The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread XXXIV

[Synobun]

Why isn't there a unit measured in how much you can approximately cup in a hand? Then you wouldn't need any measuring devices.

Because then people like me with baby hands are at an even greater disadvantage in life!

 

[Snerk]

That's true I hadn't taught about that. Back to the drawing table then.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I grew up in Ontario, and I'm always surprised at how half-metric, half-imperial things really seem to be, lol. My parents' and my sister's home thermometers are in fahrenheit, even when their weather channel and everything's in celsius. I haven't used an oven in Canada in ever such a long time, do your ovens do fahrenheit or celsius? I remember growing up and going to doctors I was always told my weight in pounds and my height in feet and inches, oh but I do admit I've been gone for almost fifteen years so I totally understand things might've changed. But like just a couple years ago I was staying for a week at a rental house, and I went to try to purchase some cheese from a grocery store deli, and I asked for 500 grams, and the woman working there just sort of gave me a blank look like I was speaking ancient Greek or something, until she corrected me to "Ohh .. one pound!", I guess I was just assuming she'd want me to ask in metric, lol.

I just took a look at the oven in my kitchen (I've never used it), and it doesn't have either temperature. It goes on a scale of 1-9 (min to max).

I've been considering a toaster oven, and actually did find one online that's both affordable and uses both imperial and metric. It's been frustrating because the microwave instruction book didn't include a conversion chart and some recipes and packaging only include metric.

This business of understanding one scale but the instructions/information being in the other are why I ended being the "navigator" the last time my dad and I made a trip out to Vancouver Island. The map was in metric. My dad didn't do metric if he didn't absolutely need to, so it was my job to read the map and road signs (all metric) and convert that to miles for him.

As for the deli situation you encountered, that's unusual in my experience. At the deli I use, if I asked for 500 grams of cheese, I'd get 500 grams of cheese, and nobody would act like I was speaking a foreign language.

Are there any produced domestically? Maybe they're all American imports.

I have seen ovens with both measurements. We don't have them here in this building, though. But it's obvious that whoever wrote my microwave instruction manual didn't give a damn that they have Canadian customers who are used to metric.

As for measuring tapes, I've got some that are imperial-only and some that are both.

Why isn't there a unit measured in how much you can approximately cup in a hand? Then you wouldn't need any measuring devices.

People have different-sized hands. It used to be an ongoing argument between my grandmother and me when she was trying to teach me to bake... "a handful of this..." and I'd ask "how many grams?" and she wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about. She considered me stupid for not automatically knowing how much a "handful" was.

Well, for someone who took several years of chemistry, "a handful" is not a precise enough measurement. I did eventually learn to estimate some measurements, but only in recipes I made often and had modified from the original. But that came after a lot of experimentation and was done to make the texture come out right (sorry, but you just can't put 3 cups of rolled oats into that chocolate haystack recipe and not have it come out crumbly).

 

[The_J]

Because then people like me with baby hands are at an even greater disadvantage in life!

Na, everything would still work out, because everything will be equally disproportionate.
You might end up with a small meal though ^^^.

 

[Hrothbern]

Why isn't there a unit measured in how much you can approximately cup in a hand? Then you wouldn't need any measuring devices.

cup
you mean volume ?

 

[Snerk]

Would probably have to be a volumetric unit yes.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Why isn't there a unit measured in how much you can approximately cup in a hand? Then you wouldn't need any measuring devices.

There is. That is called a "handful."

 

[Snerk]

What's the ratio between a Tim handful and a Syns handful?

 

[Hrothbern]

Would probably have to be a volumetric unit yes.

yeah
that's difficult
for lenght I used my hand for fast estimates
my thumb for 2.5 cm, the knuckles of my four fingers for 10 cm, my furthest span from thumb to little finger 20 cm

 

[Timsup2nothin]

What's the ratio between a Tim handful and a Syns handful?

Well, as noted that is the problem with units that are based on body parts.

@Hrothbern, just think how much easier it would be if the centimeter were of such a size that instead of an odd measure like "2.5" the average thumb was more like "1.0."

 

[Hrothbern]

Well, as noted that is the problem with units that are based on body parts.

@Hrothbern, just think how much easier it would be if the centimeter were of such a size that instead of an odd measure like "2.5" the average thumb was more like "1.0."

yeah
metric system was invented by scientists and engineers, for their calculations
not by the people that have to build their stuf with your hands

 

[Synobun]

What's the ratio between a Tim handful and a Syns handful?

His is likely to be double mine.

 

[rah]

Yes, built by hand, where the standard 2 by 4 when finished is 1.5" by 3.5"

 

[Farm Boy]

At least it's standardized both in how it's sold unfinished approximately and how it's sold more precisely when finished.

 

[rah]

And I can't see a carpenter calling it a 1 and a half by 3 and a half. 2 by 4 is easier. But it made me questions a lot of dimensions when building a house.

 

[Farm Boy]

Oh my yes.

 

[Takhisis]

Thanks for the answers. Sounds promising. If I go there amidst my transition I don't risk much.

If you haven't done the transition yet, I don't know whether the double shock of putting up with a new physical sexual identity and having to adjust to an entirely different country (do you speak the vernacular language of either?) wouldn't be too much. You might want to ask a specialist first.

cup
you mean volume ?

CFC always reverts to discussions about cup size.

 

[Snerk]

CFC always reverts to discussions about cup size.

Personally I find that a pair of petite Syn cups are just as lovely as a set of double Tims.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Anything more than a handful is wasted.

 

[Traitorfish]

CFC always reverts to discussions about cup size.

If you're talking about the relative merits of pints versus schooners, then I have several opinions.