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Imperial units people, Do you sometimes get confused about time units as well? (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi, I think in metric units, so almost everything is some form of a power of 10, like a kilogram is a 1000 grams, etc.

Sometimes I will think of an hour and half as 150 minutes before remembering that it is 90 minutes.

Does something similar happen to imperial units users? Because as far as I understand you don't have obvious patterns that would cause you to make these mistakes, right?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

imperial

Strictly speaking, it should be US customary units, not imperial. They're mostly pretty similar or identical, but there are some substantial differences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pint

The pint (/ˈpaɪnt/, listenⓘ; symbol pt, sometimes abbreviated as p) is a unit of volume or capacity in both the imperial and United States customary measurement systems. In both of those systems it is traditionally one eighth of a gallon. The British imperial pint is about 20% larger than the American pint because the two systems are defined differently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_ton

The short ton (abbreviation tn) is a measurement unit equal to 2,000 pounds (907.18 kg). It is commonly used in the United States, where it is known simply as a ton, although the term is ambiguous, the single word "ton" being variously used for short, long, and metric tons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_ton

The long ton (symbol: LT[citation needed]), also known as the imperial ton or displacement ton, is a measurement unit equal to 2,240 pounds (1,016.047 kg). It is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois system of weights or Imperial system of measurements. It was standardised in the 13th century. It is used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth of Nations countries alongside the mass-based tonne defined in 1799, as well as in the United States for bulk commodities.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I propose the term "colonial units" as opposed to "imperial units".