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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

#511

Post by mikeash »

mpyne wrote: post #506
mikeash wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excuses don't matter. The fact is that these mixups happen. And the probe would not have been brought down just as easily by mistaking 'kg' for 'g', because that would result in a number that was off by a factor of a thousand, and the result would be unlikely to make any sense. The meters/feet mixup that actually did happen could only happen because being off by a factor of 3.3 resulted in a number that still made ba…

> There are documented instances of metric/imperial mixups crashing space probes and forcing airliners to land after running out of fuel in midair and such things. As I recall, the Gimli glider came about because they were trying to switch to include metric units and had to change their procedure to do it, but didn't make the change in all places where it was necessary. This resulted in pilots using an Imperial conve…

This sort of error can happen any time you have mixed units, though, and as long as some countries insist on not using metric, the potential is there. The potential goes away once you switch, so as long as the costs for switching and for staying mixed are both finite and non-zero, it makes sense to switch now and get it over with.

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

#512

Post by mark-r »

One thing I never see mentioned is the awkwardness of the metric names. The older measurements are all one syllable, while their metric replacements are often three or four.

mile -> kilometer inch -> centimeter pound -> kilogram

The only one that comes out even is ounce -> gram.

Obviously it's not a huge impediment since many other countries got past it, but I'm sure it just adds to the discomfort people have with it.

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

#513

Post by eurleif »

mark-r wrote: post #512

One thing I never see mentioned is the awkwardness of the metric names. The older measurements are all one syllable, while their metric replacements are often three or four. mile -> kilometer inch -> centimeter pound -> kilogram The only one that comes out even is ounce -> gram. Obviously it's not a huge impediment since many other countries got past it, but I'm sure it just adds to the discomfort people have with it…

>The only one that comes out even is ounce -> gram.

Gallon -> liter?

And most of the extra syllables are because SI uses prefixes, instead of inventing completely different units. I think the verbosity is justified by enhanced understandability.

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

#514

Post by RivieraKid »

javert wrote: post #298
RivieraKid wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Society should optimize for happiness. It's not measurable, but you can estimate it (for example you can estimate that average German is happier than average citizen of North Korea). My vague definition happiness is this: Let's say you must choose between 2 states of mind and you'll spend the next hour in the selected one. Before your choice, you can try each of them by clicking some button. The one that you choose h…

So let's draft 1% of the population and place them in a large underground bunker at birth. They will never be allowed to know anything about the "real world," and they will provide all the labor, engineering, and scientific research for the other 99%, who get to everything for free. Does that sound like a good society to you?

No, because this very probably wouldn't increase average happiness:

1. The 1% would be less happy. 2. Lot of the 99% would feel guilty (which lowers happiness). 3. The 1% would probably be less productive than if they were free. So the only benefit for the 99% would be that they consume less.

By the way, this system to a certain extent exist in our society (cheap labour in China for example).

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

#515

Post by onetwothreefour »

EdiX wrote: post #403
ElliotH wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What do you measure body temperature with? Celsius or Fahrenheit?

No one outside the US measures in F (since the parent post is about the UK, this is a weird question :)

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

#516

Post by onetwothreefour »

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…

"Speaking of globalization, TVs are still sold and classified in inches :-)"

Nope...

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

#519

Post by lhnn »

lostlogin wrote: post #419
lhnn wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mm/dd/yy makes sense to those who use it, given our cultural adjustment. My father's argument for imperial is how easy it is to divide measurements. In woodworking, especially. 10 is divisible by 2 and 5. Powers of two are more flexible for division.

Ease of use with imperial? I say no way. Trying to add 1/16 and 1/5 is somewhat harder than mm addition.

That's why you don't cut to 1/5...

I suppose it's all numbers in the end.... Mankind has found a way in the rest of the world to make metric work!

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

#520

Post by jeza »

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…

I live in a metric country so I agree with everything you say, though a metric only tape measure is possibly less important. Actually I have two tape measures handy, one is metric only and the other has metric and imperial units. I think you'd expect to see both units for quite some time after conversion. Interestingly the one that is metric only is a style that tradesmen often have. I gather if you are measuring things all the time, you'd only want to deal with one set of units. So perhaps the option of having a metric only tape measure is still useful.
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