My friend who's a PhD student didn't know how many oz were in a cup...

The only conclusion you should draw is that your friend doesn't cook or bake for himself.

I don't want to speak for Canada, but didn't they use imperial pints, quarts and gallons before going metric? I think they could be forgiven for thinking that a pint was actually 20 ounces.I wouldn't expect most US Americans to know that.

A container has a shape of a cube.

Each side is about 6.13579244 in.

The volume 231 cubic inches,

It will hold 1 gal. of water.

The water has a weight of about 8.34540444 pounds.

A container has a shape of a cube.

Each side is 10 cm.

The volume is 1,000 cubic cm. (cc)

It will hold 1 liter of water.

The water has a mass of 1 kg.

For water 1cc=1ml=1gm

The conversion in question will likely be completely irrelevant to the OP's friend in life. The Imperial System of measurements doesn't apply in scientific fields because it isn't the standard method of measurement in the world. It is also simply awful for EVERYTHING when compared with metric. He probably learned it at some point and then forgot it because it isn't applicable in his life and he will never be inconvenienced by not remembering it. Sure, it's used in cooking/baking; however, there are these nifty graduated measuring tools that come in all of the sizes that would be used. It isn't going to hold him back at all not knowing the intricacies of the Imperial System.

Yep, sounds like you have an inferiority complex... Unless he's getting his PhD in American cooking, it's simple trivia, like knowing all the presidents or state capitals. No idea whether your friend is smart or not (know a few people who managed to get their PhD's while not being the sharpest pencils in the box), but this fact alone says absolutely nothing about his intelligence - the fact that you took the time to post this says something about yours.

It takes far more intelligence to use the more complex and therefore superior imperial system -- seriously, even an art history major understands the idiotic metric system.

That being said, I do use the metric system for cooking -- ie, grams for dry measurement -- as it's a far more accurate way to reproduce a recipe.

There are supposedly over 7 billion people on the planet right now. I imagine there are just as many of them who haven't learned the metric system as Americans who haven't learned the old English/European conversions.

chef murrika wrote:

It takes far more intelligence to use the more complex and therefore superior imperial system -- seriously, even an art history major understands the idiotic metric system.

Something isn't inferior because it is less complex. Metric is superior because of it's simplicity and ability to be used more practically because of it's simplicity. Your point that an art history major can understand the metric system kind of strengthens metric over imperial... It can be understood by anyone, thus making it a superior means of communication. Whereas conversions between imperial units requires nonsensical conversion factors that aren't immediately understood by everyone, making it an inferior means of communication to report in Imperial units. Ultimately, a reported measurement is a communication device and more understandable it can be the better it is. The point of measurements isn't to be complex so that only those knowledgeable in them can understand them, it's so that they are universally understood.

The ounce is another primitive roman measurement that should have died with them. Even though their numerals were essentially base 10, they still measured things mostly in base 2 and 3. Most of them understood little math, so they used 12 equal parts to divide things equally between 2, 3, 4 or 6 people.

Then when they rightly sank into genetic oblivion, each European kingdom changed the ounce as it saw fit, including the english who for some reason discarded the useful base-3 element, changing it to strictly base 2. Thus when three crook-toothed peasants needed to divide a pound of something, they each got five with an ounce left over.

Like most imperial measurements, the ounce was completely different from its namesake counterparts in other countries. In a global economy this is ridiculous. Napoleon heroically stopped the madness by forcing continental Europe to adopt the metric system, and it is now the measuring system of the whole world.

Ass-ume 3% of the non-American peeps of the world don't know le SI. That would make about 200 million measurement-challenged peeps. If can count to 10 then you can do le SI. There are about 320 million Americans. At least 1/2 of Americans are IP units challenged, but I think it is more likely 2/3rds are challenged. IP is an ugly horse-and-buggy system. Americans cling it out of fear of the great unknown.

themeasureofallthings wrote:

There are supposedly over 7 billion people on the planet right now. I imagine there are just as many of them who haven't learned the metric system as Americans who haven't learned the old English/European conversions.

not sure if surprised wrote:

I'm not sure if this is super significant, but he's a PhD student in ecology and didn't know how many ounces were in a cup, nor how many cups were in a pint. He's a born and raised American. Is this odd? I learned this in 3rd grade I believe, but maybe his university isn't very good?

I was born, raised, and educated in the United States (and I work in academic research), but I in fact never learned US customary units in school. That's not to say I don't know the basics, like pounds, inches, feet, and miles, but I would not say I'm comfortable with any US customary units other than the ones I just mentioned. I don't think US customary units are as prevalent as you might expect.

Furthermore, if somebody were to show me a jug of water, I would much more easily be able to estimate how many liters it held, or if somebody pointed to an object at a distance, I would much more easily be able to estimate how many meters away it was.

I think I was actually in high school when I discovered that a fluid ounce is not equal to an ounce of water, and I was pretty appalled (though apparently, some historical definitions of the fluid ounce were in fact given by one ounce of water, but not in the US). This contrasts with the metric case, in which one liter of water is one kilogram (though this is only true up to four decimal places, because of some technicalities).

946 smoots in a mile.

DaveyGuy wrote:

A container has a shape of a cube.

Each side is about 6.13579244 in.

The volume 231 cubic inches,

It will hold 1 gal. of water.

The water has a weight of about 8.34540444 pounds.

A container has a shape of a cube.

Each side is 10 cm.

The volume is 1,000 cubic cm. (cc)

It will hold 1 liter of water.

The water has a mass of 1 kg.

For water 1cc=1ml=1gm

This is why the metric way is so much better.

Did he or you know there are 16 guantadots in an ampulet and 4 buntas in a conto? The point is that the randomness in imperial units of measure can only be understood by cramming and not understanding/rationale.

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