the lines on a tape measure.

      • @[email protected]
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        108 months ago

        As a metric-raised guy I find extremely difficult following the tutorials of woodworkers that start putting 2feet 3 inches and 9/16 in the measurements that converts to 700,0875mm wich i guess is an approximation of 70cms

        • @[email protected]
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          18 months ago

          Things like woodworking are exactly where the imperial system came from. Because daily usable lengths like a foot are using base 12 not base 10, it can be divided much more evenly even before needing fractions.

      • @[email protected]
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        38 months ago

        I was taught the metric system in US Schools in the late 80s and 90s.

        Sure we don’t use it daily but I still know it.

        I know that I need to convert to it and how to convert to it if necessary.

        For anything that’s not interacting with a human I’d use the metric system, for anything interacting with a human I’d display both.

  • @[email protected]
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    88 months ago

    Is anyone here planning to watch the episodes over the time they’re supposed to occur? I’m thinking of watching part 1 tomorrow due to it being the date on the calendar onscreen, and part 2 the next day.

    • @[email protected]
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      68 months ago

      if you were going to do that it would make sense to watch part one tomorrow and part two on Sept 3rd.

      • @[email protected]
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        48 months ago

        True, that would be better. I was just going to watch them two nights in a row, but I might do that instead!

    • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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      328 months ago

      Just start being that pedantic asshole that people hate, and insist on using it. When someone asks what the temperature is, give it to em in c and make them do the conversion.

      I set all my stuff to metric years ago and use it pretty much exclusively. I don’t actually make other people convert, I do it for em. But still.

          • Zagorath
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            118 months ago

            Leave off the word “metre” and it doesn’t matter whether you’re using metres or cm. You’re “one eighty-six”. Is that a lazy way of saying “one [hundred and] eighty-six”, quite common when talking about numbers in the hundreds, or the lazy way of saying “one [metre] eighty-six [centimetres]”, a common shorthand similar to shortening “six [feet] five [inches]”? The answer is it doesn’t matter!

      • @[email protected]
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        58 months ago

        I’ve been doing that. I’m noticing it working. People around me may not like it, but they’ve figured out about how much a meter is

        • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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          28 months ago

          It works pretty good, and you eventually you figure out which of your friends don’t actually like you! Lmao

      • hallettj
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        128 months ago

        I use metric temperature when I talk to my kids. Now they give me a hard time when I give them a Fahrenheit value! Keeps me honest I guess. I’ve also got my oldest using a 24 hour clock.

        • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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          38 months ago

          Temperature was the first thing that really clicked for me, and the only one I never have to think about to translate, I just “know” what the temperature is both. I learned it by thinking of it as percentages. 0 is freezing, 0% of boiling. 100 is boiling, 100% of boiling. Lol. 30-40% of boiling is hot, and pretty good for a bath. Haha

        • @[email protected]
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          8 months ago

          I never understood why people get their panties in a twist when I use 24h times. I get that it’s confusing if I drop the colon and just write 1854, but 18:54 isn’t that hard to figure out, is it?

          Edit: Corrected 25h to 24h, thanks to MindTraveller for mocking pointing out my error

        • Pup Biru
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          8 months ago

          wait you don’t use scales when cooking???

          • @[email protected]
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            68 months ago

            From what I can tell Americans used to use scales for dry measures (in ounces) but somewhere along the line, they switched to volume measures for everything.

            As a Canadian, it’s really frustrating because often will get the American versions of UK cookbooks here which are both not metric and not weights.

            I enjoy my Australian cookbooks with metric weights.

          • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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            28 months ago

            Yeah, it’s sort of rare outside of, like, foodies and and YouTubers to use weight for cooking. We switched to it about a decade back, and it’s been amazing. That’s actually what got me to switch to metric for just about everything.

  • @[email protected]
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    38 months ago

    15c better be the temp inside the building, because it sure as shit is hotter anywhere else.

    • Trafficone
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      28 months ago

      Holy shit looked up the temps in San Francisco and yes it’s 15C

    • @[email protected]
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      28 months ago

      They could be in New Zealand or Chile, if they hadn’t referenced The US… Maybe they are in Nome, AK

      • Handles
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        198 months ago

        This is the only rational order, descending in order of magnitude.

        • @[email protected]
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          8 months ago

          How do you abbreviate a date in YYYY/MM/DD format?

          In the DD/MM/YYYY format I can tell someone I am available to meet on 26/07; the year is known contextually as it only changes once a year.

          If I start to tell people I am available 26/07 am I available for all of July in 2026?

          • Handles
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            48 months ago

            YY/MM/DD or casual short MM/DD (where the year is understood). It’s no different, you just skip the year if it’s a given 😄 But for archival purposes, file naming etc, the YYYY part is mandatory.

