It seems like a weird point to bring up. How often do y’all convert your measurements? It’s not even a daily thing. If I’m measuring something, I either do it in inches, or feet, rarely yards. I’ve never once had to convert feet into miles, and I can’t imagine I’m unique in this. When I have needed to, it’s usually converting down (I.e. 1/3 of a foot), which imperial does handle better in more cases.
Like. I don’t care if we switch, I do mostly use metric personally, it just seems like a weird point to be the most common pro-metric argument when it’s also the one I’m least convinced by due to how metric is based off of base 10 numbering, which has so many problems with it.
Edit: After reading/responding a lot in the comments, it does seem like there’s a fundamental difference in how distance is viewed in metric/imperial countries. I can’t quite put my finger on how, but it seems the difference is bigger than 1 mile = 1.6km
I’m honestly surprised you’ve never had to do that, because it happens to me all the time.
Like when I’m approaching a junction on the road and the satnav suddenly changes from saying 0.5 miles to like 500 yards, that’s jarring and breaks my mental countdown. (In Britain, the roads are imperial, yes it’s a pain.)
Or if I’m cooking an old recipe and it needs 12oz of something, but I’m doubling the quantity, suddenly I need to know what that is in lb and oz because my scale doesn’t just tell me 24oz.
Or if someone says they’re 5’ 8" tall, I have to know how many " in a ’ to conceptualise how close that is to 6’.
Meanwhile, I know when I’m out hiking what my pacing is for 100m, and if I’ve got 2.5km to go, that’s 25 lots of pacing.
Or when I’m sewing, and fabric is sold by the metre but all the pattern pieces are measured in cm or mm.
And not strictly related, but it’s handy being able to measure out water in an unmarked container using a weighing scale and the fact that 1l=1kg.
