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Comment by 0wis | Hacker News Reader

Yes, a very confusing error. The metric time is the SI time (24h 60m 60s). The decimal time is base 10. French tried to get it used during the revolution and it did not work. Its the only unit that resisted decimalization, with a couple others ones in a handful of countries still using something called « imperial units ».

Another similar thought experiment is binary clocks which I remember using to get use to read in base 2. [1]

Weekly clocks are also a good way to change perspective on time. [2]

Both are fun to use, especially with other people if you manage to get them to experiment with you. Both have the avantage of avoiding any confusion with SI time.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_clock [2]: https://dayclocks.com/products/classic-oak

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>with a couple others ones in a handful of countries still using something called « imperial units ».

The only country I know of offhand that uses "imperial units" is the UK.

There's a different, but similar (and sometimes overlapping) system called "US Customary Units" that's used in the US. Imperial pints and gallons are NOT the same as US pints and gallons.

Thanks ! Sorry I overlooked this. Did a little research and I think the most confusing in this is the ton. At least, pints, gallons and miles have a different name than the metric unit and are way different than their SI equivalent. Not close by around 10%, one more (the long ton) and one less (the short ton). A perfect way to get the wrong quantity of a thing without noticing it at first. And if that’s not confusing enough, using « long » and « short » for a mass unit..

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne

the UK pint is bigger than the US pint. Know this before visiting and it could just save you a hangover.

The now relatively uncommon UK gallon is the volume occupied by ten lbs of water in the same way a litre of water weighs a kilogram. Not only are the pints bigger there’s also twenty ounces (also rarely used now) in them which means a fluid ounce of water weighs by definition an ounce in the imperial system.

Though they like to pretend otherwise, there's still quite a bit of non metric use in Canada.

We use a mix of everything in the UK, although metric is common in many areas where it matters.

As a US observer, my favorite UK unit is the stone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)

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