On 3/13/2016 2:44 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Sun, 13 Mar 2016 21:33:57 -0000, Don Y wrote:

On 3/13/2016 1:52 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Sun, 13 Mar 2016 20:33:58 -0000, Dean Hoffman wrote:

On Sun, 13 Mar 2016 13:22:28 -0500, Mr Macaw wrote:

What do Americans call this sign? #

72# = 72 pounds.
#72 = number 72.
My dad used to refer to some distances as 40 or 80 rods.
We still use gallons, pints, quarts, fluid ounces etc.

Dash, pinch, tsp, tbsp, jigger, gill, etc.

Miles, yards, feets and inches.

That must make school hell.

Why? 2T = 1oz 2oz = "double" 2 doubles = gill 2 gills = cup
2 cups = pint, 2 pints = halfG, 2 halfG = G, etc.

Way too complicated. Metric is made that way for a reason. You seem to have
chosen things that have 2 of something else in them. That is hardly ever the
case. Yards in a mile? Pounds in a stone?

Do you really think people *care* how many yards are in a mile?
We buy *fabric* by the yard. We drive our cars *miles*.
The fact that they are related is a consequence of the fact that
they are both used to measure distances.

If you build a picket fence, are the slats 0.1 meters apart?
Are each of them 1.0 meters tall?

Why do you have all those pesky other integers between 1 and 10?
And, 10 and 100? Why not just label your "rulers" with a logarithmic
scale: it's either 1mm, 10mm, 100mm or 1m. Anything else must
make school HELL!

But, most folks don't care. They buy things in a "familiar
size" and think of that thing *in* that familiar size.

E.g., flour comes in 5 lb sacks; sugar (recently) in 4 lb.
OJ comes in (nominally) 56 oz containers.

Easier when everything is in the same measure, either litres or kg.

Why? If I tell someone I bought a "half gallon" of OJ, they
know exactly what I mean! They can visualize the size, shape
and weight of the container in their mind. The fact that it
*isn't* a "half gallon" isn't even important to them!

They buy a "sack of flour". Probably know that it is 5 pounds.
But, that's beside the point. Esp as flour tends to be consumed in
quantities of *cups*! Do you think people know how many cups
of flour are in a 5 pound sack? Do you think they care?
"I need to buy flour" or "I've got enough flour for this recipe"
That;s all it takes. We don't weigh the remaining flour and check to
see if it's enough for the next Rx we intend to make.

I guess our brains are capable of more complex assessments than
expecting everything to "end in zero"...

Do you buy your ketchup by the liter? (I suspect ketchup,
here, is sold in a dozen or more different "sizes")
What about your horseradish? And, are your spices sold
in 1g, 10g and 100g units? Never "3g" or "7g"?

All sorts of sizes, but we know what a gram is. The UNIT is always the same.

We also don't need to drag out a *scale* to bake things
as we KNOW that chemistries tend to require common rations
(e.g., 2:1, 4:1, etc.) and can use volumetric measures
(instead of laddling ingredients onto a scale).

We can do that if we like. But a scale is easier to get that 4:1 ratio correct
instead of guessing by how big the pile is.

How big is an "egg"? Do you have metric dozens of eggs?
Do you have 100 minutes in your hours? 100 days in your years?

It would be easier.

Metric chickens?

Do you even *know* that there is "no such thing" as a "large egg"?

How do you grade your fruit? Measure the circumference and
sort based on the nearest decimeter? Or, are "large oranges"
no more precious than "tiny oranges"??

"That must make school HELL!" -- having to remember TWO different
schemes of measurement, one that deals with radix 10 and others
that deal with 12's, 24's, 60's, 365's, etc.

At least we made some of it easier.

And, when you have a third person show up for dinner, do you scale the
recipe (that "feeds two") up by a factor of *10*?

I guess we have learned to use *all* the numbers, on this side of
the pond. Not just the "easy ones"!