Well, you can make a change too. Don't use products that are not in metric.
Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
361–370 of 547 posts
Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Thanks for triggering a rarely used synapse.
Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
#363Earlier 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.
Water's freezing point is easily the single most important temperature there is when it comes to (outdoor) temperature. Essentially, it tells you whether travelling is a deadly hazard or not. It tells you whether to expect snow or rain (which require quite different types of clothes). At least for those of us living in places with snow (as Celsius did), there's no more sensible thing to base the temperature scale on.
When it comes to boiling point, yeah I can give you that it's perhaps not as obviously the right thing. But it's the logical other end of the scale, and most of us do care about it several times daily, when cooking.
Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
The UK did use legislation to gradually switch to the metric system, with certain exceptions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Kingd... One major way in which metrication is being introduced properly is via schools - nowadays schools generally only teach the metric system, and the generation below me genuinely do weigh themselves in kilos, and measure themselves in meters.
Just to backup what you're saying, I'm the generation you're talking about.
I have a vague idea of my height in feet and inches, I drink pints of beer and I drive miles in the car. That's about it. People may as well be talking to me in a foreign language if they give me imperial units outside of those contexts.
Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
#365While we are at it, why not standardize: * date and time formats * language * time zones * currency Seems about as easy and has the same kind of benefits.
It seems to me that time zones are standard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_time
For the most part, although daylight-saving time rules are very non-standard even from year to year.
Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
#366It very likely is never going to happen. The main reason for resistance apparently is the various land boundaries that would have to be re-scaled to metric, which would be a source of endless legal wrangling. Already houses in the US have the longest history attached to them, sometimes all the way from the homesteading days if the plot is old. I've used both metric and imperial, for construction imperial is lots easi…
> The Canadians officially have metric, try buying a 250x125 sheet of plywood. Everybody will look at you as if water is burning. Really? I picked up a 1.5m^2 sheet of aluminium for a project fairly recently (Australia). I have literally 0 idea what that is in feet/inches/furlongs.
Australia is a ways away from Canada and aluminum isn't plywood.
Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
#367From 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 imprecise Imperial Unit" The word "imprecise" is also factually incorrect. AFAIK, all Imperial units are now defined in metric. An inch is not "approximately" 2.54 centimeters, it is defined to be 2.54 centimeters, or, if you prefer, 2.540000000000... centimeters. A pound is defined as 0.45359237 kilograms. It may be very precise specification of a value that is unpleasant and hard to work with, but there is no…
As long as you aren't a surveyor, that is... that industry has stuck with the previous American standard of 1/39.37 meters, for obvious reasons.
Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
#368Earlier 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…
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.
Like jaquesm says, I just bought plywood at home depot and it came in 6.45mm thickness, 24"x48". I don't know how you get 6.45mm either in metric or imperial, but it's clearly not "sized in metric".
Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
#369One argument some people make against switching away from imperial units - it acts as sort of an artificial trade barrier for foreign competition. It costs non-domestic manufacturers more to package their products for distribution in the United States, making it sort of a "tariff" for foreign goods that international trade agreements can't touch.
But it works both ways. It is a "tariff" when you want to export.
I didn't claim the argument made sense. :)
Re: Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Think it's actually sold by the pint, not by 568ml. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/72/section/8