this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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Facepalm

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Anything that makes you apply your hand to your face.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Interesting.

But we use fractions a ton here in the US. For example, you can buy milk in a half gallon or a gallon. When you measure, you use 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup. In metric, you rarely use fractions and instead just change the unit (e.g. 250ml or 1L).

Since it's so common here, it's honestly nuts to me that anyone here would be confused at whether 1/4 lb or 1/3 lb is bigger, because we use fractions so often here. If you've ever cooked anything in your life (incl. macaroni and cheese from a box), you've dealt with fractions in real life. I probably do more fraction math than decimal math, especially since I buy everything with my credit card, so when I see a decimal, I round it to the nearest convenient fraction (e.g. I bought 4.5lbs of meat recently for a dinner party, and I communicated that as 4 1/2 lbs). If you ask me how many ounces are in a 1/4 cup, I'd have to stop and think. But if you ask me how many 1/4 cups are in a cup, I'd have the answer for you on the spot.

So I could see this happening in areas where fractions aren't common, but in the US, it's something everyone deals with, pretty much daily. Oh, btw, we have one of these at my local dump:

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