# One way the "metric system" is better.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 14, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893 "2007-01-14T02:19:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/1 "2007-01-14T02:19:23Z")
I just finished a chocolate bar - that has ever and as far as I know, came in 100 gram increments, at least overseas. But in the US, a candy bar tends to get smaller over the years, a preference for the marketer or manufacturer to avoid raising the price, which is understandable. Apparently, as someone once noted, “fun size” candy bars have specific dimensions. And the canned commercial coffee vendors tried to pull some nonsense that a pound isn’t really a pound anymore, but the new pound “makes more” due to some vague, unspecified magic. A gallon of milk hasn’t been molested yet so far as I know, but pre-mixed orange juice isn’t really standardized. And bacon - by god, I’ve had hickory-smokes rashers that had hang time over huge platter/plates at road-side diners, and band-aid sized, limp sthat hid under the tomato, once, at an overseas AAFES concern. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/2 "2007-01-14T02:26:44Z")
I don’t see it. What’s to stop them from making your chocolate bars come in 90 gram increments? ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/3 "2007-01-14T02:29:06Z")
I agree - but it hasn’t happened in years, so far as I know. A long time - I guess the question is, have 100 gram chocolate bars appreciated drastically in price? I hate to use the name Hersheys, but they were a nickle or a dime, for a looong time, and then they just got smaller and smaller. I don’t know what they cost today. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/4 "2007-01-14T02:50:54Z")
[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory] I don’t see it. What’s to stop them from making your chocolate bars come in 90 gram increments? [/QUOTE] The mighty [EU](http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/prepack/packsize/packsiz_en.htm). However most of these regulations [will be abolished soon](http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1253&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en) and they will be able to mess with our pack sizes, too. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/5 "2007-01-14T03:42:50Z")
So what exactly is it that you’re debating here? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/6 "2007-01-14T06:02:27Z")
Oh yeah? Back during the Great Metric Scare of the Seventies distilleries started bottling liquor in 750ml (0.198 gallon) quantities rather than in fifths of a gallon (.200 gallon). Those two thousandths of a gallon is MORE than a quarter shot (1 liquid oz), you know. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/7 "2007-01-14T07:50:07Z")
One place the imperial system can keep its clammy death-grip is in supermarket fliers. $2.99/lb (for example) is often prominent while the corresponding $6.59/kg is as small as the law will allow. The fliers at www.loblaws.ca are perfect examples. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/8 "2007-01-14T09:05:13Z")
[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory] I don’t see it. What’s to stop them from making your chocolate bars come in 90 gram increments? [/QUOTE] The Great Dwindling Candy Conspiracy happens in metric, too. I’m sure I’ve seen cany in 90-gram packs, then 87, then 84… ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/9 "2007-01-14T11:48:56Z")
I guess my complaint isn’t in the standard measurement used, but “less is more” is just silly, at least when it refers to a candy bar or “pound” of coffee ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/10 "2007-01-14T13:35:37Z")
In Soviet Russia, Metric System… never mind, I’ll get my coat. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/11 "2007-01-15T09:34:29Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] The Great Dwindling Candy Conspiracy happens in metric, too. I’m sure I’ve seen cany in 90-gram packs, then 87, then 84… [/QUOTE] Definitely happens - in fact back in the 80s and 90s in the UK, there was a persistent cycle of serial small reductions, followed by an abrupt increase back to normal size (with a “Now 15% bigger!” campaign); sometimes the abrupt increase would take the size up to a gramme or so more than the original size, allowing the campaign to take the form of “Bigger than ever!”. Metric measures don’t prevent this - in fact they may even encourage it, because a single gramme is a very small decrement. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-way-the-metric-system-is-better/387893/12 "2007-01-15T10:51:53Z")
Dunnow about candy (I’d say Gummy Bears are the same size now as 30 years ago) but it sure happens for bread. The large bar of bread used to be 1kg; now it’s 490g. Nobody calls it “pan de kilo” any more, of course.