131–140 of 210 posts
How on earth can we make the British driving on the "right" side of the street.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
100°C , that should be simple enough :)
Okay, so boiling water happens to be a convenient number. But my point surely stands for the temperature where water freezes?! Metric makes no sense.
What makes no sense is your hyperbolic rejection of metric.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I dislike having to own wrenches in both standard and metric units I think you mean "I dislike having US customary and standard metric units". When it comes down to it, everybody else in the world managed to buckle down and just switch to standard metric units and ISO/DIN paper sizes. There is nothing special about the US that makes it any more of an imposition for them to switch over. Many of the issues you've out…
What is special about the US is that it has a huge population that uses a single set of units of measurement. Europe had zillions of them ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_(mass) , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ell ) units, often multiple ones per country. In some sense, the metric system was a blessing, as it was foreign to all countries. Countries would never have switched to, say, the German standard of measurem…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not like America is the only country that will have ever transitioned. Many other countries have gone through all those issues without much complaint. It's not some untested experimental process being advocated. It's not like the US is going to be using weird-arse inches, furlongs, horses and stones forever.
We're by far the largest country (in terms of population) to attempt a conversion. That counts for something.
Not something to be proud of.
The UK is supposedly metric most people still think and talk in imperial - most shops give both measurements. I think the EU gave up enforcing it. edit: sorry, by most people I mean people I know who grew up before metric was introduced.
I don't think it's anywhere near that bad. It's a gradual transition and it's working (imho). In my mind, miles for roads is really the only standout left. I don't think of pint as a measure, but the name of a particular type of glass. Outside of that I've just never found a practical use for the imperial system. It's bad enough trying to translate things to american and back, let alone trying to keep track of a US g…
(Of course, had we switched to 500ml glasses, leaving ale in 568ml bottles, we'd be stuffed. A point to bear in mind if contemplating a piecemeal transition.)
Some thoughts on a conversion that I don't generally see brought up: * From an economic standpoint, the US is a big enough market that it is profitable to make things in weird US units, you have 350M people to sell to, most of whom are pretty well off by world standards. It makes sense to make a line catering to them. If businesses can start making a true or good economic argument it will happen more. * Tooling that…
Additionally, I don't think that changing tooling should be a priority. Even in the countries that use metric system, we use nuts and screws measured in inches. They are usually called 1/4, 1/2 and so on ignoring the "inch" part. Also, in Venezuela, letter is the standard paper used, not A4.
I think a good solution would be for the US to use metric to measure most of the things people and industries interact with (distance, velocity, weight, volume), but you can keep the old measures when convenient.
I challenge you all to make two changes today with regard to this. First, switch your phone to give you the weather in Celsius. It gets super simple fast: 0 and below - Freezing. Wear a warm jacket and closed toe shoes or boots. 1 - 10 - Cold. Wear an overcoat (a light one if you are used to colder weather) 10-15 - Early spring time. Long sleeves are probably in order, maybe even a sweater. 15-20 - Late spring. Wear…
You forgot the most annoying part inches, feet and all that crap. I get people telling me measurements in inches sometimes here in the UK and I always tell the to measure it again in centimeters. It's just easier and more accurate.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, so boiling water happens to be a convenient number. But my point surely stands for the temperature where water freezes?! Metric makes no sense.
You mean 0°C? What makes no sense is your hyperbolic rejection of metric.
I challenge you all to make two changes today with regard to this. First, switch your phone to give you the weather in Celsius. It gets super simple fast: 0 and below - Freezing. Wear a warm jacket and closed toe shoes or boots. 1 - 10 - Cold. Wear an overcoat (a light one if you are used to colder weather) 10-15 - Early spring time. Long sleeves are probably in order, maybe even a sweater. 15-20 - Late spring. Wear…
You forgot the most annoying part inches, feet and all that crap. I get people telling me measurements in inches sometimes here in the UK and I always tell the to measure it again in centimeters. It's just easier and more accurate.