[semireg]

I just bought 24x 6” stainless steel rulers because every time I’d reach for one it’d be across the room at a different desk. Now I can capture a dozen at a time in their remote location for rehoming. Problem solved.

Also on my list of buy too many so I’m never left without: sharpies, microfiber cloths, jumper cables, rice (carbs), frozen sliced sourdough (fancy carbs), pocketable protein/energy bars.

[hilbert42]

I know, 12" rules are bad enough at disappearing but 6" ones seem as fleeting and ephemeral as the wind.

At least it's nice that one can now purchase them in packs of a dozen or so.

[bombela]

I am glad to be using metric. 150mm and 30cm rulers don't seems to run as fast as theirs us customary unit counterparts ;)

[hilbert42]

Mine are mainly metric or dual Imperial/metric too. I usually convert to Imperial because most readers are in the US.

If you were to read some of my old HN comments you'll realize defending the metric system in a US environment is pretty much a waste of time.

I recall one debate where some US commentators didn't have a clue about what a comfortable room temperature in Celsius would be. 68F=20C was meaningless to them even though 20C is a standard calibration temperature in lab and scientific work.

Not worth raising the issue.

[bombela]

I was primarily making a joke. But it is indeed a big pet peeve of mine.

I do find it annoying that one country in the world likes to use it's own unit. And that of course they are not as nice to use as the units optimized for science. It is annoying for international communication.

But my real issue is that Americans seemingly lie to themselves by pretending everything can be rounded off to the nearest approximation of US customary units without consequences. And so anything you buy in the USA; unless maybe when manufactured with US customary units; is not the advertised size. Worse yet, this habit of rounding off is also applied to US customary units in many case. Because nothing is ever the advertised dimensions, or the tolerances are just laughably large. Nothing ever fits. That is what I am fighting.

Ask for a 48" long piece of lumber in the USA, you get something +- 1/4" at best (+- 6.35mm). Go to my home country asking for 1.2m will get you something +- 0.5mm. It's cultural.