• Septian@lemmy.zip
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    5 months ago

    I’d argue the two greatest barriers for the average, non-STEM individual adopting metric in America is the speed limits being in mph and the temperature being in °F. Both are convertible easily enough, but when you constantly have to do so to engage with critical infrastructure or safety (cooking temps, etc.) It provides a barrier against adoption for anyone without the drive to make a concerted effort to use metric.

    • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Between the two, I think temperature is the harder one. But strangely, it also brings weight and volume back into it: Cookbooks.

      So many recipes are finely tuned balances of measurements that just look plain alien when converted to metric.

    • Kushan@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      In the UK we’re mostly using metric with the odd exception (we still love a pint of beer), one of which is that speeds are measured in MPH. It’s not really a big deal, there aren’t many customers between miles and kilometres and anything less than a km is still usually measured in metres.