the metric system

[blackhole123]

First of all im not sure where to post this so feel free to move it.

 

My question is WHY doesn't the United States use the metric system?? I mean they teach us cetain way when the whole rest of the world is using the metric system. And when you get to high school they use the metric system in all of the science classes you take, so why not just teach us that to begin with? Why do we have to always be different? Its just idiotic and confusing.

[silkworm]

I always learned the metric system in school, even as a little kid. I started learning about it in first grade, but then everyday usage of the other system made that education of that system look more like a simple nuisance. I don't know why we don't use it everyday. Now, I love the metric system and I think metrically. It makes so much sense.

 

Let's just start using the metric system. It'll catch on, no worries.

[Tetrahedrite]

I think that as the older people in the USA who are most resistant to the metric system start dying out, the imperial system will simply start to die out as well. The metric system is far more efficient to use, and a lot easier to understand, which will become more important in a technology driven society.

[insane_alien]

i use metric most of the time though i can still use the imperial systems of measurement for when talking to old people or americans.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

We tried. Sometimes in the US I notice very old road signs with kilometers as well as miles - the change was tried and abandoned (although the government uses metric officially).

[jordan]

Most engineering firms I've seen (at least in my limited exposure to them) work in English Units. It took me a while to adjust.

[Bignose]

If America started selling beer in metric units, all the college kids would figure it out real quick.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I think all US drinks, including beers, are labeled in fluid ounces as well as milliliters.

[Klaynos]

In the UK most people are taught both at school.

 

Most people over about 30 use the imperial system. Although everything has to be sold in metric, and roadsigns are still in imperal... We have LOTS of fun...

 

Anyone using anything other than SI or derivatives of SI in a science class will get laughed at...

[insane_alien]

although in engineering classes both are used. including some obscure units that haven't been used since 4 century egypt.

[D H]

One hundred years is old for a person, but not for a company. The metric system is over 200 years old. It is industry that makes the US continue using the imperial system, not people. People can adapt. Old machines cannot.

 

The US made it through World War II relatively unscathed; most other industrialized nations did not. For those countries ravaged by WWII, the cost of post-war conversion to metric was small as there was little pre-war infrastructure that got in the way. The US was THE industrial might for a long time after WWII. There was no incentive to convert (the rest of the world still bought our manufactured goods), and a big disincentive to do so (conversion costs money and interrupts supply chains).

 

A significant fraction of US manufacturers has quietly switched to the metric system over the last several years. For example, new cars are uniformly outfitted with metric parts regardless of brand or country of manufacture. So in a sense, we have gone metric.

 

Purely domestic industries such as construction that are subject to few external pressures such as international competition and compliance with foreign regulations don't feel compelled to convert to the metric system. These industries will be the last to fall.

 

I just replaced a kitchen faucet this weekend. It took me just a little time to replace my existing faucet with a brand new one because the new one matched the old in dimension and pipe threading. Easy job. It would have been a tough job if the only new faucets in the hardware store had metric threads.

[1veedo]

I think they should start using both, like the road sign (the weather channel shows celsius...). Eventually they can get rid of the old one all together.

[JohnB]

Why do we have to always be different?

You're American.

Its just idiotic

Like I said...........

 

:-)

[insane_alien]

A little thing that i don't like about americans(ok this doesn't apply to all of them and most of you guys and gals are not a problem in this way) is that america uses the imperial system and automatically asume that the rest of the world uses that system. Just a moment ago i was called "a ****tard" for using the metric system when "everybody in the world uses american units" so ignorant he didn't even know he is using the imperial system from the uk. i've seen this alot.

[blackhole123]

You're American.

 

Like I said...........

 

:-)

 

:-p

[gcol]

The metric system was promoted by Napoleon Bonaparte, the well known European tyrant, mass murderer and Hitlerian role model, so naturally, as an Englishman of a certain age, I am against it!

[blackhole123]

just for all these comments about Americans the next time the Germans attack you we're not coming to your rescue.

