Metric is essentially a blend of two things; a set of units (meters, liters, etc) and dividing them by decimals.
Where both the units and the decimal divisions have a problem is when you don’t have well labeled measuring devices. Anyone can figure out a third, or a half or a quarter, and then divide down from there with any given container. Dividing a container into tenths, and then more tenths isn’t as viable. Not impossible, just not as easy as fractional divisions.
Then there’s the units. To get a cubic centimeter, you first have to take a meter and break it down.
This applies to weights and volumes as well. Grams are such a small base unit that estimating with it is difficult. Liters are the exception to that, you can easily visually estimate a liter or a gallon, and if it’s a liquid that’s familiar, do so by feel as well.
But milliliters, cubic centimeters, those run into trouble.
Which is whatever. But the point is that the units are arbitrary. You could take a foot and divide it into ten and have a unit just as useful for decimal maths as centimeters. It’s decimal vs fractional calculations that most people bitch about. And fractional is just as useful, and no harder to do on the fly once you’ve gotten to about the 6th grade.
All of that may seem moot when you’re baking at home and have your scale and measuring devices of choice. But when you aren’t in a kitchen set up for your preferences, relying on the smaller units becomes a problem. If you’re away from an actual kitchen, the gap becomes even more significant because it’s not that hard to make containers that approximate cups with accuracy, less so with liters, and even less with milliliters.
That’s because most of the cooking units in imperial pretty directly fit readily available objects, with a small enough variance to not waste resources in the process.
Now, you can learn to visually or tactilely approximate SI units too. You can get used to the weight of what a hundred grams feels like, or what it looks like when it’s known material. It’s just not as simple as the imperial units in that regard.
Now, if you want to run into where imperial units really suck, look into the different standards for what sets dry and liquid measure by volume. They’re different, but a gallon and a cup are rarely specified as liquid or dry, which means that the other units derived from them are a pain in the ass if you don’t know the difference. And don’t get me started with the fact that us standard units and imperial units aren’t actually the same in every case.
But, again as units they are standardized and no more or less useful than SI units inherently. Nor is fractional vs metric/decimal a comparison that’s inherently better on one side or the other for all uses in the kitchen (and definitely not in the general sense).
What makes it harder?
And you don’t need to be accurate to the milliliter for cooking. At that point you can get a laboratory pipette if you want to.
Metric is essentially a blend of two things; a set of units (meters, liters, etc) and dividing them by decimals.
Where both the units and the decimal divisions have a problem is when you don’t have well labeled measuring devices. Anyone can figure out a third, or a half or a quarter, and then divide down from there with any given container. Dividing a container into tenths, and then more tenths isn’t as viable. Not impossible, just not as easy as fractional divisions.
Then there’s the units. To get a cubic centimeter, you first have to take a meter and break it down.
This applies to weights and volumes as well. Grams are such a small base unit that estimating with it is difficult. Liters are the exception to that, you can easily visually estimate a liter or a gallon, and if it’s a liquid that’s familiar, do so by feel as well.
But milliliters, cubic centimeters, those run into trouble.
Which is whatever. But the point is that the units are arbitrary. You could take a foot and divide it into ten and have a unit just as useful for decimal maths as centimeters. It’s decimal vs fractional calculations that most people bitch about. And fractional is just as useful, and no harder to do on the fly once you’ve gotten to about the 6th grade.
All of that may seem moot when you’re baking at home and have your scale and measuring devices of choice. But when you aren’t in a kitchen set up for your preferences, relying on the smaller units becomes a problem. If you’re away from an actual kitchen, the gap becomes even more significant because it’s not that hard to make containers that approximate cups with accuracy, less so with liters, and even less with milliliters.
That’s because most of the cooking units in imperial pretty directly fit readily available objects, with a small enough variance to not waste resources in the process.
Now, you can learn to visually or tactilely approximate SI units too. You can get used to the weight of what a hundred grams feels like, or what it looks like when it’s known material. It’s just not as simple as the imperial units in that regard.
Now, if you want to run into where imperial units really suck, look into the different standards for what sets dry and liquid measure by volume. They’re different, but a gallon and a cup are rarely specified as liquid or dry, which means that the other units derived from them are a pain in the ass if you don’t know the difference. And don’t get me started with the fact that us standard units and imperial units aren’t actually the same in every case.
But, again as units they are standardized and no more or less useful than SI units inherently. Nor is fractional vs metric/decimal a comparison that’s inherently better on one side or the other for all uses in the kitchen (and definitely not in the general sense).