this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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In the spirit of rapprochement with Europe and reorientation away from the United States, it's time to complete the Metrication process in Canada that was stopped prematurely by the Mulroney government.

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[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 99 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I'm 178cm and 65kg

Fuck you trump

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Fun fact, you are exactly 10 bananas tall...

http://bananaforscale.info/#!/convert/length/10/bananas/centimeters

Coming from the USA, yeah fuck the orange shitstain and his oligarch cronies.

[–] SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

After using bananas as a form of measurement, I don't think you need to clarify that you're from the USA.

You guys have used football fields, washing machines, and bicycles as units of measurement haha

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (8 children)

I find the whole imperial/metric thing funny.

Like hell, even here in the USA, it's always the 10 millimeter socket (or in my case the 15 millimeter socket) that somehow disappears.

A pendulum of one meter length swings at a rate of once per second.

Where things get weird in the USA is one mile = 5280 feet. Like, who the fuck pulled that number out of their ass?

[–] SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

That's the imperial system for ya. Imagine using a dude's feet as a form of measurement. That's weirder than having it be your fetish

[–] HonoredMule@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

It wasn't so weird back when people lived in relative isolation without any kind of standards, and had to come up with some sort of reference that was widely familiar and commonly available.

You know, back in the Neolithic Age.

It even makes sense why that familiar set of references would get standardized and then survive up until the beginning of the Industrial Age. Beyond that point it's all driven by American exceptionalism, a.k.a. willful ignorance. What I don't understand is what happened to the cubit. Feet make sense for distance, but as a craftsman I don't want to be foot-fondling my work pieces.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Even weirder when that foot was defined based on the body of a former king of England. But, centuries later, the country that formed in a rebellion against England still keeps using that measurement, whereas England has made a lot more progress going metric.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where things get weird in the USA is one mile = 5280 feet. Like, who the fuck pulled that number out of their ass?

The romans divided the mile into 5,000 feet. But the British perfered using 'furlong', thus the mile became 8 furlongs, and a furlong is 660 feet.

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[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yup, let’s drop imperial for absolutely everything!

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[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Congrats on the healthy BMI, and on using the correct scale!

By my book, you're now an EU citizen.

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

BMI was made by an statistician who never intended it to be used as a means of medical assessment.

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)

What? BMI > 30 is the literal definition of obesity.

It's a tool, and it serves a purpose.

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[–] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] grey_maniac@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Very slim, I'm 178cm and 100kg. About 24% bodyfat.

[–] glibg@lemmy.ca 62 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Let's finally move to the ISO 216 standard for paper!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_216

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago

Oh please, yes!

When I moved to Mexico I was always annoyed with the weird ass paper formats, then when I moved to Canada I had hoped that over here they would have sane formats but alas...

Seriously, the entire world got upgrade after upgrade everywhere and the US constantly was like "nope, we will keep our feet and miles and inches because those "make sense" keeping a large part of developed nations in the dark ages

[–] danielquinn@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago
[–] mister_newbie@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But, hear me out.... PC LOAD A4 just doesn't have the same ring to it.

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[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 week ago (3 children)

When someone asks your height, you answer in centimeters.

I mean, I can without hesitating. We all should be able to.

[–] TiredCoffee@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Howabout meters? 180cm = 1.8m

[–] AlolanVulpix@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Centimetres are more commonly used to measure height (e.g., on official government issued IDs)

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[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes, obsessing over centimetres is unhealthy.

I know what you're getting at πŸ˜†

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[–] AlolanVulpix@lemmy.ca 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can we also double down on getting information only from Canadian Owned and Operated media?

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The linked article is from the CBC...

[–] AlolanVulpix@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The post title is: "Time to double down on the metric system".

At the same time, I also think it's a good idea to:

double down on getting information only from Canadian Owned and Operated media

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[–] nihilist_hippie@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago (14 children)

I went to the states a couple years back. Went to a tavern and was deciding on a beer. Bartender overhears I'm Canadian and tells me the size of the pints in decilitres πŸ™„

For what it's worth, I'm pretty comfortable with FL oz from reading soda cans and stuff. I just find it crazy how unintuitive metric is to some.

I appreciated his effort, I just thought it was funny

[–] observantTrapezium@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Decilitre is actually the common unit for drinks in Hungary (and possibly in other countries). Hungarians also use dekagramm, which is 10 grams. But the cool thing about metric is that to convert, you just move the decimal around!

[–] BreadOven@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A lot of my European beer glasses have dL on them. Offhand I can think of duchesse (Belgium), and Delirium Tremens (also Belgium). Okay, maybe it's just beers from Belgium, I'd have to take a look.

[–] WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"I'd have to take a look."

Sounds like you have booked a special evening in the pub: "Can I try the next beer please?"

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[–] hydration9806@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago

The cool thing is, it's still an easy conversion to bring it back to a familiar unit!

[–] socialjusticewizard@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The states has this funny thing where when they do use metric, like in medicine, they often still use weird-ass nonstandard metric options, like decilitres. I imagine if they eventually switch their unit of weight is going to be something like "well, one fornoy is exactly how much a litre of crude oil weighs"

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[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

To be fair, pints in the US are 95 mL smaller than pints in Canada, so it's at least a good reminder.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I hate fucking fl.oz. I understand cups, teaspoons and tablespoons, but then there's the odd recipe that uses 'fl.oz.' and I always have to go look it up.

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, what the hell is a florida ounce anyway?

An ounce of fentanyl

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[–] Loki66@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Metric system is meant for clever people.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not really, the system itself is clever but it's made for everyone, very simple to use.

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[–] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 8 points 6 days ago

The system is made for those who create and those who don't know which way to hold an hammer. and it works, that's the beauty of it.

Imperial is just made for peasants in 870s and people who are on still on that level of education.

[–] jlow@beehaw.org 11 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Can we get the UK on board with this as well? (Maybe when they rejoin the EU? And let's drive on the same site of the road as 98% of the planet while we're on it).

[–] Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago

Other than miles most of our stuff is metric anyway, at least legally. Like yeah, we use stones and feet for 'human' measurements in speech etc but if you go to the doctors it would be in kilos and metres. There are a few oddities like milk bottles being in pints and beer in pubs but even then you find things like plant milks and bottles/canned beer in litres. The one that really makes no sense is car fuel efficiency. We sell fuel by the litre but measure it in miles per (imperial) gallon - so it doesnt even tie up with American figures.

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