Should America go metric?

[Renathras]

I'm indifferent, and I'm a physicist.

I like metric for length, but Fahrenheit/Rankine uses smaller units, which means more precision without having to rely on decimals. I also don't place water as particularly more worthy of being the charter for a temperature scale than several other important elements/molecules (Oxygen or Carbon come to mind). It isn't any more logical just because the spacing is 100, and Kelvin uses larger units than Rankine.

And no one uses metric time to my liking. I'd like to see there be 10 hours in a day and 100 minutes in one of those hours. The week and year would still be foobarred, but at least the hours and minutes would be easier to translate.

.

See, the imperial system (and time) are based on some ancient Babylonian system which was base 12. Or base 60, I forget. Either way, that's why you get 12, 3, and 5,280 (feet in a mile). It's also why you get 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 3,600 seconds in an hour. These all translate well into base 12/60, whichever it is.

We don't use base 12 or base 60. We use base 10. Because fingers/thumbs and toes. ^_^

.

I also don't like having to change while other people get to not change.

So if you want me using metric, then I demand you use METRIC TIME! And also Rankine. Just because Rankine is fun to say.

And, honestly? I'm not sure of a good reason not to switch to a base-10 time. There really isn't one. And then "everyone would have to relearn time!" isn't good enough since you're already demanding people relearn length and temperature.

.

EDIT: I should also say I would favor it being done gradually over time instead of instantly. Like start teaching it in the schools and using it alongside the imperial system (like reading online articles that say values in $, pounds, and euros, or miles and km side by side) so people get used to translating them.

Then, once everyone basically knows it, you can dump the old system.

.

I guess my best analogy is language.

Suppose you have a society that has some overly complex language no one wants to use EVER (and I mean REALLY bad. Like 100 times worse than English.) So what do you do if you want to get rid of that language?

Well, you first make all the people bilingual. Teach them all English in the schools, adopt English as the second language of the state/country, provide free classes for people to learn it, ect.

Once everyone can speak, write, and read English, and the older people can at least understand enough of it to do whatever they need to do, then you can slowly remove the old language from common and official use. By the 50 year mark, you can get rid of it entirely except for historical purposes.

.

Units are a language of their own, so I think the parallel holds. Like I can deal with metric units of length fine. I see a meter as approximately a yard, and miles and km are large enough I can think in either term more or less the same (I just think of them in terms of football field lenghts.)

...but Celsius still screws with my head. I can't get over 20 degrees being a comfortable temperature. XD

...though that does remind me of the day that I thought that VGAPlanets' "temperate" planet would actually be a boiling hot wasteland (50 degrees Celsius was the middle temperature. Likewise, the "arctic" planets of 0 degrees Celsius wouldn't actually be all that bad...)

[Seegtease]

I'm indifferent, and I'm a physicist.

I don't know about physicists, but carpenters love feet, because they're divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6. Better than 2 and 5.

I like metric for length, but Fahrenheit/Rankine uses smaller units, which means more precision without having to rely on decimals.

Also, it's based on human comfort.

[obdigore]

Shouldn't there be a caveat there that Kelvin 0 and 100 is both dead from cold? :P

[Seegtease]

Shouldn't there be a caveat there that Kelvin 0 and 100 is both dead from cold? :P

If anyone does not understand that, they clearly cannot be involved in this discussion constructively!

[obdigore]

If anyone does not understand that, they clearly cannot be involved in this discussion constructively!

Your expectations are too high for an internet message board, I think.

[Cakka]

Isn't metric also used in US science?

I mean, metric is by far superior.

Yes. The metric system is used by scientists all over the world, well at least in papers sent to reputable scientific journals.

Edit: To answer the question it's only really meaningful in science which is very international but already uses it, and in foreign trade where two different systems obviously create unnecessary extra costs. How much extra, I have no idea though no matter how much it would save money to switch to metric system over the longterm. How fast it would start saving money obviously depends on how much it costs to have two systems atm. So in the end it would be beneficial for the US to adopt it but it doesn't really matter to me either way.

[Arkenaw]

I don't know about physicists, but carpenters love feet, because they're divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6. Better than 2 and 5.



Also, it's based on human comfort.
<snip>

I found this waaaaaaaay funnier than I should have.

[Mayhem]

More annoying is time. Half 12 means 12:30! Not 11:30!

Although I can understand the rationale...

as an austrian, the germans do this half wrong half right

they say "half 12" for 11:30 but use "quarter past 12" and "quarter to 12"

in austria it´s "quarter 12" = 11:15, "half 12" = 11:30 and "three quarters 12" = 11:45 (exceptions are some regions in austria)

i translated the actuall saying, so don´t be confused, it sounds better in german ^^

-snip-

i laughed to long at this xD thanks

[Deleted]

Metric system, 24 hour clock, proper date format, celsius, PAL and 220v electricity.. Yes please.

[Kobor]

More annoying is time. Half 12 means 12:30! Not 11:30!

Although I can understand the rationale...

That is exaclty what we are using in Hungary, that is more logical for us.
Half 12 is 11:30 here, because half an hour pasted already from 11:00 to 12:00

11:15 is quater 12
11:30 is half 12
11:45 is 3 quater 12

For me it is logical and consistent, and easy to learn. Although I learned the English version of the time.
Of course we can have any other time format in speecg, like 5 minute to 12 (11:55) or even 2 minute over quater 12 (11:17) depending how we wanting to say it.

