Should America go metric?

[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.

[Deleted]

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...

[Reeve]

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

Which just goes to show that our country works fine using imperial units for day-to-day usage and SI for engineering/science type uses.

[Annoying]

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

YYYY/MM/DD for life. Or long date format, at least.

[Dasffion]

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.

I don't think you realize, or appreciate, just how many signs there are in the US. Even done gradually it would be a massive undertaking that would cost a crap load of money.

[uopayroll]

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.

Didn't a space probe crash into a planet/moon because a majority of the components were reading/outputting metric and some others were in imperial. So when the probe was 1 KM from the surface, and the thrusters said 1 mile, it descended and crashed in a billion dollar pile of ashes

found it on CNN http://articles.cnn.com/1999-09-30/t...eam?_s=PM:TECH

[Reeve]

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

Oh right. I forgot the nine thousandths of a kilometer more each mile has. That'll get them redcoats!

[Muzjhath]

Converting between imperial and metrc(SI) is easy. More so if you've got a smartphone. Converting WITHIN imperial, that's what the hassle.

Had you been using a hexanumerical system it would have been a different story!

[Deleted]

On the topic of temperature - I use Kelvin; it is the better system.

It's the same scale as Celsius, just uses the absolute zero (temperature at which even Oxygen freezes) as 0 degrees, whereas Celsius uses the freezing and evaporation temperatures for 0 and 100 degrees

Also Metric>Imperial in any way possible. If in doubt, look at the picture in OP.

[Reeve]

I don't think you realize, or appreciate, just how many signs there are in the US. Even done gradually it would be a massive undertaking that would cost a crap load of money.

Not really. Those signs have to be replaced every so often anyway. If they're just changed then, it's not really that big of an undertaking.

[Mayhem]

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

first of all we couldn´t invade the US even if we wanted to... second we own calculators, it´s not like that we can´t mulitply or divide... and third being able to easy convert from volume to length is pretty practical, but do as you please it is really none of my business

[Dasffion]

Not really. Those signs have to be replaced every so often anyway. If they're just changed then, it's not really that big of an undertaking.

Newer signs can last up to about 20 years. That's more than "every so often".

EDIT: I think people might also be forgetting that it's not just the overhead signs and the 300 miles to X signs but also the mile markers and exit signs (that are based on mile markers) that would need to be changed.

[Mayhem]

Newer signs can last up to about 20 years. That's more than "every so often".

EDIT: I think people might also be forgetting that it's not just the overhead signs and the 300 miles to X signs but also the mile markers and exit signs (that are based on mile markers) that would need to be changed.

just imagine how fast you´re allowed to drive going from mph to kmh only because of the signs without changing your cars xD hell yeaaah

---------- Post added 2012-12-14 at 03:59 PM ----------

no officier i was going 130 mph .. what? that´s kmh, whats a kmh?

[Kobor]

Didn't a space probe crash into a planet/moon because a majority of the components were reading/outputting metric and some others were in imperial. So when the probe was 1 KM from the surface, and the thrusters said 1 mile, it descended and crashed in a billion dollar pile of ashes

What I have learned from physics value without unit behind it means nothing, like 10.

You need to specify if it is 10m 10km or 10mile.

[Reeve]

Newer signs can last up to about 20 years. That's more than "every so often".

EDIT: I think people might also be forgetting that it's not just the overhead signs and the 300 miles to X signs but also the mile markers and exit signs (that are based on mile markers) that would need to be changed.

So? Change them when their 20 years are up. It's not as if all the signs out there right now are brand new, either. You'd get some percentage of the signs changed over each year until all signs had both notations on them, then you'd start changing to metric only. The whole thing might take ~40 years, but if we care about it enough, that's really not a big deal, and the costs wouldn't really be much more than the costs were going to be if we stuck with Imperial units.

[Dasffion]

So? Change them when their 20 years are up. It's not as if all the signs out there right now are brand new, either. You'd get some percentage of the signs changed over each year until all signs had both notations on them, then you'd start changing to metric only. The whole thing might take ~40 years, but if we care about it enough, that's really not a big deal, and the costs wouldn't really be much more than the costs were going to be if we stuck with Imperial units.

Yeah, I don't think anyone cares that much about it. It's really not worth it.