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The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

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Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#101

Post by shoxidizer »

ericmay wrote: post #86
JKCalhoun wrote: post #77

"Back when I was a Catholic-school kid in northern Wisconsin, my school lessons briefly focused on the metric system. This was in the late 1970s." Man, the progressive school (Comanche Elementary in Overland Park, Kansas!) must have had a huge impact on my life. In addition to open classrooms (I was in Unit 5, not 4th Grade), team teaching, a focus on experimental science, a circular layout to the school with a sunke…

> Yeah, we went over the Metric System that whole year. I can still sing the "Metric Family" song from the film on metric units ("Kilo", "Milli", etc.). And to my young an impressionable mind, the U.S. was joining the rest of the world "Free World" in a kind of Star-Trek-like casting aside of the old things that divided us—joining each other with a focus on progress, science, space… I’ve always found this peculiar be…

Frank Llyod Wright lacking warmth and humanity? Never been to Falling Water?

Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#102

Post by etiennebausson »

flohofwoe wrote: post #82
threemux wrote: post #62

I'd part with cups and teaspoons/tablespoons and the like, but you'll pry inches/feet/yards and fahrenheit from my cold, dead hands. They're both more convenient for daily use. I think I'd prefer to keep miles as well but I don't have a good reason for that one. Fahrenheit has more precision without using decimals for the thing 99% of people are using temperature measurements for: air temp. Where I live, we generally…

> They're both more convenient for daily use. That's really just because you're used to it. The rest is rationalization... OTH of course the rest of the world can hardly complain since we didn't switch time or (angle-)degrees to decimal either ;)

Not switching to metric for time is reasonable, because there are already two existing 'natural' units for time (the day and the year), and they don't align on each other in metric (a year of exactly 1000 days would be so much easier, but we'll have to deal with reality as it is... or accelerate the rotation speed of the planet I suppose).

So long as we live on earth, metric time won't make much sense.

Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#103

Post by modo_mario »

threemux wrote: post #92
modo_mario wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Everything packed into this tight range. AS someone that grew up with metric that feels fairly natural and not tight at all? >Inches/feet being base 12 divides better into thirds and fourths, which is very useful in construction. I used ruler tapes with both metric and imperial on either side and i always wondered how one could use the inches since they're so big and didn't always have the same minute subdivisions.…

I mean it's mathematically a tighter range. I think part of this comes down to the more mild and less variable European climate. There is just less emphasis on air temperature so you don't see the drawbacks. Your tape measure didn't have 1/3, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32 subdivisions? Sounds like a bad tape measure (or really just one where US Customary was an afterthought). As for science, well, most people don't do it.…

>Your tape measure didn't have 1/3, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32 subdivisions?

I think one of em did and the other didn't. Either way it seems far more difficult to do some math with.

Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#104

Post by bryanlarsen »

ghaff wrote: post #66
bluGill wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is what you are used to for both of you. you could make your own measurement system and it would work fine once you get used to it - until you need to communicate with someone else who isn't used to it.

A big part of it is certainly what you're used to. The other part, which I'm sympathetic to, is that for human scale everyday things, Fahrenheit 0 degrees lines up with really darned cold, 100 degrees with really hot outside of an oven, and the degree size is about twice as granular as Celsius. And while Celsius degree size is indeed widely used in engineering calculations, you're often using Kelvin as the absolute t…

> and the degree size is about twice as granular as Celsius.

And then they'll argue that the inch is more convenient than the centimeter because it's twice as large.

That's backwards. Fractions of an inch are in far more common usage than fractions of a centigrade. Ideal might be both a smaller inch and a smaller centigrade, but between the two a smaller inch is more helpful than a smaller centigrade.

Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#105

Post by hellzbellz123 »

beardyw wrote: post #18
pjc50 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in a few places they're different (US measuring "cup" vs UK, US gallon, etc) edit: ref https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zfnjb7h

UK doesn't use cups in recipes and fuel is dispensed in litres. Road signs are still in miles.

The standard cup is not the same size between us and uk Sumthin sumthin breakfast cup

Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#106

Post by graemep »

ghaff wrote: post #66
bluGill wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is what you are used to for both of you. you could make your own measurement system and it would work fine once you get used to it - until you need to communicate with someone else who isn't used to it.

A big part of it is certainly what you're used to. The other part, which I'm sympathetic to, is that for human scale everyday things, Fahrenheit 0 degrees lines up with really darned cold, 100 degrees with really hot outside of an oven, and the degree size is about twice as granular as Celsius. And while Celsius degree size is indeed widely used in engineering calculations, you're often using Kelvin as the absolute t…

0 lines up with freezing point is very intuitive.

Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#107

Post by gdwatson »

ecommerceguy wrote: post #28

Aren't imperial units considerably easier to calculate on the fly in construction and when squaring? They seem to come more natural for me.

Units based on base 12 or base 2, as U.S. standard measures tend to be, are easier to divide in many ways.

Now if we used base 12 numbers instead of base 10, and we had a system of units based on that, I bet we’d have the best of both worlds. No idea if Napoleon could have imposed base 12 arithmetic on most of Europe the way he did metric, though.

Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#108

Post by alkonaut »

mschild wrote: post #68
alkonaut wrote: post #47

Having converted science, manufacturing etc, what's the first (or next) true consumer facing thing that could change?

Grocery sizes. In fact, a lot of them already have it on the items. Typically because a lot of products are also sold in Canada so they put the ml measurement next to the gallons.

Yeah is fl.oz on consumer containers _really_ seen as a volume measurement, i.e. thought of in terms of conversion "How many of these to a gallon", "what does a 6-pack weigh" and so on?

Or are they more like t-shirt sizes "I know I want a 16oz can to drink and I know how big they are"?

Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#109

Post by modo_mario »

svara wrote: post #91
modo_mario wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Everything packed into this tight range. AS someone that grew up with metric that feels fairly natural and not tight at all? >Inches/feet being base 12 divides better into thirds and fourths, which is very useful in construction. I used ruler tapes with both metric and imperial on either side and i always wondered how one could use the inches since they're so big and didn't always have the same minute subdivisions.…

> (...) grew up with (...) feels fairly natural (...) Really all there is to that discussion.

Mostly yeah at which point the only relevant arguments are being able to tie in with the rest of the world and being able to easily tie measurements togheter/do math.

Re: The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)

#110

Post by eddyg »

threemux wrote: post #62

I'd part with cups and teaspoons/tablespoons and the like, but you'll pry inches/feet/yards and fahrenheit from my cold, dead hands. They're both more convenient for daily use. I think I'd prefer to keep miles as well but I don't have a good reason for that one. Fahrenheit has more precision without using decimals for the thing 99% of people are using temperature measurements for: air temp. Where I live, we generally…

Fahrenheit forever!

    0°C.................100°C
    Cold                 Dead

    0°F.................100°F
    Really Cold    Really Hot
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