Should America go metric?

[Mayhem]

NO It is way to complicated, image the logic that 10mm = 1 cm and 10 cm =1 dm and 10 dm = 1m.....

i call witchhood/witchery/witch-uhm-stuff ? insane!

[Bakis]

America should go metro sexual!

[redderz1]

Why the hell should it matter how you measure something so long as the person your talking too knows what you mean?

I'm from the UK and grew up in a strange time. We "went decimal" at the beginning of the 1970's and so I was educated by people who were learning both systems.

I believe the US tend to think that the UK is Metric. Far from it. Most people tend to swap between the two systems at their convenience.

If I were to ask someone how big a piece of wood we needed....they might say to me....."yeah we need some 4 by 2"....4 inch by 2 inch. Sheets of plywood even today are sold in 6 x 4 ft.

If I were to (as I do at work) do an engineering exam of a bridge and I find a crack in some concrete, I'd measure it in millimetres. In fact all dimensions would be metric. But at the same time, the railway system itself is measured in Miles, CHAINS and Yards. And chains are an absolutely ancient unit of measurement.

End of day. Use whatever system you dam well like.

[Wildtree]

So you want to make sure you're getting the exact amount of cheesy poofs that the bag says it contains?

Yup.. you can say it like that. Staying on the German example. it wouldn't be the first time for a company to get caught and fined for "consumer fraud" if the amount IN the package does not meet the number stated ON the package. The German law is touchy in that regard.

---------- Post added 2012-12-14 at 08:00 AM ----------

I believe the US tend to think that the UK is Metric. Far from it. Most people tend to swap between the two systems at their convenience.

Yeah, learned that long ago too.... Played Warhammer tabletop battles... There, inches are used for movement of troops, and long range attacks.
That's fun.. a bunch of Germans sitting there, guessing distances in another measuring system. Hilarious results, let me tell ya.

[Bakis]

Why the hell should it matter how you measure something so long as the person your talking too knows what you mean?

I'm from the UK and grew up in a strange time. We "went decimal" at the beginning of the 1970's and so I was educated by people who were learning both systems.

I believe the US tend to think that the UK is Metric. Far from it. Most people tend to swap between the two systems at their convenience.

If I were to ask someone how big a piece of wood we needed....they might say to me....."yeah we need some 4 by 2"....4 inch by 2 inch. Sheets of plywood even today are sold in 6 x 4 ft.

If I were to (as I do at work) do an engineering exam of a bridge and I find a crack in some concrete, I'd measure it in millimetres. In fact all dimensions would be metric. But at the same time, the railway system itself is measured in Miles, CHAINS and Yards. And chains are an absolutely ancient unit of measurement.

End of day. Use whatever system you dam well like.

Cos it is impractical since the rest of the world use another system. Every second there is a misstake made somewhere that will cost someone time and money due to misstakes converting them into each other.
If disregarding the temporarily issues for quit some time to go metric, there is zero upside of not doing it

It is really the same about driving on the same side of the road, no sense not doing it once the issues of swapping in itself has passed.

[Flutterguy]

Cos it is impractical since the rest of the world use another system. Every second there is a misstake made somewhere that will cost someone time and money due to misstakes converting them into each other.
If disregarding the temporarily issues for quit some time to go metric, there is zero upside of not doing it

It is really the same about driving on the same side of the road, no sense not doing it once the issues of swapping in itself has passed.

It would cost the US a tremendous amount of money to convert the system. Now...If the EU was willing to pay for the US's conversion to Metric, we might be able to work something out.

[GennGreymane]

yes

just shut it with the whole day month year things, that 1 is 100% irrelevent

[Bakis]

It would cost the US a tremendous amount of money to convert the system. Now...If the EU was willing to pay for the US's conversion to Metric, we might be able to work something out.

Of cos it cost alot of money, most things do. However there is a reason the military uses it, the upsides are obviously huge but as you mention there is the issue of coughing up a huge ammount of money and letting 5-10 years of mayhem pass at the transition.

Question never been if its the right thing to do but if the the money can be spent to achive it.

[GennGreymane]

America should go metro sexual!

waaaaayyyy ahead of you!

[capitano666]

It would cost the US a tremendous amount of money to convert the system. Now...If the EU was willing to pay for the US's conversion to Metric, we might be able to work something out.

Allow me to quote myself:

It can be done gradually, let's say for example that a new hypothetical law says every new road sign has to include both measures, and in 20 years all the new road signs will only contain metric values.
This way you have no extra expense at all, you just insert the new system in the normal road sign replacement cycle.

