How long, do you think...

[Loony BoB]

...until the metric system is the only official measurement system for any kind of measurement?

I recently found out that only a handful of countries (seemingly about three of them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Metric_system.png)) still have a non-metric system for measurements. Including America! Crazy. Surely they'll eventually make the official switch, though... and the same goes for all those countries that still have all their road speed limit signs in mph.

[Bunny]

I will never accept the metric system!

[Rye]

A while. America tried to go metric in the 90s, and it was ultimate failure. I'm sure the metric system is easier when you're raised on it, considering it's all based in 10s, but no one is going to switch now. ;o And I'm pretty dandy with the Imperial system.

[Peegee]

Why would you switch to metric?

I weight 160 lbs. I have no idea how many Kg that is.

I'm 5'6. I have no idea how many cm that is. I think it's 165 but I'm basing that on a 12" = 30 cm ratio. It's really 12 inches = 30.64 cm.

I drive on the highway at 100 km/h. That's around 62 mph
I can tell you that I max out at 100 mph on the highway but that's only a coincidence that 100 mph = 160 kmph
(actually it's 100 mph = 160.9344 kph)

:D I like both imperial and metric

[DK]

I will never accept the metric system!

I quite agree. The metric system can burn!

[Mirage]

If anything's gonna burn, it's the imperial system. Système International for lyfe.

[Raistlin]

The metric system will never catch on in the US. It's been tried before. (and failed because it sucks).

The metric system is the best system to use in a lab setting. Science in every country uses metric measurements. But for day-to-day lives, people here like using the imperial system, including me. Fahrenheit, feet, and pounds, especially, would be hard to do away with. What do you have equivalent to a foot in metric? You jump from a tiny centimeter to a huge meter, whereas in imperial you have inches, feet, and then yards. Decimeter I guess would be a bit better, but does anyone use that?

Also, being divisible by 5 and 10 is nice, but being divisible by 3 and 4 is also really nice. There's a reason our time system is based on 60 minutes, 24 hours and everyone accepts it. Just like 12 inches in a foot, it's easily divisible by a bunch of common numbers (2, 3, 4, especially). Who needs to measure a tenth of a meter?

[Araciel]

ok here. in canada, everyone still uses imperial for height and weight. weight goes so far as measurements of meat at the grocerie store too, but it's marked in both lb AND kg. our speedometers list both, though the MPH is listed smaller and less featured.

i'm 6'6", 198 cm tall.
i weigh 245 lbs, 111 kg.

not everyone is savvy enough to convert height and weight, and i'm sure most people here don't bother. we still use cups and spoons to measure dry cooking measurements, but we buy POP in 2L bottles.

we're half and half it would seem, but metric will have a imperial on us for sometime still.

oh raistlin is so right, metric time seems as ludicrous to me as a 12-hour system seems to people in europe.

[Rantz]

Obviously it's difficult to change a whole country's measurement system even if it's over time, but I think the advantages of having a globally common measurement system would outweigh the obstacles. To me, keeping the Imperial system just seems stubborn.

[Loony BoB]

Time makes sense given you're dealing with circles rather than fixed distance. I just don't understand how anyone over there would deal with physics/mathematics when you're using things such as mph (what do you use in place of mps?). That must be horrible.

When you've been using meters and centimeters all your life, it's pretty easy to say "Oh, 1.7 to 1.8m" instead of "Oh, 5'8" to 6'0"". If you can estimate a distance to that small a scale in one form then you can do it in the other form. I never understood why people think Farenheit is in any way better, though. What's the advantage with staying with that ol' thing? The zero has absolutely no use at all!

[Peegee]

Who the heck uses metric time? UK's 24 hour time is easy to use if you are a visitor. Lawl.

[Mirage]

It's not "metric time". It's the 24 hour time format. I don't really like the term "metrics" anyway. Metres are the length unit in the SI system, nothing else.

[Namelessfengir]

no no metric system in america!!!!
we're americans and we don't need god damn metric
cups and miles and inches haha!!!

[Tallulah]

I work in metric (e.g. millimetres, grams, etc) but I cook in imperial (pints, lbs, ozs etc)

Our road signs (UK) are also in miles per hour, which was a source of confusion for my cousin and me when we went on a coach trip in a European (Dutch, I think) coach, whose speedometer showed kilometers per hour... :confused:

[Goldenboko]

As much as I like the IDEA of trying to switch to metric, SI, or whatever you fancy to call it. The idea is improbable, not because people are stupid (although many are), but trying being raised to think of this, how difficult would it be to try and switch a SI country to the Imperial system? People in America (and the two other countries which I don't know their names), are used to dealing with the Imperial system, so that's what they will stay with. Trying to change that would screw things up for a couple of years... or decades... ;p

[Burtsplurt]

Eh, so the UK is metric?

