[whatgoodisaroad]

Perhaps this is off topic, but it's always strange to see writing thousands of kilometers. If we're gonna use the meric system let's commit to it: either write megameters or millions of meters.

It's a very cool visualization in any case.

[amacneil]

Not strange at all. Kilometers is a unit of distance that we are familiar with.

I have literally never heard the term “megameter” used in conversation and I’m pretty sure if you said it in any metric country you would get blank stares.

[ComputerGuru]

My lab scale shows me grams to the thousandth (the accuracy is only to the hundredths). Would you have it show me 7000mg instead? What about 17000mg?

I think it’s much better to pick a unit that makes the most sense for the bulk of your readings and abuse it instead of changing units on me. Imagine if it went from 999mg to 1g, now imagine it trying to settle between them. Or you are weighing a dozen items that are all expected to have a weight of about 1g and need to log the results - think of the unnecessary cognitive overhead the changing units would cause.

[throwaway984393]

I think you just gave a compelling case for why there should be multiple units. It's much simpler to just write a small number and a whatever unit identifier, than have to read large or unwieldy numbers.

I just cooked a recipe where it asked me for 100 grams of a paste, 90 grams of a liquid, 70 grams of a powder, 30 grams of a spice, 15 grams of another liquid. Do people in other countries have measuring spoons in gram size? And do you always tell people whether you meant by volume or weight? Tablespoons, teaspoons, cups and ounces just seems easier than having to measure a fraction of some large number.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Do people in other countries have measuring spoons in gram size? And do you always tell people whether you meant by volume or weight?

Grams are a mass measure. A recipe calling for X grams of Y requires a scale to be accurately followed. Volumetric measurements, e.g. teaspoons and ounces, are easier to follow, but they're less accurate. (Canonical example is salt. Ask for a mass measurement of salt, and you'll always get the same amount of it. Ask for a volumetric quantity, and your mileage [hehe] will vary based on what type of salt is used.)

[feanaro]

I have a couple of scales when cooking. A small gram scale weighing up to 200g works wonders for this.

[stephen_g]

Kilometres is the 'native' unit for normal people thinking about driving, flying or shipping in most metric countries (obviously pilots and sailors use different units, like nautical miles, but for regular passengers it's km).

All road signs, the distance indicator on the entertainment system in planes, etc. are always set out like that (e.g. 1617 km to Cairns, or 11,980 km to Dubai).

From my point of view (whole life in a country that is exclusively metric), it would be really strange to see this kind of distance written in millions of metres or megametres. Would feel totally unintuitive.

[MattGaiser]

A lot of people really struggle with both large numbers and changes in units.

Our current system is basically the social consensus of what is easiest.

[Gigachad]

The best part is it doesn't even matter. If you like megameters most, just put an imaginary . before the first 3 digits.

[MattGaiser]

Yes, a lot of people struggle with even that.

[listenallyall]

I think for large monetary units, newspapers and reporters should always use millions. Ask a guy off the street, what's larger, $500 million or $2 billion? I bet most get it wrong. That infrastructure bill that just passed? 1.2 million millions. How rich is Jeff Bezos? 200 thousand millions. The total US national debt? 29 million millions. Say it that way and it actually sounds like a large number.

[Rastonbury]

Why should there be consistency/commitment? Other than for the sake of itself? Genuinely curious where this desire for things being the way they 'should' be comes from