Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

petitions.whitehouse.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 547 posts

Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

#21

Post by ErrantX »

jamesjguthrie wrote: post #3

I look forward to everywhere using metric. I'm in the UK, 27 and still struggle at times to comprehend lbs, ounces, stone, feet, inches, yards, miles etc., when everything I was taught in school was in metres, litres, newtons and kilogrammes.

Also in the UK.

Apart from lengths (feet vs. metres) I don't really find myself needing to calculate between the different units. I couldn't tell you how many litres in a 4 pint bottle of milk (or a pint of beer :)) but all other milk (or beer) is sold with those units, so I can easily compare.

I mean, we are supposed to be metric - but there are plenty of imperial measures in use (height, is another obvious example).

Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

#22

Post by oneandoneis2 »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #14

Before we start with the standard junk about "imperial measures are better because they are easier to understand / better suited to human scale / etc." can I say nope . The only advantage that imperial measures have (for some) is that they are familiar. That's the sum total of it. People where were raised metric find these apologies for imperial measures to be pure gibberish.

Actually, I think metric could be improved with a few imperial equivalents - A "metric foot" as 30cm, for instance - because they are convenient measurements.

e.g. If somebody asks me "How tall is that person?" it's easier to say "About five foot" rather than "I dunno, about 155cm?"

(I'm British, btw)

Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

#24

Post by rplnt »

davidw wrote: post #18

The way I explain this one to my European friends is: Do you remember the transition to the Euro? How you had to mentally convert prices at first? And how old people had more difficulties with it in some cases? Now, imagine that, not just for one unit, but weights, lengths, temperatures and volumes, all at the same time.

Well, you don't have to be so drastic. Just teaching metrics in all schools and requiring their use in higher education would be enough for the next decade or two. Only then you can start thinking about something as the petition asks.

Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

#26

Post by davidw »

jcfrei wrote: post #16

related question to people from the US: did you actually learn the metric system in primary school? did you learn it besides the imperial units? I believe as Tloewald pointed out that the adoption really depends on whether people are learning it and not what politicians declare to be the standard.

You learn it, but academically. Growing up with everything in feet, miles, pounds, etc... you get a feel for whether to put on a sweater if it's supposed to be 60 degrees out or not, or how long it might take to drive 10 miles on the freeway, or about how far 20 feet is. So even for someone like myself who has lived in Europe for a long time, metric units don't feel quite as 'native' or ingrained, except for temperatures, because you deal with those every day.

Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

#27

Post by czzarr »

davidw wrote: post #18

The way I explain this one to my European friends is: Do you remember the transition to the Euro? How you had to mentally convert prices at first? And how old people had more difficulties with it in some cases? Now, imagine that, not just for one unit, but weights, lengths, temperatures and volumes, all at the same time.

quite frankly this is deceitful, a lot of Americans already use the International System daily for their work, and I would bet that a very large number of Americans have some knowledge of it. Whereas the Euro was completely new, the International units have been here for years.

Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

#28

Post by davorb »

tmrhmd wrote: post #11

I don't think politicians would ever allow this, especially during these times, since the proposed change would cost millions in change of signs and anything where the imperial system is used.

You would save that pretty easily in not having to write separate software/everything for the US and for the rest of the world. Not to mention things like http://articles.cnn.com/1999-09-30/tech/9909_30_mars.metric....

Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

#29

Post by Adirael »

oneandoneis2 wrote: post #22
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #14

Before we start with the standard junk about "imperial measures are better because they are easier to understand / better suited to human scale / etc." can I say nope . The only advantage that imperial measures have (for some) is that they are familiar. That's the sum total of it. People where were raised metric find these apologies for imperial measures to be pure gibberish.

Actually, I think metric could be improved with a few imperial equivalents - A "metric foot" as 30cm, for instance - because they are convenient measurements. e.g. If somebody asks me "How tall is that person?" it's easier to say "About five foot" rather than "I dunno, about 155cm?" (I'm British, btw)

On Spain we just say "one fifty five", not much longer and it's still easy.

Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

#30

Post by _phred »

jcfrei wrote: post #16

related question to people from the US: did you actually learn the metric system in primary school? did you learn it besides the imperial units? I believe as Tloewald pointed out that the adoption really depends on whether people are learning it and not what politicians declare to be the standard.

Yep, learned metric as well as imperial, and how to convert between the two. Primary school was ~20 years ago for me.

High school science was all in SI, of course.

Post reply on HN