Somebody really should have told us.

[licence]

Eh, so the UK is metric?

Somebody really should have told us.


I'm agreeing with that. I use imperial measurements for height, distance, weight, speed and a lot of other things. Metric is only ever used by me in like science.

[XxSephirothxX]

I sort of wish we'd switch over, but it would be really hard to switch over from miles and gallons and all the things that have been ingrained in our minds since childhood. I think the metric system is much smarter overall, though; 4 ounces in this, 4 cups in that, 8 of these in one of those, it's all needlessly complex.

[Resha]

Imperial system = most confusing thing ever.

Metric for life :love:

[Strider]

http://www.alarmingnews.com/archives/american%20flag%20picture.jpg

God bless America.

[Renmiri]

US uses metric / SI system in science and the military. Engineering is mixed up, depending on the area they use SI or Imperial or both.

[Yamaneko]

lol Raistlin trying to argue the superiority of the Imperial system

[rubah]

The metric system will never catch on in the US. It's been tried before. (and failed because it sucks).

The metric system is the best system to use in a lab setting. Science in every country uses metric measurements. But for day-to-day lives, people here like using the imperial system, including me. Fahrenheit, feet, and pounds, especially, would be hard to do away with. What do you have equivalent to a foot in metric? You jump from a tiny centimeter to a huge meter, whereas in imperial you have inches, feet, and then yards. Decimeter I guess would be a bit better, but does anyone use that?

Also, being divisible by 5 and 10 is nice, but being divisible by 3 and 4 is also really nice. There's a reason our time system is based on 60 minutes, 24 hours and everyone accepts it. Just like 12 inches in a foot, it's easily divisible by a bunch of common numbers (2, 3, 4, especially). Who needs to measure a tenth of a meter?

Your words. I love them.

base ten really makes little sense to use as a society, at least since we stopped counting on our fingers en masse.
The Imperial system has some very logical things in it too; a pound of water takes 1 British Thermal Unit to raise it 1 degree Fahrenheit (my dad likes to drill this in my head so it's stuck xD)

The only real flaw I see is that you can't take it off our planet xD (what with the mass=gravitation pull it does)

[edit- How cute! I found a little site that explains latent heat of fusion and vaporization of water in btus! Latent Heat Explained (http://energyconcepts.tripod.com/energyconcepts/boilersteam.htm) ]

[Levian]

Huh, didn't know the imperial system was used in that few countries.

[Jebus]

The metric system will never catch on in the US. It's been tried before. (and failed because it sucks).

The metric system is the best system to use in a lab setting. Science in every country uses metric measurements. But for day-to-day lives, people here like using the imperial system, including me. Fahrenheit, feet, and pounds, especially, would be hard to do away with. What do you have equivalent to a foot in metric? You jump from a tiny centimeter to a huge meter, whereas in imperial you have inches, feet, and then yards. Decimeter I guess would be a bit better, but does anyone use that?

Also, being divisible by 5 and 10 is nice, but being divisible by 3 and 4 is also really nice. There's a reason our time system is based on 60 minutes, 24 hours and everyone accepts it. Just like 12 inches in a foot, it's easily divisible by a bunch of common numbers (2, 3, 4, especially). Who needs to measure a tenth of a meter?

Millimeter -> centimeter -> decimeter -> meter.

Decimeter = 10 centimeters, with a meter being 10 decimeters.

Metric ftw, although I have a lot of trouble switching to Celsius and Kg, especially since everyone around me still uses Fahrenheit and pounds.

[Nominus Experse]

What I really like about the metric system is the way it measures temperature:

100 C = Boiling
0 C = Freezing

I like having things in base ten

[Araciel]

yeah celsius is win, but that's probably because it's always been in effect here

[Rye]

What I really like about the metric system is the way it measures temperature:

100 C = Boiling
0 C = Freezing

I like having things in base ten

That's the only thing I really like about metric, tbh.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

My parents were raised on the Imperial system so they are more familiar with giving temperature in Fahrenheit, weighing in pounds and measuring in inches. For the most part, I can understand the Imperial system and use it for those three things mentioned, except for temperature. I cannot tell you how much a kilo is though, but I can easily tell you how big a centimetre or a metre is.

