#so i didnt cover the whole weird interplay that metric and SI have in point 3 but the idea still stands | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

shinybulbasaur · 1 year ago

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gonna be a bitch for a second but "ohhh they're FINALLY teaching usamerican kids metric" 1. they've been teaching metric units in usamerican schools for decades because 2. they are the established common units of science that ALL equations are built around because 3. they're technically not metric units, they're SI (système international) which is the modern standardized form of metric and many units were redefined around standardizations that would allow for their use in these equations (for example, redefining a meter around the distance traveled by light in a set amount of time, or using kelvin rather than celsius). like yeah yeah it's funny to laugh at the usamericans using their weird measurements but if you're gonna act all high and mighty at least know your history

#sorry but im a scientist and a bitch and if you try and use celsius in the ideal gas law youre fucked!!!!#anyways. @ my non usamerican mutuals pls dont bully me i use metric (and SI) daily #also quick edit to say this was spurred by a specific post about SI units where everyone was calling them metric #so i didnt cover the whole weird interplay that metric and SI have in point 3 but the idea still stands #like. did you know that liters is NOT an SI unit? SI doesnt even have a distinct volume unit. just meters cubed #so common practice is still to use liters (or mL or μL in my case) in many scientific applications #same with celsius - kelvin is great for math! celsius is better for cells. do not switch them #basically all systems of measurement have their own importance and worth #and if you get too weird about them in my presence then i (as someone who converts between them daily) get to be a bitch #i didnt have to learn to convert between mol and mg/mL and %w/v just to not be weird about it back

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