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Make the Metric system the standard in the United States

petitions.whitehouse.gov

331–340 of 547 posts

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

#331
post #218

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…

>..or what beer comes in (pints). If you read the bottom of the glass you will see the size in ml, 568ml.

You may call it a pint but officially it is a 568ml glass.

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

#333
post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Does anyone else on HN work on their own car? My ancient unbreakable domestic mfgr '97 GM car is all metric. Right off the top of my head the oil drain plug is a M12-1.75 bolt. I just replaced the battery two weeks ago, all metric (I think they were M10 bolts? I was in a huge hurry). Seemingly everything on my GM car is metric, and it was built 15 years ago, I can only imagine how metric everything in auto-land is no…

That would make good sense. What about things like wheel nuts, hitch attachements and so on?

The ford I had had a surprising amount of imperial on it about a decade ago. Presumably under the hood and inside the engine it was all metric though.

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

#334
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember during the influx of Polish workers in the UK, that a pub got into some trouble because it sold a certain Polish beer in a 1 litre glass.

I remember during the influx of Polish workers in the UK, that a pub got into some trouble because it sold a certain Polish beer in a 1 litre glass. From what I recall, it was more that they were using Żywiec-branded glasses, which hold 0.3 and 0.5-litres respectively. UK law only allows beer to be sold in pint units. I doubt they were doing it on purpose, but the small difference adds up quite quickly: serve 10 drin…

>UK law only allows beer to be sold in pint units.

Really? What are those things called Half pints?

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

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if we measured time using units of varying multiples. Every time a friend tells me "see you in two weeks", I'm like really? 2 times 7 times 24 times 60? Fucking asshole, do I look like a calculator?

Were time conversions as common or necessary as other unit conversions, you can bet your ass decimal time would have more takers. Even so, varying units does restrict how we can express time. Even if someone tells you something as simple as "half a week", you have to ask for clarification. And while "a week from now" translates to a date, forget about "a month from now." That could mean half a dozen different things.

A 60 minute hour is more evenly divisible than a 100 or 10 minute hour.

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

#336
Maybe it's just me but, while I agree with this, I would like our government to focus on gaining a certain level of basic competence. The last few years seem to have brought to light just how impotent and incapable the US legislature is.

The other two branches seem to be doing fine, but I'd like to focus our attention on perhaps changing this ridiculous farce into something that might work, just a little bit.

The big problem is that due to our system of govt any change will be brought of the back of legislation, which, unfortunately, will have to pass thru the broken and disfigured legislature.

That said, I hope this petition succeeds :)

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

#337
post #262
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arizona has some signs in Kilometers. [ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/us/15highway.html?_r=0 ]

The last sign in the US that I saw marked in metric was one on northbound I-95 in South Carolina, just north of the I-26 interchange. The sign was replaced about 2 years ago with a new one that only shows distances in miles. I suspect that metrication of the highway system in the US will only happen if a large state like California or Texas converts. But with the current budget situation, that's highly unlikely.

The federal government has a law that federal funds can not be used to pay for signs with metric measures on them.

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

#338

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…

I have all of those things except the drain pipe and a highway sign.

Every socket set i have contains both SAE and metric. Half of my power tools are in metric (festool).

All plywood that you buy from the hardware store in the US is really metric sized nowadays.

Every screw/fastener on every tool I own is metric or metric sized. I haven't used my SAE hex keys in eons.

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

#339
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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,…

Most or all of which would not be helped by liberal attempts to emulate Europe. For example, high child poverty is to be expected in a country that harbors many poor immigrants from Latin America. For another example, high rate of incarceration is largely to be blamed on the "War on Drugs," which has the same effect as the prohibition on alcohol did. For another example, low rate of doctors is largely to be blamed on…

> Most or all of which would not be helped by liberal attempts to emulate Europe.

You mean the rest of the industrialized world, not just Europe.

> high child poverty is to be expected in a country that harbors many poor immigrants from Latin America.

You mean unlike a country that harbours many poor immigrants from Northern Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe?

> high rate of incarceration is largely to be blamed on the "War on Drugs"

Yes, and it is the conservative right that most strongly favours continuing the War on Drugs. Those left of centre liberals you don't like generally favour ending the war on drugs and following a more - dare I say - European approach to legalization. (Sadly, Canada's Republican-lite Conservative government has taken a more American approach to the War on Drugs, establishing mandatory minimum sentences and other punitive measures that have already failed in the US.)

> low rate of doctors is largely to be blamed on the fact that medicine is a guild

That's true across all the industrialized countries, but the other countries are much better than the US at achieving a higher rate of doctors and much better overall health outcomes, despite spending only 40-70% of what the USA spends on health care - and running various incarnations of universal health coverage.

> American liberals want a society where everybody gets whatever they demand

That's a lazy straw man attack. American liberals, like liberals in other industrialized countries, want their country to value human rights, pay attention to evidence-based public policy and invest enough in public social and physical infrastructure to ensure everyone has an adequate standard of living and the opportunity to work hard and prosper.

Ironically, the USA has among the worst levels of socioeconomic mobility in the OECD. Poor Americans are more trapped in their poverty than poor people in countries that do more to level the playing field so everyone has a fair chance of escaping poverty.

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

#340
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>not too hard on people but a lot of signage needs to change. Feasible. Very expensive though. Signs normally have a 20 years expected lifetime. Now you need to replace them all at once. Plus a lot of the sign locations need to be changed, unless you want all those "Exit 29 1 mile" signs to now say "Exit 29 1.6 km".

Why not phase things in, by having both measurements put on, for all new signs? Exit 14 - 1 Kilometer (.6Miles) Then, as the old signs wear out, eventually all signs are replaced.

Rounding to the likes of 1.5km is good enough for a highway sign.
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