The only nice thing about a pound is that it can be used as a force and not mass, so when you have basic Classical physics question dealing with friction and such, it is a hell of a lot easier than converting from mass (Kg) to force (Newton), though that in itself is a simple thing.

[Shoeberto]

I think of all the things I'd miss would be farenheit for day-to-day measurements. Of course it doesn't make much logical sense in the lab to use, but I know that in the sense of how the environmental temperature feels on me, 0 is frigidly cold, and 100 is blazingly hot. Where in celcius, 0 isn't that bad, and 100 is OH GOD MY SKIN IS MELTING OFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

I'd be fine with metrics in every other sense.

[Araciel]

yeah -40 is 'damn i'm gonna get frostbite', 0 is where water freezes, and 40 is 'damn i'm gonna get heatstroke'

quelle confusion

[Denmark]

but -40 celsius and -40 fahrenheit are the same thing!

ten degrees difference celsius = eighteen degrees difference fahrenheit. but i suppose that only really helps if you care about thinking in both systems and are good at simple pointless mathematical operations. such as i. i kind of grew up using both systems fairly interchangeably, despite being american.

i measure driving speed in mph, but driving distance is time-based anyway (that place is 20 minutes away, per se). this is more logical than measuring driving distance in miles or kilometers, except on a small scale when, say, you're on a highway and you see a sign saying "Boston 150" meaning Boston is going to be somewhere between 2 and 2 1/2 hours more driving time - IF you were able to go between 60 and 75 miles per hour for the entire remainder of the drive. which is not something you're going to be able to do, because for one your destination is likely not exactly 150 miles away, and for another thing your driving speed will fluctuate once you get closer to the city and have more traffic and have to make numerous turns and stop at traffic lights and other such things. and since the metric and imperial units of time are equal, there should be no argument about how to measure travel distance at all, since as long as you choose one system or the other, the units cancel out leaving you with something everyone is familiar with, namely time. (distance / rate = time)

straight distance, not related to travel, is typically used in a place where a simple conversion is possible. (1 mile = 5280 feet = 1609ish meters. we can all multiply, right? that's all this is!)

weight and mass. nobody uses Newtons because they're impractical in a real-life, non-scientific setting. (how many pounds to a Newton? don't know? exactly.) and when you're talking about weights on this planet, using kilograms as weight is applicable as long as you convert correctly (approximately 2.2 pounds per kilogram).

[Shiny]

Using feet seems more plausible than using centimeters for some reason.

[Meat Puppet]

Obviously too many people are not going to change because of the comfort they have with the system they grew up with. And why shouldn’t they? It’s only natural. I tried to switch to Imperial when I was 12 (school project or something), but I just found it too ridiculous and gave up—I’m sure it wouldn’t be much different for someone on the other side of the fence (with the systems reversed, of course).

[escobert]

A while. America tried to go metric in the 90s, and it was ultimate failure. I'm sure the metric system is easier when you're raised on it, considering it's all based in 10s, but no one is going to switch now. ;o And I'm pretty dandy with the Imperial system.

Pretty much, it's what we've used our entire lives.

[oddler]

There's a reason our time system is based on 60 minutes, 24 hours and everyone accepts it.

What's the reason? I'm just asking because I don't know what the reasoning behind it is.


Time makes sense given you're dealing with circles rather than fixed distance.

A circle has a fixed circumference, right?


I think the metric system is much smarter overall, though; 4 ounces in this, 4 cups in that, 8 of these in one of those, it's all needlessly complex.

I agree.


The only real flaw I see is that you can't take it off our planet xD (what with the mass=gravitation pull it does)

Can't take what off the planet? :confused:
Mass is mass no matter where you are. Not trying to be a dack but I can't tell what you mean. :p

I'm all for changing to a system based on 10s. :)

[Raistlin]

The metric system will never catch on in the US. It's been tried before. (and failed because it sucks).

The metric system is the best system to use in a lab setting. Science in every country uses metric measurements. But for day-to-day lives, people here like using the imperial system, including me. Fahrenheit, feet, and pounds, especially, would be hard to do away with. What do you have equivalent to a foot in metric? You jump from a tiny centimeter to a huge meter, whereas in imperial you have inches, feet, and then yards. Decimeter I guess would be a bit better, but does anyone use that?

