User:Rossenglish/Units

This is an at-a-glance comparison of metric system and U.S. Customary conversions. Units for other measurements, like area, may be added later.

Imperial and Customary units are needlessly complicated; some units differ in different situations (liquids and solids) and different countries (USA and UK), and the unit symbols are not always standardised. Here they have been simplified; some units are omitted (quarts, grains, stone etc), and only U.S. Customary units are given. The orders of magnitude vary from 2x (2 pints in a quart) to 1760x (1760 yards in a mile); I think – there may be more but how are you supposed to remember?

The metric system is consistent, simple and standard in all situations. m means milli-, k means kilo-, and M means mega, and they all multiply or divide by a factor of 1000. This extends to tiny dimensions (10-24 = y = yocto-) and enormous ones (1024 = Y = yotta-), and across dimensions (length, mass, volume) with no inconsistencies. There are no complications with metric, although some units and factors are spelled differently in U.S. English, and the megagram is usually called a 'tonne' or 'metric ton'. The unit symbols are standard in all countries and languages, so these differences are trivial.