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Comment by thearn4 | Hacker News Reader

We've already seen metric creep in a little bit: I'd imagine pretty much every American out there can conceptualize what 2 liters looks like.

edit: in addition, military servicemembers should all have a good practical feel for 1km (one "klick").

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Why is that? I'm just curious, because I (finnish) can't associate two liters with anything of the top of my head. Everything is always one liter.

The largest container of most soda brands available in American supermarkets is a 2L bottle.

The "family size" (or store size) soft drink bottles in Europe are usually 2L. Alternatively you can visualize 4 cans of energy drinks (bar the tiny redbull ones) or 4 small bottles of coke, or slightly more than 4 pints of beer ;)

I'm actually wondering what is 1L? The only thing I can think off is either the medium milk bottles or the "meal size" soft drink bottles that some convenience stores stock. Unless Finland has a very different bottling system than even Sweden I think you need to think again.

The 2L soft drinks are probably available, but I just never buy any of them. Milk, juice and yoghurt come in one liter packages.

Right, but I'd imagine you can conceptualize the 2l bottle of coke that you see in the supermarket - even if you don't buy it/drink it.

Sure, now that people mentioned them. That's why I said "can't associate .... of the top of my head". But that's not the point. The parent implied that there is something that's 2 liters that all Americans know, and I was curious as to what that is, because I, despite living in a metric country, couldn't think of anything.

It's far simpler for an American because soda in the US is widely available in three sizes:

* 12 fl oz (355 mL) aluminum can

* 20 fl oz (591 mL) plastic bottle

* 2L plastic bottle

Depending on the brand and store availability I've also seen 12 fl oz glass bottles, 1L bottles, and sometimes smaller sized cans as pretty standard sizes. Other types of drinks (such as energy drinks) can vary in what containers they use.

In general, though, if you're buying soda for a family or for more than one drink/meal, you're going to be buying a 2L bottle (and refer to it as such).

Do metric countries sell as many 2L soda bottles as the US does, relative to other soda sizes?

Actually, the soda bottles in Finland are 1,5 L at most.

From what I remember from most scandi supermarkets carton milks are 1 and 1.5L and plastic bottles are 2 and 2.5.

As far as soft drinks go bottles like these http://www.premierexports.co.uk/1595-2155-thickbox/diet-coke... are as far as I know standard across all of Europe and they are 2 liters.

I just went to my local S-Market and looked around a bit. The big soft drink bottles were all 1.5L (as noinsight said). Milk is available in 1.5L cartons too, but no plastic bottles of any kind. Of course, I do live in a pretty remote corner of the country, so maybe the selection isn't what it is in Helsinki.

2L soda bottles are ubiquitous.

Coincidentally, not in Finland. The largest soda bottles are 1,5 L.

We've been at this since the 70's.

Honestly the problem is we needed to keep tooling for manufacturing (eg, Detroit).

At least Detroit seems to be solving itself. No more excuses soon, US!

Detroit is mostly metric. Many US-built cars use all metric fasteners. For export, you have to use metric fasteners, because few outside the US have inch-sized tools. Imported cars are, of course, all metric. Aviation is mostly metric for the same reason. DoD is metric to be compatible with NATO.

Housing, however, hasn't converted at all. Building dimensions, HVAC and plumbing in the US are still on inch units.

In reverse, in Europe measuring pipes ( or tools for them) diameter in inches is quite normal and ubiquitous. In oil business a lot of stuff is also measured in imperial units.

Let's not forget the monitor screen sizes. You can only get it in inches, so pretty every IT guy has a rough idea of how much is 14" and so on.

Yeah, the monitor one is a farce when you don't know aspect ratio though. And at some point the arguments over resolution start and then it gets truly awful. Monitors have scared me.

Except France, where even monitors and TVs are measured in cm.

The humble 2x4 piece of lumber will likely be the last major industrial component to change over in the US.

Which actually measures 1-1/2" by 3-1/2", but let's not go there...

That actually raises an interesting question, what are dimensional lumber measurements like in metric?

Or do countries that use the SI system generally not use wood for framing?

In Canada we still use imperial for construction stuff, I guess for import/export reasons.

Oh and Farenheit for water and cooking temperatures. No idea why because I have no freaking idea what a Farenheit is otherwise.

But will it?

In the UK 2x4, 2x2 etc is still commonly available, but it's 50x100mm. Probably has been for 30 years but only sold as 50x100 for ten or less. Metricating timber was easy because no one's going to notice or care if they get 25mm instead of each inch.

Metals, fastenings, pipes etc converted much slower because metric was often incompatible sizes without adapters.

> Which actually measures 1-1/2" by 3-1/2",

Isn't that because it's 2x4 before planing. cut lumber would be actually 2x4.

> Isn't that because it's 2x4 before planing. cut lumber would be actually 2x4.

It used to be, but now we're more efficient in our rough cutting and a 2x4 you buy was never actually a full 2x4.

And cut lengths of timber and sheet materials are usually multiples of 30cm but many people will order "8 foot" rather than 2.4m. Likewise joist and stud centres. However you can also get 3m or 5m, for example. Of course, most houses in the UK were built pre-metric system, so rooms will mostly be sized in feet, if they are in round units at all.

And even then, it can vary by +/- 1/8". (I don't know if this is due to shrinkage from drying, or if they are deliberately milling it smaller to get more linear feet.)

More than that. It's 2x4 when cut wet, but shrinks to 1-1/2 x 3-1/2 when dry(er). Note that it will continue to grow and shrink over its life as humidity changes.

I don't try to figure out their fake dimensions; I just measure and buy what fits.

Oh, and this is why composites like MDF and plywood are better sometimes.

...few outside the US have inch-sized tools.

An interesting frustration I've found in working with an immigrant friend: even though most of the fasteners we're turning are "imperial", he simply can't use imperial wrenches, because they require a familiarity with fractions. I'm fine with moving from half-inch to nine-sixteenths when the wrench is a bit too tight to fit, and frankly at this point I can usually tell the difference by eye before even opening the toolbox. OTOH my friend just goes from 13mm to 14mm to 15mm, ruining nuts and bolt-heads in the process.

Since tools should work for people rather than the other way around, one must conclude that metric-sized fasteners are superior to imperial-sized ones. It does seem odd that imperial fasteners were never sized by e.g. the twentieth of an inch, since that would have solved this problem completely.

Which is sad because the original complaint was they didn't want to switch because they'd need to replace their imperial tools. Joke's now on whoever said that, because it worked: now they need two sets of tools.

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