Consistency in American Standards: A Foreigner’s Perspective | January 25 2025, 22:26

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What I appreciate about the USA is the consistency of standards, especially those non-vexing ones.

For instance, right now, I’m stuffing a duvet cover. In Russia, I had to shove a 200×210 cm duvet into a 210×200 cm or a 200×210 cm cover—well, you get the idea. In the States, it’s a square 90-inch duvet and a square 90-inch duvet cover. Although, duvet covers aren’t really a thing here.

Electrical outlets and light switches seem to be universally the same. I’ve never seen different ones. Pure standard. When you plug something in, it doesn’t block the area for the adjacent plug. Most dishwashers are 24 inches wide, refrigerators are 36 inches.

If there’s a left turn on the road—in our parts, it’s always a separate lane. I can’t recall an intersection where cars behind wait to go straight when you turn left.

Front doors are 36 inches, interior doors are 32 inches. In general, when you need to measure something, it’s very pleasant that almost all dimensions fit within a grid of 1-2-4-6-12-16-18-20-32-36-48 inches. That is, there’s almost nothing like 17.5″ x 13.5″.

All east-west highways have a two-digit code ending with a zero, north-south ones end with a five. The smaller the number, the closer to the east or south respectively. For example, highway 15 is north-south, west coast, while 95 is north-south east, and 90 is east-west northern part, and 10 – east-west southern part.

Secondary highways have three digits, where the last two digits are from which you exit. For example, 285 – you exit from 85. And if the first digit is even, it means the secondary highway will eventually lead back to the primary one with that number.

ZIP codes also follow a standard system. The first digit represents a major region of the USA, and the digits roughly proceed from the east coast to the west. The second and third are for navigation within the region, and the last one – for city area navigation (delivery zone).

House numbers are even on the right, and numbers increase as you move away from the center. Often, a hundred numbers are allocated per city block, so the hundreds often signify blocks.

Bottles and cans often come in very understandable volumes – 12, 16, 22, 32 ounces, half-gallon, gallon. Yes, it’s unusual, but at least there isn’t a package of 900 grams of milk next to a 1-liter package. Yes, I intentionally put grams and liters side by side.