Also, being divisible by 5 and 10 is nice, but being divisible by 3 and 4 is also really nice. There's a reason our time system is based on 60 minutes, 24 hours and everyone accepts it. Just like 12 inches in a foot, it's easily divisible by a bunch of common numbers (2, 3, 4, especially). Who needs to measure a tenth of a meter?

Millimeter -> centimeter -> decimeter -> meter.

Decimeter = 10 centimeters, with a meter being 10 decimeters.
... did you miss the part where I specifically mentioned decimeters? But I've never really seen it used, not in the way imperial systems use feet (for basically all measurements).


What's the reason? I'm just asking because I don't know what the reasoning behind it is.

Our time system is nice and easy to use because it's easily divisible into a bunch of common numbers: 2, 3, 4, etc. The base 10 in metric doesn't matter so much in daily live, but stuff like 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 does. Half-hour, quarter-hour, etc, are expressions heard all the time, and those times are easily calculated. The same goes for the imperial foot: 12 inches, 36 inches to a yard. You can easily divide that into half, thirds, or fourths. Whereas in a base-10 system, the numbers 10, 50, 100 are not divisible by 3, which is a fraction used much more commonly in daily life than 1/10.

There's really not much sense to Fahrenheit, but it's just what some people grow up on. Celsius is no easier in and of itself to use on a daily basis.

[Bolivar]

May our American Empire last 1,000 years! We shall march our armies across Europe before we surrender to their ways!!!

j/p. but it was the romans who came up w/ this system, b/c of how long their legions were, right? well maybe we're holding onto the idea that we are the next in line of great empires???

Lol, whatever. But my dad runs a small flooring (and blinds) business, and the carpet industry would be the 1st to get affected by it, having to change their whole way of business. no way they'd let that happen, believe me, with their money, their lobbyists in washington are making sure it doesn't. Also, carpet is one of the few production-industries in America still today that gets it done domestically, so they have alot of say in the matter. Our government is controlled by (you could say composed of) our businesses. Kinda scary how in more than one way we're pretty....fascist....

[rubah]

weight and mass. nobody uses Newtons because they're impractical in a real-life, non-scientific setting. (how many pounds to a Newton? don't know? exactly.) and when you're talking about weights on this planet, using kilograms as weight is applicable as long as you convert correctly (approximately 2.2 pounds per kilogram).
9.2 or so for N <-> lbs?



The only real flaw I see is that you can't take it off our planet xD (what with the mass=gravitation pull it does)

Can't take what off the planet? :confused:
Mass is mass no matter where you are. Not trying to be a dack but I can't tell what you mean. :p
Mass is, but gravitational pull isn't.

[oddler]

What's the reason? I'm just asking because I don't know what the reasoning behind it is.

Our time system is nice and easy to use because it's easily divisible into a bunch of common numbers: 2, 3, 4, etc. The base 10 in metric doesn't matter so much in daily live, but stuff like 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 does. Half-hour, quarter-hour, etc, are expressions heard all the time, and those times are easily calculated. The same goes for the imperial foot: 12 inches, 36 inches to a yard. You can easily divide that into half, thirds, or fourths. Whereas in a base-10 system, the numbers 10, 50, 100 are not divisible by 3, which is a fraction used much more commonly in daily life than 1/10.

Nice and easy is relative to the person, I guess.

Here's the real question: Are fractions or decimals better? :p





The only real flaw I see is that you can't take it off our planet xD (what with the mass=gravitation pull it does)

Can't take what off the planet? :confused:
Mass is mass no matter where you are. Not trying to be a dack but I can't tell what you mean. :p
Mass is, but gravitational pull isn't

So, you can't take weight off the planet? :Oo:

[Quindiana Jones]

10MPH. 35000FT. 200M. 25C. 1KG. That's what I use and I'll keep on using it if we change.

[Raistlin]

So, you can't take weight off the planet?

Did you take 5th grade science?

What is weight? It's an amount of pressure an object pushes down onto the earth. I step on a scale, my body naturally pushes down with 145 pounds of force. What's causing that pressure pushing down? Gravity. When gravity changes, the weight changes.

[escobert]

So, you can't take weight off the planet?

Did you take 5th grade science?

What is weight? It's an amount of pressure an object pushes down onto the earth. I step on a scale, my body naturally pushes down with 145 pounds of force. What's causing that pressure pushing down? Gravity. When gravity changes, the weight changes.

got it before me :(

example, you weight less on the moon since it has less gravity.

[Jessweeee♪]

We will never change and we will fall because of it :(

[oddler]

I'm about to fall asleep, Raistlin. Come hold onto me until I do.