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Ending the Era of the U.S. Survey Foot

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Re: Ending the Era of the U.S. Survey Foot

#31

Post by war1025 »

DeepYogurt wrote: post #21

Imagine it being 2020 and not using the metric system.

The metric system doesn't really have anything intrinsically better about it.

Sure the power of ten thing is convenient, but really that is just sticking to one unit and adding a prefix. You could call "thousandths of an inch" a "milli-inch" and it'd be about the same.

Fahrenheit is absolutely a more useful human-scale measurement than Celcius. The boiling point of water is mostly irrelevant to everyday life. At that point you might as well just do things in Kelvin.

Perhaps the usefulness of Fahrenheit is only a thing when you live in a continental climate though.

100F is about as hot as it's going to get here in Iowa.

Similarly, 0F means that it's the depths of winter. Anything above 0F is pretty manageable. When you start going below 0F you're getting into "real cold" territory.

Point being, Fahrenheit is a scale that matches well to the climate extremes (at least around here), which I think is a significant advantage for it.

As to the rest of it, a meter is basically a yard. A liter is basically a quart. A kilogram is just two pounds. Not really that difficult.

Re: Ending the Era of the U.S. Survey Foot

#34

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

adamtj wrote: post #29
DeepYogurt wrote: post #21

Imagine it being 2020 and not using the metric system.

That's not hard to imagine. Quick, what's 1/3 of a meter? The sometimes problem with metric is it's base-10. The prime factors of 10 are 2 and 5. Feet are in base-12, which has the prime factors 2 and 3. Three is much more useful than five. There are marks on your measuring tape at exactly 1/3 of a yard or 1/3 of a foot. Metric is often easier and more convenient, but not always. So, in the US, we tend to use metric…

> Quick, what's 1/3 of a meter?

33.3 cm?

Re: Ending the Era of the U.S. Survey Foot

#35

Post by thomk »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #34
adamtj wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not hard to imagine. Quick, what's 1/3 of a meter? The sometimes problem with metric is it's base-10. The prime factors of 10 are 2 and 5. Feet are in base-12, which has the prime factors 2 and 3. Three is much more useful than five. There are marks on your measuring tape at exactly 1/3 of a yard or 1/3 of a foot. Metric is often easier and more convenient, but not always. So, in the US, we tend to use metric…

> Quick, what's 1/3 of a meter? 33.3 cm?

Oh, you rounded. Got it. ;)

Re: Ending the Era of the U.S. Survey Foot

#36

Post by salgernon »

kbar13 wrote: post #6
hadlock wrote: post #3

Mildly surprising that we are not just using meters at this point.

think renaming a software library is hard? try changing units of measure!!!!!

Saw this here somewhere previously: Sweden did something more insane: Högertrafikomläggningen. Do it once, get it over with?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H

Re: Ending the Era of the U.S. Survey Foot

#37

Post by thomk »

adamtj wrote: post #29
DeepYogurt wrote: post #21

Imagine it being 2020 and not using the metric system.

That's not hard to imagine. Quick, what's 1/3 of a meter? The sometimes problem with metric is it's base-10. The prime factors of 10 are 2 and 5. Feet are in base-12, which has the prime factors 2 and 3. Three is much more useful than five. There are marks on your measuring tape at exactly 1/3 of a yard or 1/3 of a foot. Metric is often easier and more convenient, but not always. So, in the US, we tend to use metric…

Agreed. If you have ever done any type of construction you are very thankful that you can divide a foot evenly by 2, 3, 4 and 6.

Re: Ending the Era of the U.S. Survey Foot

#38

Post by jdkee »

adamtj wrote: post #29
DeepYogurt wrote: post #21

Imagine it being 2020 and not using the metric system.

That's not hard to imagine. Quick, what's 1/3 of a meter? The sometimes problem with metric is it's base-10. The prime factors of 10 are 2 and 5. Feet are in base-12, which has the prime factors 2 and 3. Three is much more useful than five. There are marks on your measuring tape at exactly 1/3 of a yard or 1/3 of a foot. Metric is often easier and more convenient, but not always. So, in the US, we tend to use metric…

"Quick, what's 1/3 of a meter?"

About a foot.

Re: Ending the Era of the U.S. Survey Foot

#39

Post by mrb »

adamtj wrote: post #29
DeepYogurt wrote: post #21

Imagine it being 2020 and not using the metric system.

That's not hard to imagine. Quick, what's 1/3 of a meter? The sometimes problem with metric is it's base-10. The prime factors of 10 are 2 and 5. Feet are in base-12, which has the prime factors 2 and 3. Three is much more useful than five. There are marks on your measuring tape at exactly 1/3 of a yard or 1/3 of a foot. Metric is often easier and more convenient, but not always. So, in the US, we tend to use metric…

My wife's family, who almost all have university degrees, who were all born and raised in the US, and who are very familiar with the imperial system NEVER seem to be able to do math with it. They ask me, a European raised with the metric system, for help.

Find out how many fl oz of milk are in a measuring cup graduated in units of cups? Ask mrb.

Convert my daughter's height from feet/inches to inches? Ask mrb.

Convert a package's weight from oz to lb/oz? Ask mrb.

Need to know how cold it needs to be outside in farenheit for water to freeze? Ask mrb.

I lost count of the number of times they accidentally mix up for example 1.3 feet with 1 ft 3 in. Sometimes it's due to miscommunication, eg. I have seen "six pound five" interpreted as 6 lb 5 oz by one when the speaker meant 6.5 lb. Or vice versa.

It's just comical to see someone trying to argue that the imperial system is "sometimes easier."

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