Metric vs. Imperial brain

[DebW]

The one I can't understand is that several years ago the scientific journals I publish in insisted that we no long use millibars as a unit of atmospheric pressure, but hectopascals (ie. 100 pascals), which are exactly the same thing. Now you find people who read "850 hPa" as "850 millibars", as if millibars just has a new abbreviation. Very odd that hecto-anything is considered a standard unit.

I can generally deal with both English and metric units, but I absolutely cannot abide the Rankin scale.

[badgercat]

The one I can't understand is that several years ago the scientific journals I publish in insisted that we no long use millibars as a unit of atmospheric pressure, but hectopascals (ie. 100 pascals), which are exactly the same thing. Now you find people who read "850 hPa" as "850 millibars", as if millibars just has a new abbreviation. Very odd that hecto-anything is considered a standard unit.

I'm a graduate student in audiology, and we express middle ear pressure in daPa (decaPascals). Go figure.

I've lived in the US my entire life, but I try to think in meters because I seem to make more mistakes when I'm having to deal with things like eighths of an inch than when everything is just base 10--metric is so much easier! I do tend to think inches when sewing, though, since all of my good rulers and cutting mats only have inches marked. The interstate I take to my parents' house is marked in kilometers because it only exists between Tucson and the border with Mexico, and I still have no concept of how long a km is... I just know it goes by faster than a mile does.