[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.