Should America go metric?

[Chrysia]

OK read some of the posts. Guessing about zero people realize the English system is a base 2 system. Kind of important. I can see why ignorant people would think the English system is silly without knowing that little tidbit.

Because it isn't. Where does the base two come in? The obly place I can think of it is volume from pints to quarts to gallons. Literally nothing else.

[Deleted]

Because it isn't. Where does the base two come in? The obly place I can think of it is volume from pints to quarts to gallons. Literally nothing else.

Even then base 10 is far easier to work with.

[Tripl]

Would all our spell ranges have to be in meters? 40 yards? nope, 36.576 meters!

Actually, I switched to the German version of WoW yesterday in an effort to improve my basic German, and Blizzard has directly converted yard to meters. My spells now say 40 meters.


Also, lol @ ppl who say "the dd/mm/yyyy system is stupid, because you have to write it like you say it". You know, part of converting to a different system is learning to say it differently. The Netherlands says it the way they write it (both in English and Dutch): Monday the Tenth of December, Two Thousand and Twelve. (In Dutch you leave out the "the" and "of", resulting in: Maandag 10 December 2012)

It is either that or the yyyy/mm/dd system, although that will take some time to get used to. (2012-12-10, Monday... hmm)

[Deleted]

Actually, I switched to the German version of WoW yesterday in an effort to improve my basic German, and Blizzard has directly converted yard to meters. My spells now say 40 meters.


Also, lol @ ppl who say "the dd/mm/yyyy system is stupid, because you have to write it like you say it". You know, part of converting to a different system is learning to say it differently. The Netherlands says it the way they write it (both in English and Dutch): Monday the Tenth of December, Two Thousand and Twelve. it is either that or the yyyy/mm/dd system, although that will take some time to get used to. (2012-12-10, Monday... hmm)

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

Although I can understand the rationale...

[Angella]

Because it isn't. Where does the base two come in? The obly place I can think of it is volume from pints to quarts to gallons. Literally nothing else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units

Notice how most of the imperial system doubles each time it hits a new unit? A lot of the units historically used fell into non-use over the last couple centuries, but the basic English system is base 2.

A great deal of stuff follows a base 2 system, so I wouldn't be so fast to dismiss the value. That said, as long as everyone agrees on the base used, it really doesn't matter. IBM used base 16 for christ's sake.

[Seegtease]

It's not something you just convert. You teach both to Americans. You start posting speed limit signs and such in BOTH units (don't replace them, just when new ones are made or have to be replaced). This wouldn't cost any extra money, and people would gradually get used to it. It would take decades, sure, but it'd be gradual, easy to accept, and free. Eventually, if you felt it necessary, you could phase out the old system.

[Kraenen]

Why should we give up our culture just to satisfy European liberals?

a culture of ill logic? i'd give that up.

[Chrysia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units

Notice how most of the imperial system doubles each time it hits a new unit? A lot of the units historically used fell into non-use over the last couple centuries, but the basic English system is base 2.

A great deal of stuff follows a base 2 system, so I wouldn't be so fast to dismiss the value. That said, as long as everyone agrees on the base used, it really doesn't matter. IBM used base 16 for christ's sake.

Literally the only consistent doubling are the three I listed. All others double at times, and do whatever the rest of the time. That is not base 2 by any definition of the term.

[Demontjuh]

metric ftw, tbh to get to a "united world" we should generalize alot of things

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.

oh boii a typical american idiot...

newsflash.... everything America accomplished we europeans created being the founders of america and all...

Infracted: Please do not insult other users or nation bash

[Belize]

Yes, yes, yes and YES! You could even create jobs for people to change all the signs, it's a win-win here

[Catta]

metric ftw, tbh to get to a "united world" we should generalize alot of things



oh boii a typical american idiot...

newsflash.... everything America accomplished we europeans created being the founders of america and all...

Well technically the Soviets got to Mars first

[Adam Jensen]

Why should we give up our culture just to satisfy European liberals?

Because in this case, theirs is better.

There's nothing "liberal" about using a system of measurements that's easier to calculate.

[supmeh]

I'd be extremely happy to have all of America magically converted to the Metric system overnight... In terms of it actually happening here in reality though, nope. The impact it would have on our economy would be too drastic, especially with our current economic situation. A solution to slowly step into it over time or something might be worth it if planned properly, but the cost for factories and what not to convert their systems and the resulting impact of having new products different from old would definitely impact consumers in a negative way.

As for the Mars crash because of the mixed units and lacking conversion, that's definitely a reason that having it done magically would be nice... In the reality of it though, there would be a lot more of that from shortsighted decisions during the transformation process.

[Airwaves]

Lol at the people saying that they couldn't do it because America is in a bad place atm.. I think you need to go live in a place like Syria. Fiscal cliff would be the least of your problems. Going metric would only benefit you. Why they didn't change it when the rest of the world did I have no idea.

[crazymack]

I'm an engineering student and metric rocks, they don't even try and teach standard measurements in any of my college courses.
Also, holy crap guys if you don't live in America why would you care?!?!

[Airwaves]

I'm an engineering student and metric rocks, they don't even try and teach standard measurements in any of my college courses.
Also, holy crap guys if you don't live in America why would you care?!?!

Because ALOT of business around the world in many many countries would prefer that they went metric. America is the 2nd most important country in the world so a lot of people that don't live there still care what happens there.

[Angella]

Yes, yes, yes and YES! You could even create jobs for people to change all the signs, it's a win-win here

Broken window fallacy.

/cry

No hope for our generation.

[Belize]

Broken window fallacy.

/cry

No hope for our generation.

Hmmm... Maybe I should actually put something to indicate sarcasm next time... Not that I don't agree with going to the metric system, but it's just that the job thing has been pulled out sooooooooo many times I had to reference to it

[Byniri]

Yes. It would be easier to measure things, simply enough.

[Angella]

Hmmm... Maybe I should actually put something to indicate sarcasm next time... Not that I don't agree with going to the metric system, but it's just that the job thing has been pulled out sooooooooo many times I had to reference to it

Lol. Good show. I honestly don't care on the metric/English system thing. All the converting is done by computers anyways. Learning both systems though has some value. Doesn't really matter what two systems.