Do you even know the conversion between cubic feet and gallons, to have something to type into your calculator? Here’s a hint: A cubic foot is not a gallon, so converting the yards to feet won’t actually help you.
I will say, though, that there is some (approximate) meteorological relevance to 0 F. It’s (about) the temperature at which the roads will ice up even when salted, and it’s also (about) the temperature at which snow falling on the surface of an appropriately-dressed person’s clothes won’t melt.
I do. I assume many people don’t but, so what? By the time you’ve typed “cubic feet in…” into Google, it’s already autocompleted “…a gallon” for you. We live in an era of smart phones.
But, like I said, I already knew. Because I work in a field where that information is useful. People for whom it’s not regularly useful aren’t rush-calculating how much water they need to fill a pool anyway.
The other way, tonnes of people recite “98.6” as body temperature in Fahrenheit, when the really mean “37°C, except converted with pointless extra precision” (rightly “99-ish”).
So without getting a calculator, I have a pallet with a water tank 1x1x1 yard.
How much does the water weigh? (the nearest 100 pound will do)
(I did 100s of such calculations when I was working as a scaffolding builder-- this is a real example: I need to know this quick: Order more ballast or know this will be fine. If I fuck up tonight’s event will cancelled and 1000’s will go home disappointed.)
As the other poster said, that doesn’t help as gallons isn’t related to cubic feet/yards. And then if you want to know weight you need to remember that a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds. Much easier to remember a liter of water is 1000 cc and weighs 1 kilo.
I just had to buy enough paint to cover all sides of a board 150cm x 18cm x 3cm. A much easier calculation than it would be for 4’ x 7"x 1.5";
A cubic yard is 27cf, water is ~63lbs a cf so right around 1,700lbs
You have no way of knowing if I looked all that up but I’m an estimator by trade so I knew it. You say you had to do hundreds of similar calculations so I assume it was largely second nature to you too. Which is the point: If you’re trying to convince a nation to switch over their system of measurements based on things like “You could calculate the weight of filling a swimming pool easier”, it’s never gonna happen. Because 99.x% of people will never give a shit and hire people like us to know that for them. Which they probably do in every metric-using nation as well as opposed to Frank & Mary Canada doing their own swimming pool weight calcs.
And even AS an estimator who regularly needs to use cubic yards and coverage per acre and lbs/cf of limestone and other such stuff, I STILL don’t care because I already know how to do it quickly. So those who would supposedly benefit the most already don’t need it and the rest won’t be using it anyway.
But don’t you find it odd thinking in a temperature scale that limits your senses to -16C = cold and 38C = hot? Those are some randomly chosen numbers. Nothing makes sense in F. No number means anything. Why is both -16C and 38C so important that people are proud to bookend their temperature scale to them? Those temperatures feel so random.
The first thing I thought when I saw the “how many gallons to fill a swimming pool?” question was " Why would I ever need to know that?" When I finally came up with a reason ( to see if I was billed correctly for filling it ), it didn’t need to be quick. So that’s not a reason to switch to metric.
Conversions are the hard part, but they will only need to happen for a relatively short time - if we switch tomorrow, I might need to know how to convert lbs to kilograms to have an idea in my head about how much a kilogram of flour is. But I won’t have to do that indefinitely - at some point , I will just think of kilograms without needing to convert from pounds. Just like people who are fluent in two languages don’t have to think in one language and translate it to the other , even if they had to when they were first learning.
I want to switch to metric because the although I really never need to convert ounces to kilograms , I do sometimes need to adjust recipes. Maybe I want to double it , or make a half-batch or I have a recipe for a nine inch cheesecake but only an eight inch pan. It’s a lot easier to halve 50 grams than it is to halve a quarter cup since I don’t have ( and have never seen) a 1/8 cup measuring cup and I will have to look up the equivalent of 1/8 cup in tablespoons every time.* That’s where metric is easier, once we’ve stared thinking in it. Not converting from lbs to kilograms or the reverse but because there would be no more converting from pounds to ounces or cups to tablespoons
It’s two. I just looked it up. I don’t need to do this conversion often enough to rely on my memory.
The Fahrenheit scale was partially based on “average human body temperature”. Celsius seems clinical. Efficient and unemotional, coldly detached like Kelvin. Here in the US, 0º F is considered to feel pretty cold outside, 100º is considered hot. Do you live somewhere that doesn’t actually get cold?
I guess. I don’t have a good way to measure grams in my kitchen. If I want to half a recipe, it’s easy enough to convert one cup to 1/2 cup. I also like tablespoon as a measurement. It’s easy to measure.
Got it immediately, and thanks for the morning Sunday chuckle dude.
Quite true. Weather sensation and interpretations are all relative. 10C in fall (hot tea, thick sweater weather) hits VERY different then 10C in spring (beach weather).
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