  • data1701d (He/Him)
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    48 months ago

    I think our whole timeline spans from some Romulan plot about something involving handing a compilation of Federation history to some weird guy… What was his name? Gene Roddenberry?

  • Cyrus Draegur
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    1308 months ago

    Bullshit. ISO 8601 IS THE SUPERIOR DATE STANDARD
    Tomorrow is 2024-08-30. DEAL WITH IT.

  • @[email protected]
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    168 months ago

    This was something I found strange in the new Alien: Romulus film, why were the temperature readings in a science vessel for a space faring civilisation in Fahrenheit!?

    • @[email protected]
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      8 months ago

      I’m with the whole ‘metric is better crowd’, I mean base 10, c’mon that makes shit easy. On the other hand, I prefer Fahrenheit for temp 100%, Celsius is just not good for it (personal preference I guess). A lot of that is probably due to growing up in the USA, but having lived in a few other countries I just prefer Fahrenheit.

      Edit: dang ya’ll, didn’t mean to cause all the drama, I’ll calm down now… I guess personal preferences get taken as personal attacks sometimes lol

      • @[email protected]
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        8 months ago

        Quick Celsius breakdown from a Canadian:

        • 40+ - most Canadians stop eating food and hope for a quick death
        • 35 - you might just be able to live with this if you do nothing at all
        • 28 - right about the place where comfort gives way to a general sense of warmth, something that makes any Canadian uncomfortable
        • 23 - room temperature, and why “room temperature IQ” is an insult only Americans could have come up with because their scale was made by a madman
        • 15 - If it’s Autumn you are wearing a light jacket, if it’s Spring you are sweating
        • 5 - sweater time
        • 0 to -10 - that stereotypical TV winter experience, where everyone is skating and sipping hot chocolate? Yeah that’s like half the year here. You better like hot chocolate.
        • -15 - We enjoy the fresh air, others will probably find it painful to breathe directly; put on a scarf! Do not brush your teeth immediately before going outside unless you want to experience mint-flavoured pain.
        • -20 - Canadians put their boots on by now. Exposed skin on a windy day can get frostbite in as little as 10 minutes.
        • -30 - We will debate putting a coat on to put the garbage out at this temperature, usually erring on the side of caution in case your kids lock you outside again. Seriously invest in good winter gear for this, this temperature can kill surprisingly fast and it only gets increasingly unpleasant from here.
        • -40 - turns out you can’t form snowballs in hell because the snow is too crispy
        • Shouty person
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          08 months ago

          @CancerMancer
          Very much depends on both the humidex and wind chill. Basically, it’s the ‘feels like’ temperature that matters rather than the literal one.

          • @[email protected]
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            18 months ago

            I live in one of the more humid areas of Canada and when people tell you it can’t get humid when it’s that cold I wonder if they’ve ever experienced how the cold can just cut right through your clothes.

            Summer humidity is absolutely the worst though, and people die here every year because of it.

            • Shouty person
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              18 months ago

              @CancerMancer
              I spent my summers in Toronto growing up, but never experienced a Toronto winter until I moved there. I’d experienced –40 in Edmonton. But I’d never experienced –10 in Toronto!

      • @[email protected]
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        8 months ago

        The increased measurement in the Fahrenheit scale allows for more precise representation of the temperature between humans.

        Whole numbers and a larger scale for human ranges.

        That said, the same thing can be done with metric by using the magical decimal, though idk if I’ve ever seen a temperature in C related that way.

        • @[email protected]
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          28 months ago

          That said, the same thing can be done with metric by using the magical decimal, though idk if I’ve ever seen a temperature in C related that way.

          People using Celsius that ever cared that temperatures didn’t add decimals for increased precision in weather reports, please raise your hand.

          • @[email protected]
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            8 months ago

            👋

            Having grown up with Fahrenheit there is a difference between 78 degrees (26ish) and 80 (still 26ish)

            The increased granularity for human ranges actually is noticeable.

            If you think I’m advocating for Standard over Metric than you’ve wholly misunderstood me.

            The metric SYSTEM is hands down the better of the two.

        • @[email protected]
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          78 months ago

          For weather prediction it usually isn’t that accurate anyway, and varies over time and location a lot.

          For the thermostat it does matter, but usually you can set these in steps of 0.5°C. Mine reports back in 0.1°C steps.

        • Richard
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          68 months ago

          What? 1 °C is absolutely a fine enough stepping for everything the average human will want to convey about temperature.

          • @[email protected]
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            58 months ago

            Some people actually think they can tell the difference between 70 and 72 Fahrenheit and those people could save a lot of money on medications by switching entirely to placebos for everything.

    • @[email protected]
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      148 months ago

      They all keep dying in Alien films though, so it tracks with the level of incompetence shown elsewhere.