Being an American who likes metric units is kind of interesting. When I'm not deliberately forcing my head into one system or the other, everyday measurements involve a mishmash of units from both systems. Which units I can use comfortable without calculating conversions vary depending on both scale and context. I mean the units I can "eyeball", weigh in my hand, etc.
I think of small volumes in milliliters; sightly larger volumes in ounces, cups, and pints; the next range is a toss up as to whether liters or quarts and gallons will pop into my head; and large volumes are in cubic meters.
I think of very small everyday distances in thousandths of an inch (guitar string thicknesses); merely small distances in millimeters; slightly larger distances come out in centimeters or inches randomly, and similarly in yards or meters with roughly equal likelihood, except for a middle range that's always in feet; when you get up to travel distances, it's miles, never kilometers. Sometimes it's minutes or hours [of non-rush-hour driving]. Unless it's short travel, in which case it's "blocks", but that's a whole 'nuther story. Clothing is all in inches.
Force: sometimes Newtons, usually ounces or pounds. Which sucks, because I really hate doing force calculations in pounds, so the moment I do math, I'm converting. If the force is weight, it's going to be in pounds or tons, unless you're handing me something with its mass labelled for me in kilograms, in which case I'll think of its weight in Newtons.
Yes, I know that many people use kilograms for weight. Yes, I know that it's not considered incorrect. It bugs me. I haven't gotten used to it. I think weight in metric, I think Newtons. So it's probably not surprising that when I think of mass it's always in kilograms or grams. The slug is just not used often enough for me to have gotten used to thinking of mass in the British system at all, and I twitch at using pounds for mass.
Small masses, such as for drugs, are, unsurprsingly, all in milligrams or grams. Though it confuses the Hell out of doctors when I use grams for that. "How much ibuprofen did you say you take?" "One gram." "You mean one tablet?" "No, I mean one gram." "You mean one milligram?" "No, I mean one gram." "How much is that?" "A thousand milligrams. One one-thousandth of a kilogram." "How many 200mg tablets is that?" "Five." [stops to think] "You mean you take a thousand milligrams?" "Isn't that what I said at first? That's a gram." Sheesh.
Velocity comes out in meters per second, feet per second, or miles per hour, depending more upon context than magnitude. On long stretches of Interstate without much other traffic around, I often find myself calculating the conversion of MPH on my speedometer to meters per second. And at some point I'll wind up describing automobile speed that way in an LJ entry not to be cute about units, but because it draws the mind to a different perspective on just how fast one is moving.
And then there are tools ... I used to own a car -- a 1978 Pontiac Catalina -- on which half the bolts were English and half the bolts were metric. So I needed two complete socket sets to work on one car. Gotta love America, eh?
Additional thoughts about mks vs. British
I think of small volumes in milliliters; sightly larger volumes in ounces, cups, and pints; the next range is a toss up as to whether liters or quarts and gallons will pop into my head; and large volumes are in cubic meters.
I think of very small everyday distances in thousandths of an inch (guitar string thicknesses); merely small distances in millimeters; slightly larger distances come out in centimeters or inches randomly, and similarly in yards or meters with roughly equal likelihood, except for a middle range that's always in feet; when you get up to travel distances, it's miles, never kilometers. Sometimes it's minutes or hours [of non-rush-hour driving]. Unless it's short travel, in which case it's "blocks", but that's a whole 'nuther story. Clothing is all in inches.
Force: sometimes Newtons, usually ounces or pounds. Which sucks, because I really hate doing force calculations in pounds, so the moment I do math, I'm converting. If the force is weight, it's going to be in pounds or tons, unless you're handing me something with its mass labelled for me in kilograms, in which case I'll think of its weight in Newtons.
Yes, I know that many people use kilograms for weight. Yes, I know that it's not considered incorrect. It bugs me. I haven't gotten used to it. I think weight in metric, I think Newtons. So it's probably not surprising that when I think of mass it's always in kilograms or grams. The slug is just not used often enough for me to have gotten used to thinking of mass in the British system at all, and I twitch at using pounds for mass.
Small masses, such as for drugs, are, unsurprsingly, all in milligrams or grams. Though it confuses the Hell out of doctors when I use grams for that. "How much ibuprofen did you say you take?" "One gram." "You mean one tablet?" "No, I mean one gram." "You mean one milligram?" "No, I mean one gram." "How much is that?" "A thousand milligrams. One one-thousandth of a kilogram." "How many 200mg tablets is that?" "Five." [stops to think] "You mean you take a thousand milligrams?" "Isn't that what I said at first? That's a gram." Sheesh.
Velocity comes out in meters per second, feet per second, or miles per hour, depending more upon context than magnitude. On long stretches of Interstate without much other traffic around, I often find myself calculating the conversion of MPH on my speedometer to meters per second. And at some point I'll wind up describing automobile speed that way in an LJ entry not to be cute about units, but because it draws the mind to a different perspective on just how fast one is moving.
And then there are tools ... I used to own a car -- a 1978 Pontiac Catalina -- on which half the bolts were English and half the bolts were metric. So I needed two complete socket sets to work on one car. Gotta love America, eh?