In which I defend the use of Fahrenheit over Celsius, sort of defend inches and feet, and make a halfhearted attempt at explaining why I like cups as a unit of volume.
I will say that the Fahrenheit argument is still unconvincing. Why should I care about how my temperature scale fits temperatures where other people live? To me, the scale of hot to cold ranges from 0 to 40. Obviously it's suboptimal that it ends at 40, but it sure beats starting at 40.
I would further argue that, even if you live in a place that goes below 0 Celsius, Celsius is still a good scale. Even though we want to talk about the weather and not water, the temperature of the freezing point of water is still pretty important because we have pipes filled with water. Whether the weather is at a point where it will freeze and burst pipes is pretty important, if you ask me.
But I still think kelvins are objectively superior. The issue is that no one else is getting with the program. Which is the only thing that matters in the end.
I'm with you all the way on cups as a unit of food preparation. This also makes the recipe trivially scalable.
On Celsius/Fahrenheit, I agree it's quite nice to have a hundred degree habitable range in Fahrenheit. But I would note that in Celsius, the minus sign in front of the digits is pleasantly cognate with it being really damn cold outside.
When measuring small distances, you just have to be canny about choosing body parts. The width of my pinky is about 1cm. The span of my hand is about 15cm. From my forearm to my fingertips is about 50cm - although this also corresponds to a cubit, so perhaps it can't totally be claimed for the metric system.
I like Imperial units for basically one reason: they work better for my use cases. The main problems with imperial units (as I see them) are that the conversions are hot garbage, and that they aren't what most of the world (and science) uses. However, I am neither a scientist, nor do I interact with other countries' units of measure. And I already know all the conversions that come up in ordinary usage (e.g. inches-feet-yards-miles, cups-pints-quarts-gallons, etc). So for me, the downsides are not actually a problem.
Conversely, if I were to use metric units it would actually be a giant pain in the ass for me, as I would have to relearn how to estimate everything in metric units. I can eyeball something when cooking and know it is about a cup, or look at an object and know it is about a foot long, etc. It's not *impossible* to relearn those skills, obviously. But it would require a decent bit of time and effort, same as it took to learn how to estimate things in imperial units.
So, metric offers no upsides for me personally but *does* have downsides for me personally. That means for my use cases, it is a net loss of utility. Thus, I like imperial units.
I will say that the Fahrenheit argument is still unconvincing. Why should I care about how my temperature scale fits temperatures where other people live? To me, the scale of hot to cold ranges from 0 to 40. Obviously it's suboptimal that it ends at 40, but it sure beats starting at 40.
I would further argue that, even if you live in a place that goes below 0 Celsius, Celsius is still a good scale. Even though we want to talk about the weather and not water, the temperature of the freezing point of water is still pretty important because we have pipes filled with water. Whether the weather is at a point where it will freeze and burst pipes is pretty important, if you ask me.
But I still think kelvins are objectively superior. The issue is that no one else is getting with the program. Which is the only thing that matters in the end.
I'm with you all the way on cups as a unit of food preparation. This also makes the recipe trivially scalable.
On Celsius/Fahrenheit, I agree it's quite nice to have a hundred degree habitable range in Fahrenheit. But I would note that in Celsius, the minus sign in front of the digits is pleasantly cognate with it being really damn cold outside.
When measuring small distances, you just have to be canny about choosing body parts. The width of my pinky is about 1cm. The span of my hand is about 15cm. From my forearm to my fingertips is about 50cm - although this also corresponds to a cubit, so perhaps it can't totally be claimed for the metric system.
It was a nice and fun read!
I like Imperial units for basically one reason: they work better for my use cases. The main problems with imperial units (as I see them) are that the conversions are hot garbage, and that they aren't what most of the world (and science) uses. However, I am neither a scientist, nor do I interact with other countries' units of measure. And I already know all the conversions that come up in ordinary usage (e.g. inches-feet-yards-miles, cups-pints-quarts-gallons, etc). So for me, the downsides are not actually a problem.
Conversely, if I were to use metric units it would actually be a giant pain in the ass for me, as I would have to relearn how to estimate everything in metric units. I can eyeball something when cooking and know it is about a cup, or look at an object and know it is about a foot long, etc. It's not *impossible* to relearn those skills, obviously. But it would require a decent bit of time and effort, same as it took to learn how to estimate things in imperial units.
So, metric offers no upsides for me personally but *does* have downsides for me personally. That means for my use cases, it is a net loss of utility. Thus, I like imperial units.