For the YYYY-MM-DD version that we are using. We say it is 2012 December 14th, not the "reverse" order.
Somebody say the reason using the Day at first place to have the most important information.

Firstly, not everytime it is the most important. If you have a list of birthday dates, you are probably looking who is younger and older at first place, then you can have the detailed information on month and day.
Secondly, if you are talking abouth the same year in an informal letter, you can always just say we will meet on december 20th or just on 20th if we now it will happen next week.

[Skizo]

I think in relation to Europeans, this comes down to a "mind your own damn business" situation. The U.S. already uses metric where it matters, stop trying to change a culture that isn't yours.

[Kobor]

I'm indifferent, and I'm a physicist.
I guess my best analogy is language.

Suppose you have a society that has some overly complex language no one wants to use EVER (and I mean REALLY bad. Like 100 times worse than English.) So what do you do if you want to get rid of that language?

Well, you first make all the people bilingual. Teach them all English in the schools, adopt English as the second language of the state/country, provide free classes for people to learn it, ect.

Once everyone can speak, write, and read English, and the older people can at least understand enough of it to do whatever they need to do, then you can slowly remove the old language from common and official use. By the 50 year mark, you can get rid of it entirely except for historical purposes.

Unfortunatly it is happening (for a purpose) in most countries. It is a good thing to know a common (English) language, but don't want to erase others.

For the Standards it is a different story. For TV system Secam was used in Eastern part of the Europe to not have compatible for the (bad) western region. But now everbody use PAL, no problem with it. This is the part of globalization that USA and western countries initiated. So you started it, why not be part of it?

[Tsuna]

I'm american. We should use the metric system. Will we? Odds are, not for awhile. The costs for changing signage nationwide are so staggering it gives me chills just thinking about it.

[Mayhem]

I'm american. We should use the metric system. Will we? Odds are, not for awhile. The costs for changing signage nationwide are so staggering it gives me chills just thinking about it.

i know i´m repeating myself, but doing something like this would bring a whole bunch of new jobs to the market, not a bad idea i think

[Cakka]

I don't know about physicists, but carpenters love feet, because they're divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6. Better than 2 and 5.



Also, it's based on human comfort.

Celsius is based on water which is just as easy to understand in real life(or even easier). At 0 C water freezes, at 100 C water boils and it's more accurate than "really cold" or "really hot".

[Skizo]

i know i´m repeating myself, but doing something like this would bring a whole bunch of new jobs to the market, not a bad idea i think

In America we don't create government jobs using the justification that someone will have a job. Their purpose needs to exist entirely independent of their employment opportunities.

---------- Post added 2012-12-14 at 10:05 AM ----------

Celsius is based on water which is just as easy to understand in real life(or even easier). At 0 C water freezes, at 100 C water boils and it's more accurate than "really cold" or "really hot".

The only time the average person cares about the boiling temperature of water is when they're boiling water.

[Cakka]

In America we don't create government jobs using the justification that someone will have a job. Their purpose needs to exist entirely independent of their employment opportunities.

---------- Post added 2012-12-14 at 10:05 AM ----------



The only time the average person cares about the boiling temperature of water is when they're boiling water.

LOL yes? What's your point? That doesn't mean that it can't be used for it's "really cold" and "really hot" outside too.

[Tsuna]

i know i´m repeating myself, but doing something like this would bring a whole bunch of new jobs to the market, not a bad idea i think

A shift to metric would be something approved by the government (presidential election level big). Jobs created for such projects would thus be controlled by the government. Take into account the government ineptitude-due-to-bureaucracy coefficient and you get a catastrophic shitstorm. It's like what happens when the state government of Hawaii decides to build a high speed rail system on an island just shy of 1M people that's going to run the state 6B dollars for the sake of "Creating jobs for the construction unions", bad-freaking-day.

[Skizo]

LOL yes? What's your point? That doesn't mean that it can't be used for it's "really cold" and "really hot" outside too.

It isn't as practical as fahrenheit for measuring comfort using the scope that you are suggesting. 0 degrees fahrenheit means wear thick clothes. 100 degrees fahrenheit means wear light clothes. 0 degrees celcius means wear thick clothes. 100 degrees celsius means that you're dead. It simply isn't as practical in measuring human comfort on a 0 to 100 scale.
The systems are different and neither one is wrong, they just go to show different things.

[Wildtree]

as an austrian, the germans do this half wrong half right

they say "half 12" for 11:30 but use "quarter past 12" and "quarter to 12"

in austria it´s "quarter 12" = 11:15, "half 12" = 11:30 and "three quarters 12" = 11:45 (exceptions are some regions in austria)

i translated the actuall saying, so don´t be confused, it sounds better in german ^^

WAIT........ Germans express that, depending on Regions.
Your example throws everyone in Hamburg off.
half 12 means 11:30 in southern Germany.. But 12:30 in Northern Germany. But there's even more diversity.
30 min til noon. The raw number use isn't uncommon either.. 11:30.
And to make it worse, in southern Germany we also don't say either the past or the to. There's exactly like you explained for austria.
You better know it, or you have no clue about logic what "three quarters 12'' means lol

I said that to someone once, and they like..... 3 quarters 12...... NINE.. is it nine? No it isn't nine, it was nine already hours ago..
So much to logic defeating itself lol