Should America go metric?

[hellboyy]

doesn't the engineering and scientific people already use metric in the US?

i don't think it really matters when it comes to ordinary citizens measuring distance or weights etc.

[Arkenaw]

Because, ultimately, for most measurements the metric system is more logical and easier to use. It's also the international standard, so most professionals get used to it anyway at this point.

---------- Post added 2012-12-13 at 06:36 AM ----------



Who's saying anything about "suddenly?" They've already talked about this, and Canada has been phasing it in for the last 40 years.

I would personally never use it, and I doubt the majority would either. It's not more logical and easier to use for someone who has been using something else their entire life. This is basically the same thing as asking everyone to learn English because then it would be easier to communicate.

[UnholySanctuary]

Yes, I do think we Americans should go metric, as it would alleviate needing to convert imperial to metric with imported good, ect. Why the heck does our government insist on us being unique? It's a pain.

[Arkenaw]

Yes, I do think we Americans should go metric, as it would alleviate needing to convert imperial to metric with imported good, ect. Why the heck does our government insist on us being unique? It's a pain.

It is not an insistence on being unique, but the exact same reason that there are different languages.

[Chrysia]

It is not an insistence on being unique, but the exact same reason that there are different languages.

Not entirely. Languages tend to evolve over time, English being a prime example.

Systems of measurement are much less fluid. Most of the modern world works in metric because it is logical, easy to learn, and pretty much everyone else uses it.

We stick with Imperial because we are stubborn, it's what we are used to, and we don't like to change.

Scientists/engineers embrace metric because it makes a fuckload more sense than imperial with the way we think.

[blaqkmagick]

I personally have always been a supporter of going metric, its more widely used and its easy. More recently i have changed my mind. There is a few instances where i always like the imperial units... I think a foot is a better unit of measure than the amount of cm that a foot equals, i think F is better than C for temp but that is probably because i was raised that way. I really see no reason that we cant use both...if we are using metric the imperial units can still exist, I mean one unit of measure does not negate the other...if you are using metric a mile is still a mile.

Another option that we could do is move to a base 12 numbering system so that imperial units make more sense...of course I am sort of messing around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6xJfP7-HCc
A real good video about base 12 counting.

Lastly the date thing...i vote everyone should go month/day/year...I dont know how its done else where but when i ask someone the date they say "December 12th, 2012"
the say month then the day then the year...makes more sense to me to write it the same way.

Also there has been talk about clocks and time...(I personally always use a 24 hour system [military])the time we use now is a base 12 system if we wanted to go full metric everyone should change the units of time that we use to a 10 based system...

This was an awesome video. Thanks lol

And this whole conversation about metric being more logical reminds me of the time I tried to learn Esperanto just for the fun of it. That was fun stuff. It's a nifty language.

[Gheld]

You miss the point that the difference between 10 K and 20 K is negligable to human beings. You'll have frozen to death long ago. 20 C and 10 C is however a meaningful distinction for human beings - which is precisely why C is vastly superior for daily use. For the same reason why using meters (rather than say parsec or ly) when measuring distances between stars would be ridiculous.

No... I made that point, that Celsius works in subjective situations because we are made mostly of water. You just didn't include that part in your quote.

My main point was that scientifically, Celsius is garbage.

[Grizzly Willy]

Sure. Make some jobs by converting all of our road signs to metric. (Half joking; I do support the metric system.)

[Deleted]

America could go Metroid

[anveena]

No, the US shouldn't. The rest of the world should switch over to the imperial system.

[Sylla]

No, everyone should go dozenal and keep imperial units.

[Chrysia]

No, the US shouldn't. The rest of the world should switch over to the imperial system.

And watch as the entire scientific community rebels.

Not really, but Imperial is infinitely more convoluted to use in most situations. Scientists hate imperial for the most part.

[RaoBurning]

America should, but won't, because old habits do die hard. And metric is too rational

We here in America are a stubborn lot. We'll switch when it threatens our military superiority, and not a day before. Or something. I'm tired.

Seriously though, I'd like to not have to jump through 5280 hoops when I'm trying to do my conversions for math and stuff. Doing my chemistry work is beautiful because all of our equipment is metric. So very, very nice.

[krunksmash]

I voted no. we use standard and always have. to date it works; However, I feel school should actually teach metric along side standard as knowing metric makes it easier to travel over seas as well as making it easier for students to understand college algebra where standard and metric ( decimal and fractions ) inter mix to solve problem example being logarithms.

EDIT: teaching metric will also prepare people for jobs in health and science. knowing both standard and metric natively opens up doors that are other wise partly closed to thoes who only know 1.

[Teremett]

There is one isolated stretch of highway here in Louisville, KY where they added signs with the speed limit in kilometers per hour as well as miles per hour many years ago. Unfortunately, it didn't really catch on. Anyway, I absolutely think that Americans should use the metric system. What we have is completely nonsensical.

[RaoBurning]

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.

There's no bias. Our system is shit compared to metric. It makes no sense in modern times and the only reason we keep it is habit. I'd also be willing to bet NASA uses metric whenever possible. I'd even bet a dollar on it.

[Arkenaw]

If we didn't have calculators I'd be inclined to agree that we should switch to metric, but there's no point in taking the time to adapt to learning the new measurements and spending money updating everything when it takes 10 seconds to google feet to meters or to multiply one number by another.

[Chrysia]

If we didn't have calculators I'd be inclined to agree that we should switch to metric, but there's no point in taking the time to adapt to learning the new measurements and spending money updating everything when it takes 10 seconds to google feet to meters or to multiply one number by another.

Why convert, when you can simply speak in the same terms?

[Zephyr Storm]

Even though it would cost a lot of money, and be a huge pain in the ass for a lot of people, yes I believe America should switch over to the metric system eventually. It just makes sense to be on the same system as the rest of the world. I work in the medical field, where pretty much all of our stuff is metric all ready anyway. So let's do it! I'm American by the way.

[Arkenaw]

Why convert, when you can simply speak in the same terms?

Because it's a matter of taking months or years for learning how far something is when someone says "1000 meters away" or "29 Celsius."

"Roadwork ahead 1000 meters" means nothing to me. I'd rather spend 10 seconds converting than months of awkwardly adapting to the new units.