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Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

petitions.whitehouse.gov

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

#211

Post by DanBC »

jamesjguthrie wrote: post #208
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an American web-site. His books are in metric. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gordon-Ramsays-Ultimate-Cookery-Cour... Click "search inside." Everything is in grams. edit: That web-site isn't even associated with the chief. It is just some fan site. Here is a legit web-site and it is all in grams: http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/gordon-ramsay/go...

> Click "search inside." Everything is in grams. There's loads of references in that book to knobs of butter and tablespoon/teaspoon measurements.

teaspoons and tablespoons are metric - one teaspoon is 5 ml; one tablespoon is 15 ml. I'm not sure how useful it is having a volumetric unit instead of a mass[1] unit; but that's one thing I like about US cooking. "About a cup of this; about to cups of that" - it's all nice and intuitive. I know roughly what 500 g of flour is, or sugar, but 80 g of butter is tricky.

[1] sorry if I'm using the wrong term. Friendly corrections welcomed.

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

#212

Post by jzwinck »

frogpelt wrote: post #185
danneu wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time one of the red countries does business with the grey countries, there's conversion deadweight.

We should all have one currency too, then?

Of course not: sovereign currencies have well-known benefits. Multiple systems of measurement are only a hindrance, a friction.

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

#213

Post by rmccue »

danielbarla wrote: post #47
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.

People complain about the usual issues: multiple definitions of a mile, the odd ratios between inches, feet, yards, etc. It gets even more fun in agriculture, where the bushel is a frequently used unit. Now, the bushel is a unit of volume, whereas much of the world prefer to measure their crops by weight. To convert between the two, you essentially need to use conversion ratio (or table) for the crop type, along with…

This is fairly similar to fuel mileage, where some places use miles per gallon (distance per volume) while others use litres per 100km (volume per distance). Changing systems is fairly irrelevant though, since you can still measure your mileage in kilometres per litre if you want.

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

#214

Post by gutnor »

goodcanadian wrote: post #129
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada also has so-called weak metric measurements: 454g of butter (1 lb), 354 ml of pop (12 oz) and so on.

Yes, though I think this is largely due to trade with the U.S.. It probably helps keep some standard units alive in Canada.

Indeed in country fully converted to metric, the old unit are converted to their closest sane metric equivalent.

For example, my grand-mother still talks about buying a pound of stuff. However a pound is now understood as meaning 0.5 kg, we even learn it that way in school.

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

#215

Post by RyanMcGreal »

javert wrote: post #134
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian, I'd be inclined to call it the "every other industrialized liberal democracy on earth is better" mantra. Countries tend to converge on an optimal balance of individual liberties and social protections because it measurably works . The US is a notable outlier, and the various comparative social and economic indicators are pretty damning evidence that the continued American insistence on an 18th century…

> Countries tend to converge on an optimal balance of individual liberties and social protections because it measurably works. That's just utter nonsense. What measurement are you optimizing for? What makes you think that moving the US to the left moves it closer to, say, Germany, instead of closer to, say, Brazil, India, and Mexico (which is what I think will happen)? And even if it did move it closer to Germany, I…

> What measurement are you optimizing for?

Take your pick. The US is at or very near the worst among OECD countries in: infant mortality, child poverty, child health and safety, life expectancy at birth, healthy life expectancy, rate of obesity, disability-adjusted life years, doctors per 1000 people, deaths from treatable conditions, rate of mental health disorders, rate of drug abuse, rate of prescription drug use, incarceration rate, rate of assaults, rate of homicides, income inequality, wealth inequality, and economic mobility.

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

#216

Post by curiousdannii »

davidw wrote: post #75
scotchmi_st wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK managed the switch from imperial to metric okay. It's really not that hard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication#United_Kingdom Would indicate that the process has being going on for some 40 years and is still not at all complete. That to me indicates that it's not "easy" either.

Then look at one of the many other countries that have completed it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication#Chronology_and_stat...

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

#217

Post by vibrunazo »

tokenadult wrote: post #198

From the petitions.whitehouse.gov petition kindly submitted for comment here: "The United States is one of the few countries left in the world who still have not converted to using the Metric System as a standardized system of measurement. Instead of going along with what the rest of the world uses, we stubbornly still adhere to using the imprecise Imperial Unit - despite the fact that practically every other country…

But aren't things like road signs in mph defined by law?

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

#218

Post by Svip »

tokenadult wrote: post #198

From the petitions.whitehouse.gov petition kindly submitted for comment here: "The United States is one of the few countries left in the world who still have not converted to using the Metric System as a standardized system of measurement. Instead of going along with what the rest of the world uses, we stubbornly still adhere to using the imprecise Imperial Unit - despite the fact that practically every other country…

The UK and the US is essentially the same story. The British seemed furious that the EU mandated use of metric internally. But it did not force the UK to change its road signs (still in yards and miles) or what beer comes in (pints).

Nothing really changed, other than confirming by directive that EU member states uses the Metric system with one another. There are still Brits who complain that the weather reports are no longer in Fahrenheit, but in Celsius. But the EU has no control over that.

So yeah; pretty much the same. Oh and the Brits still weigh themselves in stones.

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

#219

Post by Svip »

vibrunazo wrote: post #217
tokenadult wrote: post #198

From the petitions.whitehouse.gov petition kindly submitted for comment here: "The United States is one of the few countries left in the world who still have not converted to using the Metric System as a standardized system of measurement. Instead of going along with what the rest of the world uses, we stubbornly still adhere to using the imprecise Imperial Unit - despite the fact that practically every other country…

But aren't things like road signs in mph defined by law?

My understanding of speed limits in the US is that each state defines it. There is no national speed limits (hence why Montana is famous for its high speed limits on motorways, but not much else).

But I doubt that Washington D.C. uses kph on its speed signs, though.

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

#220

Post by jamesjguthrie »

jamesjguthrie wrote: post #208
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an American web-site. His books are in metric. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gordon-Ramsays-Ultimate-Cookery-Cour... Click "search inside." Everything is in grams. edit: That web-site isn't even associated with the chief. It is just some fan site. Here is a legit web-site and it is all in grams: http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/gordon-ramsay/go...

> Click "search inside." Everything is in grams. There's loads of references in that book to knobs of butter and tablespoon/teaspoon measurements.

Use http://onlineconversion.com

1 Tablespoon [UK] = 14.206 531 25 milliliter

Tablespoon and teaspoon measurements correlate to fluid ounce measurements - 1 Tablespoon [UK] = 0.5 ounce [UK, liquid]

They're definitely imperial.

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