The comments on recipes are intriguing. In the US virtually all units are volume (cups, fluid ounces, teaspoons and tablespoons). The exceptions are usually for things marketed in a standard size, the 1lb can for example. My experience with European cookbooks, confirmed by the examples given above show a mixture of volume and mass units. Do cooks resort to scales or balances for these?As someone who first learned to cook in USA and then moved to Europe, it also seemed odd to me at first to go by weight. But having become a very good cook, I’ve come to appreciate accurate measuring for the things where it’s critical (read: baking, candy, etc). It makes absolutely no sense to measure compressible powders (like flour) and ingredients with significant density variation between manufacturers (like salt) by volume, since the measurement can be off by a HUGE amount. (For example, when a recipe says to add salt, it absolutely matters what kind of salt it is: Diamond Crystal kosher salt, for instance, is HALF as dense as Morton’s kosher salt or regular granulated salt. For Europeans: it’s like comparing the same volume of fleur de sel vs. table salt vs. coarse pretzel salt.) And some ingredients, like honey and shortening, are just a pain in the butt to measure by volume, even if they can be measured accurately that way.
Cooking is one area where I have more or less abandoned US customary measurements, because weighing is just so damned convenient, and grams are great for doing it because a digital kitchen scale’s dynamic range is enough to measure both large and small amounts accurately. The fact that water weighs 1g per ml also means that you can just weigh the water too, without even having to change units. (Less measuring cups to clean!) When I make bulgur, for example, I put a glass bowl on the scale and tare it, put in 200g of bulgur, add water to 600g, and then add bouillon powder to 615g. (Black pepper and olive oil added by eye, then it goes in the microwave for 11 mins at 1000W and then another 5 mins at 400W.) Tablespoons and teaspoons are the only non-metric measures I use, since even European recipes use those regularly. However, since most of my favorite cookbooks and cooking channels are in US units, I remain fully comfortable using them.
Going all the way back to the OP from Australia, I think the presumption is wrong. That everything in Australia is metric.
I've had conversation with Aussie, and per him, routers are usually in imperial, quarter inch or half inch. In China and some/most of EU, they use 6 and 12 mm. I've purchased metric collets for my routers so I can use metric end mills (cuz they're cheaper), so there's an example of adapting to metric TO SAVE MONEY vs spending money just be metric. In one case, the seller was in East Europe, I received the OEM collet from that region. In other case, I purchased from a domestic machine shop.
One the same general subject, what does the world use for evaluating food intake? Calories are thoroughly entrenched here in the US. Does the rest of the world use ergs or Joules? I might just agree with rstofer on how long it will be before American women give up calories.
QuoteQuoteDo cooks resort to scales or balances for these?Yes, that is weird to imagine, weighing all your ingredients to the gram, lol.
Nope. People have a good idea of what 100g butter or 500g flour means. Some of those quantities are the exact value, multiples or submultiples of what you find in the groceries. But if you need to weigh your food, that's what kitchen scales are for.
4' 11" and 1/16 is exactly 1.5 m. 3/8" is approximately 10 cm. Piece of cake: 1.7 m - wide minimum blind.
Want to try that again?
You're trying to work out: 4' 11 1/16" - (2 x 3/8"). 3/8" is approximately 1 cm, not 10 cm and the talk of clearance ought to make it clear that the blind is meant to be narrower than the window (recess) not (considerably) wider.
The exact answer is 4' 10 5/16". It's remarkably easy to do in your head as long as one knows 1" = 16/16" and 3/8" = 6/16"; just re-cast it as:
4' 11 1/16" - (2 x 3/8")
=> 4' 10 17/16" - (2 x 6/16")
=> 4' 10 17/16" - 12/16".
Junior school 'fractions' practice basically.
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So I think we can pretty much answer the OP's question.
The US are not fully metric because their industry betted on the wrong horse. They didn't see the obvious advantages of a system of measures based on the latest technological and scientific achievements and decided to cling to tradition.
While the other nations are now reaping the benefits of this move, the US will have to pay a high price to switch to modernity. That's why they are doing it peacemeal. The whole world is über patiently waiting for them to take the plunge but, meanwhile, can only shrug and go on with their lives.
My hunch is that the US will be metricated to a satisfactory extent in the next 50 years, or when California decides to change. What happens first.
So I think we can pretty much answer the OP's question.
The US are not fully metric because their industry betted on the wrong horse.
Been to the Moon, largest economy in the world, Imperial units... See a pattern here?
Been to the Moon, largest economy in the world, Imperial units... See a pattern here?
Your delusional ego, yes.
The units you use have nothing to do with the resources you have the luck to have as a country.
Our hardware stores now have as much metric nuts and bolts as the old imperial sizes. Lots of other things bought in stores are made to metric sizes.
Jon
I'm not sure what a metric lag screw would look like. Do they really think the homeowner wants to buy a 14mm wrench just to tighten a lag screw?
I'm not sure what a metric lag screw would look like. Do they really think the homeowner wants to buy a 14mm wrench just to tighten a lag screw?
Just... like... an imperial.. one..
And no, they don't - 13mm is the usual standard.
I'm not sure what a metric lag screw would look like. Do they really think the homeowner wants to buy a 14mm wrench just to tighten a lag screw?
Just... like... an imperial.. one..
And no, they don't - 13mm is the usual standard.
Yes. people need 10, 12, 13 and 14 as a minimum set. 8 comes in handy from time to time but I don't often use the larger sizes.
Second, despite our backward system, we have walked on the Moon and nobody else has and we did it 50 years ago. Some of the work was calc'd in metric, most of it was built in customary units.
Been to the Moon, largest economy in the world, Imperial units... See a pattern here?
Your delusional ego, yes.
The units you use have nothing to do with the resources you have the luck to have as a country.
The only important resources are people and capitalism. We can buy everything else.
A relatively business-friendly government helps.
I, personally like the look of blinds that are a bit wider than the windows, rather than a bit narrower.
What advantage does metric offer to the average person walking down the street?
Second, despite our backward system, we have walked on the Moon and nobody else has and we did it 50 years ago. Some of the work was calc'd in metric, most of it was built in customary units. Call back when you leave footprints! In the meantime (probably another 100 years or so), keep working on the project, you'll get there someday, but we'll be on Mars before you get to the Moon!
Why do you care what we do? Why is this all so terribly important to you? We don't care what you're doing, we certainly don't criticize your use of the metric system but we're not staging protests demanding change. We simply don't care! If we need metric, we use it. If we don't, well, we don't. It isn't important in our everyday lives.
And do be aware that, as backward as we are, we're still the largest economy in the world.
Been to the Moon, largest economy in the world, Imperial units... See a pattern here?
I know, every time I bring up the Moon thing people frame it as American Exceptionalism. Well, yes, it's true. But if it wasn't for AE, the French people would be speaking German and the standards would be in Berlin. The Germans always did have the superior scientists.
Not only dick waving but a very limp dick that saw better days ... maybe in 1969. Sad!
Do outsiders, in even their most drug induced hallucinations, believe that the US cares what other countries think?