That's how we usually do our changes to adapt to EU rules, and trust me we had several things to change.

---------- Post added 2012-12-14 at 03:26 PM ----------

just shut it with the whole day month year things, that 1 is 100% irrelevent

I'm a programmer, I assure you it is really annoying when you see something like 01-05-2012 and you don't know what the hell is that

[redderz1]

Cos it is impractical since the rest of the world use another system. Every second there is a misstake made somewhere that will cost someone time and money due to misstakes converting them into each other.
If disregarding the temporarily issues for quit some time to go metric, there is zero upside of not doing it

It is really the same about driving on the same side of the road, no sense not doing it once the issues of swapping in itself has passed.

I understand your point, I guess I was looking at it from more of a "freedom to measure how you want". stance. Sure when talking engineering and commerce then metric makes more sense. I would think someone was an idiot if they tried to do an engineering exam of a railway structure in imperial.

My stance is more based on civil liberties.

Only a few years ago here in the UK, when the EU tried to enforce metric weights and measures, many peopleignored it and refused. Grocers working on street corners who had been selling lbs of bananas for 40 years refused. It went as far as these grocers having their imperial scales confiscated and even facing jail!

The bottom line of this argument was "who the f**k do the UE think they are to tell me I can no longer ask for a lb of bananas?"

The EU is pretty much all Metric. I just enjoy the system in the UK as we work with both. Travel on UK roads ? Everything is in miles. Buy some petrol, its sold in Litres.

[Kobor]

NO It is way to complicated, image the logic that 10mm = 1 cm and 10 cm =1 dm and 10 dm = 1m.....

No, it is very logical.

Most prefixes is in 1000 steps, like milli (*10^-3), micro (*10^-6), nano (*10^-9) and pico (*10^-12) donwside and kilo, mega and giga and tera for upside that you already know.

1000 millimeter is 1 meter (milli is /1000
100 centimeter is 1 meter (centi is /100)
10 decimeter is 1 meter (/10)

Same prefixes milli, centi, deci is used for liquid, like 2 deciliter is around a cup of tea or 4 centiliter is a good amount of spirit :-)

This unit was introduced for easier everyday life.
Like A4 paper is 21cm wide, but in science they are probably use 210 mm for precision.

[Spectral]

Of cos it cost alot of money, most things do. However there is a reason the military uses it, the upsides are obviously huge but as you mention there is the issue of coughing up a huge ammount of money and letting 5-10 years of mayhem pass at the transition.

Question never been if its the right thing to do but if the the money can be spent to achive it.

I'm not sure what the practical upsides are. While metric is superior, it doesn't really do anything for most people one way or the other.

[Bakis]

I'm not sure what the practical upsides are. While metric is superior, it doesn't really do anything for most people one way or the other.

It is logic and shared worldwide, two sides that might not seem to be super duper at first glance but are.
Just imagine how much wasted money and time that are caused on daily basis.

[capitano666]

Only a few years ago here in the UK, when the EU tried to enforce metric weights and measures, many peopleignored it and refused. Grocers working on street corners who had been selling lbs of bananas for 40 years refused. It went as far as these grocers having their imperial scales confiscated and even facing jail!

The bottom line of this argument was "who the f**k do the UE think they are to tell me I can no longer ask for a lb of bananas?"

The point is, you can still measure the stuff the way you want, but when you sell them you have to print a receipt using the legally recognized unit.

[Blastit]

no because its easy enough to understand for americans, but yuropoors dont know out system so it confuses them. It gives us the upper hand come invasion of the USA. its 300 miles to atlanta, how many kilometres is that

[Spectral]

It is logic and shared worldwide, two sides that might not seem to be super duper at first glance but are.
Just imagine how much wasted money and time that are caused on daily basis.

I guess I don't really know when this would become a problem. I'm trying to imagine a circumstance where large amounts of time and money are wasted, and I'm failing to do so.

[Reeve]

no because its easy enough to understand for americans, but yuropoors dont know out system so it confuses them. It gives us the upper hand come invasion of the USA. its 300 miles to atlanta, how many kilometres is that

480. Multiplying 300 by 1.6 isn't too difficult.

[Xindi]

I like the chart you showed.. Minus the blatant bias against the American system.

Doesn't seem to stop us from being the first to get to Mars or the first in quite a bit of historical mile stones is it?

Shame.

Except of course the scientists actually achieving those firsts tend (being scientists after all) to be working in SI units...

[Spectral]

480. Multiplying 300 by 1.6 isn't too difficult.

But it's more like 483! See, potential invaders will totally underestimate the distance and run short on gas...