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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

#281

Post by Kylekramer »

acangiano wrote: post #255
veidr wrote: post #114

It's obviously a great idea, and obviously (to Americans) unlikely to happen in the lifetime of anybody reading this forum. Does anybody else from America remember being taught the metric system in public elementary school, and being told that we'd be switching to it over the next few years? I was taught this around second grade (1981), I think based on the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…

Much better visual evidence: http://signword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/423399_101506340...

Pretty weak argument for Celsius. Why should people care that the boiling and freezing points are simple? That is almost irrelevant for the most common uses of temperature reporting. People care about the ambient outside temperature (which Fahrenheit seems optimized for), not the effect it has on the state of one particular compound.

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

#282

Post by wazoox »

eloisant wrote: post #120
stdbrouw wrote: post #78

I moved from Belgium to the US last year, and one of the things that surprised me was that metric measures actually see a fair amount of use in the States. It makes a convoluted system even more weird, but it's also just plain fascinating. 2L bottles of coke and 9mm bullets, miles except when people suddenly switch to kilometers, 50 meter pools and 5K jogging runs but a 120 yard football field, 2 oz shaving cream but…

To be fair, non-metric units are also use worldwide in some specific fields. In aeronautics, height is in feet. In a boat, distance are nautic miles (not even the same miles as Americans on the road). Quick quiz: what's the diagonal size of your laptop screen in centimeters? Your mobile phone? So it doesn't matter if you use completely unrelated metrics for different things. When you want to buy a laptop you know how…

> In aeronautics, height is in feet.

Note that this is only because of US influence. USSR and its satellites used meters-graduated altimeters, and so did most of the rest of the world until the end of WWII at least.

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

#283

Post by derleth »

smackfu wrote: post #179
veidr wrote: post #114

It's obviously a great idea, and obviously (to Americans) unlikely to happen in the lifetime of anybody reading this forum. Does anybody else from America remember being taught the metric system in public elementary school, and being told that we'd be switching to it over the next few years? I was taught this around second grade (1981), I think based on the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…

Amusing visual evidence that speaking English sucks: http://cnrsociety.org/images/English-Official_Map-s.png

The map's wrong to the extent it implies the USA has an official language. We have a de facto standard language, but we have no laws defining an official language.

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

#284

Post by cygx »

kbutler wrote: post #242
geon wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that make the arc-minute the practical unit?

> Wouldn't that make the arc-minute the practical unit? Yes. However, the earth is not a perfect sphere. The nautical mile is an average arc-minute.

And the kilometer is an average centigrad.

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

#285

Post by tedunangst »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #215
javert wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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,…

All of which can be blamed on not using the metric system.

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

#286

Post by brudgers »

jacquesm wrote: post #128
brudgers wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many European countries are there? How many of them have had the same government for 230 years? The US surveyed and then subdivided much of a continent into townships. Land was sold and granted by the section, halfs and quarters thereof. Flying over the Midwest, the manifold rectangles on the ground show how problematic even the slightest of conversion errors would be. Maybe it's technical debt. But it exists bec…

How many of them even have the same borders over the last 230 years? I'd wager very few.

I think the reference for US borders is probably better put at 150 years - outside of Hawaii.

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

#287

Post by anemic »

jacquesm wrote: post #259
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…

That's a typical case of theory and practice. Yes, in theory the US is a country that supports metric. In practice, go and ask anybody in the country outside of the military for the following: - An M10 bolt - a 16mm wrench to drive it with - a 3 meter long 50 mm od pvc drainpipe - a tape-measure that measures only in metric - a highway sign that is posted in km And so on. See how many people can point you to any of t…

relevant onion article: http://www.theonion.com/articles/metric-system-thriving-in-n...

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

#288

Post by yareally »

sakopov wrote: post #200

I was born in Russia and used the metric system until i moved to the US. Imperial system is so archaic it's amusing to see a developed nation use it. A few centuries ago Russians used to measure weight in "handfuls" and short distances in "elbows." (scratch that, it's "cubits") When only a fraction of the population had any sort of education, it was easier for everyone to understand an anatomical measurement. Eh, som…

Sadly, we (US Citizens) all learn the Metric system starting in at least 7th grade (was for me at least back 15 some years ago). We continue to use it through High School for courses such as Chemistry and Physics as well as University studies.

However, many of those that are not interested in going into a Science field tend to discount the Metric System in the United States as nothing more than a "means to an end" in order to get a passing grade. They quickly forget it or just pay lip service to it as they don't see the need for it outside of the classroom.

Until that changes with some sort of mandate by the US Government, I'm afraid as you mentioned, the larger percentage of the United States will feel no need to care about the Metric System outside of a few Science courses they took back in school.

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

#289

Post by eru »

yardie wrote: post #119
stdbrouw wrote: post #78

I moved from Belgium to the US last year, and one of the things that surprised me was that metric measures actually see a fair amount of use in the States. It makes a convoluted system even more weird, but it's also just plain fascinating. 2L bottles of coke and 9mm bullets, miles except when people suddenly switch to kilometers, 50 meter pools and 5K jogging runs but a 120 yard football field, 2 oz shaving cream but…

I'm an American that grew up during the time they "tried" to go metric and none of this surprises me. Volumes are tricky for me, but I have no problem going from imperial to metric. Most other countries see the US and are like, "why aren't you using metric?" and we're like, "what's in it for us?" We learned metric in school and it's great, for exact measurements. Sometimes you just want to use what you have and not t…

> I don't know what 310mL is, I know how to measure 2 cups of water with...2 cups of water.

Do your cups come only in one size? (And aren't the bigger coffee mugs standardized to 200ml?)

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

#290

Post by pakmans »

Kylekramer wrote: post #281
acangiano wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much better visual evidence: http://signword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/423399_101506340...

Pretty weak argument for Celsius. Why should people care that the boiling and freezing points are simple? That is almost irrelevant for the most common uses of temperature reporting. People care about the ambient outside temperature (which Fahrenheit seems optimized for), not the effect it has on the state of one particular compound.

Kelvin should be the logical choice for temperature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin
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