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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)

#161

Post by stronglikedan »

plaguna wrote: post #44
sarchertech wrote: post #38

The problem is that Fahrenheit is a bit more convenient for describing the weather. Inches and feet are a bit more convenient for measuring human scale things and for being easily divisible by more numbers. And we’re used to the rest of it. Unless someone comes along and forces it on you, for the average person, there’s not enough incentive to switch.

"Fahrenheit is a bit more convenient for describing the weather" - you might need to show us an example here that is not biased. Because to me, Celsius is a bit more convenient for describing the weather.

Celsius isn't granular enough for describing how humans feel temperature.

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

#162

Post by ungovernableCat »

t-3 wrote: post #59
yurishimo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone who wants to collaborate internationally is already doing it. Science in the US is entirely metric. Construction and domestic measurements are the two biggest holdouts and honestly they’re both negligible. Given the proliferation of global manufacturing, most businesses are converting at the end before retail for US customers. If the government was competent, they could rip off the bandaid and everyone would…

Honestly, I don't think anyone would raise much of a fuss over changing distance measurements to metric. Both centimeters and inches are easy enough to eyeball or rule-of-thumb, meters and yards are basically the same, and larger units are only relevant for speed limits and travel planning. Metric lacks a good "foot", but I guess people would get used to eyeballing things in ~50cm increments instead. Weights are even…

In a country where every single facet of life is being increasingly politicised, you think this wouldn't cause a fuss?

Oddly enough if any government could just push and shove this through it might be Trump. I bet 20 years later you'd have a sizeable constituency who could be convinced that the change from imperial to foreign units was the beginning of the fall and decline and that everything could be fixed if you went back.

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

#164

Post by Symbiote »

gonzalohm wrote: post #89
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…

Interesting. As an European living in the US. The only US units that I find useful are cups, teaspoons and tablespoons. And that's only for cooking. It's way faster to measure volume than weight (although less accurate)

In some European countries, it's common for rough recipes to use decilitres, e.g. 2dL of flour.

1 US cup is 2.37dL.

Otherwise, a metric tablespoon is 15mL and a teaspoon is 5mL.

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

#165

Post by master_crab »

antisthenes wrote: post #159
master_crab wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was there again in the 90s after the wall fell. Fukuyama was boldly proclaiming the “end of history.” Newt started to kick at the edges with his combative policies but the inertia continued until the dotcom crash and 9/11 came along, and fully ended with the Great Recession.* * (From my viewpoint as a millennial. Gen Z might think the golden years were during Obama, or just pre-COVID. To some extent every generati…

> (From my viewpoint as a millennial. Gen Z might think the golden years were during Obama, or just pre-COVID. To some extent every generation has a point in time that they see with rose tinted lenses.) Of course they do. It's the formative years & youth. Roughly from the time you form a mature consciousness (12-14 yo) to roughly your late 20s or maybe early 30s when all your tastes, preferences etc. are formed.

Oh that is definitely part of it. But new generations also don’t have a point of reference. I certainly don’t know if the 70s or the 80s were truly that great. Outside economic and social indicators (income, life expectancy — all of which should arguably carry more weight anywa) it’s difficult to argue against something if you never experienced it.

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

#166

Post by ericmay »

technothrasher wrote: post #149
ericmay wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> the useful scale of Fahrenheit is far superior 0-100 versus 0-32. Well, first of all, I'm not sure why you're defining those scales as the "useful" ones. They don't even equate to each other. But why are you arbitrarily using 100 as the end of your Fahrenheit scale? Just so you can declare it 'Metric-y'? If you read his paper, Fahrenheit's scale is actually 0-96.

Well even 0-96 would be better, but I think 0-100 scales are more useful. Temperatures in most places are within those bounds and it's like a test you are graded on. You get a 0 on the test, that's really cold. You get a 100 - smoking hot.

I'm not 100% sure of the normal upper/lower bounds in everyday life for most people on the planet for Celsius, but let's say it's 0-32. It' just feels weird to me to be operating on that scale versus 0-100 where I see in every day life from battery percentages to test scores.

> Just so you can declare it 'Metric-y'?

In part, yea. But I generally just prefer the Imperial system because of its practicality in everyday life and because it's fun and weird and historical in a way that Metric isn't.

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

#167

Post by ginko »

Ekaros wrote: post #139
sfn42 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even need decimals. Nobody who uses celsius gives a shit about the decimals. It's -4 or it's -5 and even that distinction is irrelevant. Unless you're doing some kind of scientific calculaton there's no need to think about decimals of celsius at all. Just like Fahrenheit users surely don't care whether it's 50 or 53 or whatever. It's around 50, that's all you need to know.

Only place I could imagine something is cooking and even there I probably would not be able to differentiate steak at 56C, 57C and 58C...

It might make a difference for mashing when brewing beer but even that’s a crapshoot.

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

#168

Post by ghkbrew »

btbuilder wrote: post #130
eddyg wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fahrenheit forever! 0°C.................100°C Cold Dead 0°F.................100°F Really Cold Really Hot

0C = Frozen!

Only if you're made of pure water at standard pressure. Which I'm not.

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

#169

Post by alnwlsn »

>They specify dimensions in feet, inches, and fractions of an inch. But not all of them do.

There are many more fun and exciting non-metric measurements you might encounter than plain old fractional inches.

A fabricator might encounter sheet metal thickness in "gauge". Wire sizes, ammunition, and machine screws also come in "gauge" sizes but all four are different scales. US drills come not only in fractional inch sizes, but letters and numbers as well. Furnace efficiency is often specified in percent, but air conditioner efficiency comes in SEER. Water softener capacity is in "grains". Pipe threads come in "inch sizes", but that usually means NPT. Metal hardness and rubber durometer measurements have their own scale which doesn't really belong to either camp.

To be fair, a lot of these are categorical units. Screws come in #2 or #6 or #4, but you'll never need to worry about #3.7.

A wise professor once told me "All these different units will not be going away within your lifetime, so you better get used to working with them."

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

#170

Post by Symbiote »

GJim wrote: post #73
ljf wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been a long time since fuel was sold here in the UK in gallons, but most cars still are spoken of in terms of MPG (miles driven per gallon of fuel). There are steps to move this to L per 100km - but most people here still use MPG. We also use Pints in pubs, which are a different size to US pints.

> We also use Pints in pubs And so we should. A British pint is 568 ml. We will switch to smaller metric 500 ml 'half-litre' beers over my dead body. All other imperial measurements can bugger off to the history books where they rightly belong.

Australia switched to 570ml, rounding up. Would that be acceptable?
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