Did you pick 142g at random? Even so, it’s an interesting choice. For reference that’s about the weight of a regulation baseball (142-149g), or a bit heavier than a D-cell battery (135g), or a bit lighter than a billiard ball (156-170g).
We could have switched, but that plan got axed in the 80s. Manufacturing is all metric, but for casual use we just did soft conversions to standard, so you see weird crap like 17/32 sockets.
I suppose the best we could hope for is the bizarre mashup Canada and the UK use.
I feel like not enough people in the US know about our bizarre mashup, and think the UK is just on metric. There was a Muppet Movie podcast a while back, trying to work out if Muppets Take Manhattan was filmed before the road signs converted to km.
(Yes, yes it was, because we have never done that, and in 2007 the EU gave us special permission to stop pretending we were ever going to.)
So that’s not the movie where Gonzo gets crazy obsessed with the UK and attempts to seize control of the rebellious colonies in the name of Her Majesty the Queen?
I don’t think Canada’s is particularly bizarre (aside from the ‘but why not switch entirely?’ aspect). But maybe that’s just from living in it my whole life.
Outside of casual (as opposed to official and medical) references to the size of people, and some aspects of cooking (most recipes and packaged food cooking instructions give both metric/Celsius and imperial/Fahrenheit), everything’s metric and Celsius (for anyone under 60, anyway). Very straightforward, if a little pointless.
We’re trying?
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but my kid is learning FAR more about the metric system in elementary school than I did at his age. It seems like they’re trying to get kids to be able to use both and convert between them at a younger age.
Or maybe that’s just our school district – I don’t know.
Somewhere close to the weight of a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder. (The patty starts out at four ounces, but loses a little when cooked. Throw in the bun and toppings, and it probably comes out at five or six ounces.)
As I understand it, it’s something called a “vegetable” and are supposedly good for you to eat. I’ve never had the chance to verify this myself, having subsisted only on caffeine and stress for what feels like forever.
Loading ...
except, like, cocaine-snorters
actually, it’s a snep, I forgot
My wife is weirdly good at estimating an ounce.
…
Not of cocaine specifically, just in general.
No but seriously what the heck is an ounce
16 ounces is 1 pound. So you could say an ounce is 1/16th of a pound. You’re welcome my fellow Americans.
(I know this doesn’t help)
How much is 1 pound?
About US$1.38 at the current exchange rate.
*ba dum tiss*
Unless you’re talking fluid ounces, in which case it’s not even a unit of weight anymore!
I guess about third of a pound, but it’s not really that often we’ve got one regular pound on-hand, so again, only partly helpful.
Use the metric system already!
Oh, do you have an immediate intuitive grasp of 142 grams?
Not 142 as opposed to 139 or 145, but sure, 142 as opposed to 50 or 500.
Did you pick 142g at random? Even so, it’s an interesting choice. For reference that’s about the weight of a regulation baseball (142-149g), or a bit heavier than a D-cell battery (135g), or a bit lighter than a billiard ball (156-170g).
That’s all well and good, but how does it compare to a turnip?
No, not random: 5 ounces (of weight, not volume) is apparently about 142 grams.
We could have switched, but that plan got axed in the 80s. Manufacturing is all metric, but for casual use we just did soft conversions to standard, so you see weird crap like 17/32 sockets.
I suppose the best we could hope for is the bizarre mashup Canada and the UK use.
I feel like not enough people in the US know about our bizarre mashup, and think the UK is just on metric. There was a Muppet Movie podcast a while back, trying to work out if Muppets Take Manhattan was filmed before the road signs converted to km.
(Yes, yes it was, because we have never done that, and in 2007 the EU gave us special permission to stop pretending we were ever going to.)
The Great Muppet Caper. There is no reason to care what units the UK was using during Muppets Take Manhattan because, as the title suggests…
So that’s not the movie where Gonzo gets crazy obsessed with the UK and attempts to seize control of the rebellious colonies in the name of Her Majesty the Queen?
I don’t think Canada’s is particularly bizarre (aside from the ‘but why not switch entirely?’ aspect). But maybe that’s just from living in it my whole life.
Outside of casual (as opposed to official and medical) references to the size of people, and some aspects of cooking (most recipes and packaged food cooking instructions give both metric/Celsius and imperial/Fahrenheit), everything’s metric and Celsius (for anyone under 60, anyway). Very straightforward, if a little pointless.
It’d probably be even more confusing for people in the U.S. if we switched to metric than the weird system we’re already using.
We’re trying?
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but my kid is learning FAR more about the metric system in elementary school than I did at his age. It seems like they’re trying to get kids to be able to use both and convert between them at a younger age.
Or maybe that’s just our school district – I don’t know.
Somewhere close to the weight of a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder. (The patty starts out at four ounces, but loses a little when cooked. Throw in the bun and toppings, and it probably comes out at five or six ounces.)
It’s one eighth of a techno beat.
ounce ounce ounce ounce ounce ounce ounce ounce
This is why I measure in soda. A 2L soda bottle (full) is about 4.5 pounds. A can of soda is about 13 ounces.
So a bit under half a can.
an ounce is the exact weight of 1 cheesestick
really makes things easier, knowing that
finally a helpful response
I had all those questions Walky had, plus an additional one:
What’s a turnip?
As I understand it, it’s something called a “vegetable” and are supposedly good for you to eat. I’ve never had the chance to verify this myself, having subsisted only on caffeine and stress for what feels like forever.
**reads this while drinking the iced coffee that is literally my breakfast**
And that’s correct usage of literally – since waking up, I have consumed naught but iced coffee.
About $250-300, I believe. I know a guy who can get you a discount, though.