 

[gcol]

just for all these comments about Americans the next time the Germans attack you we're not coming to your rescue.

 

 

Phew, that is a relief, we could not afford it (see thread on National Debt).

[CanadaAotS]

I use imperial for weight and height... and thats about it. I rarely think of my weight in kgs, and have no clue of my height in cm's lol. other then that, I use metric for everything else.

 

Is acres metric or imperial? if its imperial I use that too I guess lol

[Klaynos]

I use imperial for weight and height... and thats about it. I rarely think of my weight in kgs' date=' and have no clue of my height in cm's lol. other then that, I use metric for everything else.

 

Is acres metric or imperial? if its imperial I use that too I guess lol[/quote']

 

acres are imperial, often hecters are used as a metric equivalent, but m² is more usefull as I know how big a metre is but can never remember how big a hecter is...

[Glider]

...and the measure of an acre as 'the ground that can be ploughed by one ox in one day' is dodgy since the introduction of steroids and growth hormone in cattle feed.

[gcol]

 

What is so special about metric units anyway? The whole system starts with an arbitrary unit and uses an archaic and arbitrary base 10 counting system, because we have 10 fingers. This makes it easier for mathematicians who can't use a calculator, and primary educators whose performance is judged by ticking the box that shows how many kids have memorised their times tables. Myself, I like the idea of a banana as a basic unit, and a base 20 counting system when I am sandalled and sockless in the summer and use my toes as well.

 

Imperial is user friendly, that goes down well in the USA, the land of the free and the progenitor of dumbed-down consumerism.

 

I enjoyed that, feel better now. Send me a food parcel.

[1veedo]

Metric is so much easier than imperial. 12 inces in a foot? 3 feet in a yard? Makes no sense at all. The only thing that makes sense is 100 yards in a football field. I'm not sure how many football fields are in a mile though.

 

(actually, 4 laps around a football field... that's 3 football fields in a lap, times 4, is 12?)

[gcol]

1veedo:

 

An inch is a short thumb, a foot is the average length of that male appendage, and a yard is the distance from the tip of your nose to your outstretched finger tip. At least, those were the measurements of the (English?) King who first made a recorded stab at an enforceable standard in this country. Cant have been too bad if much of the world fell-in with it until Napoleon got a fit of pique.

 

Dont forget rods, poles, perches, chains, leagues and fathoms: also the difference between land miles and nautical miles. Air speed for commercial aircraft is, I believe, still internationally measured in knots (1 nautical mile per hour, where a nautical mile is 2000yds). While we are at it, why still 24 hrs in a day and 12 months in a year (an invention, I believe of the Romans who wanted to fit in another god or two). A calendar month does not even fit in with the phases of the moon. 360 degrees in a circle still? There is another mediaeval anachronism.

 

Those examples are just the tip of the iceberg. I prefer not to be shoehorned into a one-size-fits-all boring universal conformity, thanks very much.

[1veedo]

Thanks for the info. I was joking more than anything else.

 

I think the real reason we use these "random" measurements, like imperial and examples you gave, is more or less social proof. "Metric is better than imperial" isn't going to get that far in a country were everybody uses imperial. Comulatively, we base what we think is correct on what we think everybody else thinks is corrent.

 

Something I've always found realy interesting is what I like to call "cumulative ignorance." It's where nobody really knows what to do, or people may have an idea of what to do but they dont want to take action without somebody else doing it first. What happens is everybody stands around looking at everybody else to find out what's going to happen next. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. There are stories of people in cities with medical emergencies who never get help. People might see somebody laying on the street -- is he homeless, or is something wrong? People hesitate and dont do anything. Everybody notices that nobody's doing anything so they assume nothing's wrong.

 

Yeah, metric might be great, but nobodys really going to do it for one reason:

Everybody (Americans) are going to assume that sense nobody else is doing it, they shouldn't be either. Nothing gets done and we're stuck using imperial.

 

Quite frankly it makes me mad that most people do this. We all think alike but nobody really thinks that much. That's why there are many followers and few leaders.