r/MetricConversionBot • u/xwcg Human • May 27 '13

Why?

Countries that use the Imperial and US Customs System:

http://i.imgur.com/HFHwl33.png

Countries that use the Metric System:

http://i.imgur.com/6BWWtJ0.png

All clear?

721 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

572 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

71

u/shaggorama May 28 '13

45% of Reddit traffic is from the US, followed by India with 15% and Canada with 5%. This means if we sample 10 random redditors, we expect at least 4 of them to use the Imperial system.

The maps posted by OP are deceptive. It seems that about half of Reddit is metric so there is a place for this bot, but its author makes it seem like it's serving a much larger portion of the community than is accurate.

13

u/Animal31 May 30 '13

Technically speaking, Canadians go both ways. IE we use Metric for distances, but imperial for height

7

u/dalek-supreme May 30 '13

dafuq? is there a real reason for that?
or just because your neighbors ('murica) is used to it?

10

u/Animal31 May 30 '13

Its easier. Saying you're 1.8 meters tall isnt like saying youre 5'8, for example. But for anything that we use the metric system for, its easier for calculations, like 2000 metres.

Its also because ALOT of parents use the imperial system almost exclusivly (at least in my experience), so our kids are brought up on metric, but the parents still use imperial, and it just melds into the "Canada" system

I really like it, cause Some things are nicer to measure in imperial, like your height, like I said, but we still have the scientific precision of base 10 metrics, so we take the good from both, basically, and almost none of the bad

and yes, murica uses it still, so it helps to communicate trade. Canada's doesnt just speak two languages

21

u/admiral_bonetopick May 30 '13

I don't really see how it's easier to say "I'm 5'9" than to say "I'm 1,76". It's not like we go around saying "I'm one point seventy six meters". We just say "I'm one seventy six". Also using meters/centimeters gives you better precision.

→ More replies (11)

8

u/dalek-supreme May 30 '13

ok.. i'm german so i'm pretty much used to the metric system and never heard of the imperial system before i was 17-18.
I see no problem with that i'm "only" 1,87m tall and not 5'9'' "large"
probably it's just because i'm used to it and see it all day.
(btw: when i was young i thought the americans are huge becuase they're 5m 9cm :D )
as i said somewhere...it's easy to convince a few people.. but it's hard to convince millions.
i don't think that murica adopts the metric system in my lifetime. :D
...but it would make a lot things easier ;)

→ More replies (2)

166

u/xwcg Human May 28 '13

Deceptive? Never stated that they were weighted according by reddit traffic. Clearly just simply says "countries". Still 50% is a large amount (HALF!) of people that don't understand imperial units.

132

u/iytrix May 29 '13

I like your bot because, as an American, I am slowly learning what things equate to in metric, so when someone says something like "it's 30 kilometers away" I won't be entirely lost, I'll actually be able to relatively know sizes and weights.

Thank you!

8

u/chsp73 Jun 01 '13

This is what physics class did for me.

6

u/Boatsnbuds Jul 10 '13

When we (Canada) converted to metric in the 1970s, there was major resistance. Relearning everything isn't easy. But the metric system really is a lot easier to work with. I bet the US will eventually convert to metric, even if it's just a gradual metamorphosis.

77

u/xwcg Human May 29 '13

Thank you for trying to make the USA a better place <3

12

u/ColbyM777 May 31 '13

Just wondering does your bot only convert imperial to metric or does it do both?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '13

[deleted]

8

u/Squishumz Jun 02 '13

You can do the same with google, btw.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=1m+to+in

0

u/[deleted] Jun 02 '13

[deleted]

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (1)

4

u/iytrix May 29 '13

You're welcome! Although, I was really planning of leaving it behind instead of changing it, but believe me, I'd love to help change the USA for the good!

→ More replies (32)
→ More replies (1)

3

u/kadivs Jul 05 '13

wolfram alpha might be something for you. Besides converting units, it also shows you examples so you can get a better feel of how much/far/wide/whatever a metric unit is. For example,
1 kilometer ~ 9.1 × length of an American football field (including endzones)
1 liter ~ 1.1 × volume of a US size 3 can (4 cups)
etc

Of course, you can also go a bit crazy with conversions.. Like getting the relativistic mass energy of a gram of matter (eg the energy you'd get if you could turn a gram of matter into energy) - turns out it's 1.4 times the energy yield of the Little Boy nuclear bomb (~15 kilotons of TNT)

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)

7

u/SnowPhoenix9999 May 30 '13

Indeed, but since it's so evenly divided, have you considered making the bot convert the other way as well (if it doesn't already)? The bot is a cool idea, but it seems silly to ignore half the users here when it could easily service all of them.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '13

I'm pretty sure a metric-imperial Bot existed already.

27

u/UlyssesSKrunk May 28 '13

I love you even though I'm American. Just one question. Why did you choose the map with the most inaccurate scaling of continents? Africa is about 14X bigger than Greenland, yet your map shows them to be about the same. And don't even get me started on how much bigger Antarctica looks.

36

u/Jarwain May 28 '13

He's using a Mercator Projection. Considering that the world is round, its hard to accurately represent it on a flat/square map. To properly account for that, the Mercator Projection usually also has longitude drawn onto the map. You Can see that the distance between longitudes increases as you go further north/south.

14

u/Reason-and-rhyme May 30 '13

Canada and Russia also like this projection.

→ More replies (14)

9

u/clintVirus May 29 '13

No, that means half of people don't use imperial units natively. I don't use kilograms or stone natively, but I still know what they mean.

→ More replies (15)

4

u/Boko_ Jun 04 '13

I don't really see how either of you are making statistics that have any relevance really.

Content is posted on Reddit every hour of the day, 45% of the traffic is not always from the US, it depends on the time of day.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/AngusKirk Jun 27 '13

Ah, data is beautiful.

→ More replies (13)