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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)

#61

Post by bluGill »

neutronicus wrote: post #49
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…

Construction is negligible? I guess you imagine we’ll all be calling half inch pipe twelve seven after this year adjustment period? I guess people do it with bullet calibers.

There is nothing half inch in a half inch pipe. One inch emt is not one inch, it is 27mm outside diameter (for some reason I know that one)

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

#62

Post by threemux »

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 experience 5 degrees F - 100 degrees F at different points of the year. That's 95 degrees of precision with no decimal. In C, that's -15 to 37.8, a mere 52.8 degrees. The difference between 75 (usually a beautiful day) and 85 (hot) is 23.8C to 29.4C. Everything packed into this tight range.

Inches/feet being base 12 divides better into thirds and fourths, which is very useful in construction.

For science, sure, I'll use metric.

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

#63

Post by ch_123 »

pjc50 wrote: post #8
cjs_ac wrote: post #4

> U.S. customary (the more accurate name for what’s sometimes the called the British Imperial system) For those wondering why there is this distinction, the British Imperial units were created by the Weights and Measures Act 1824; US customary units follow the Winchester Standard of 1588.

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

As someone who generally uses metric units, but grew up around English Imperial units - if an American says that a person weighs a certain number of pounds, I need to convert to stone and pounds in my head in order to get a meaningful mental model of how much that person weighs.

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

#65

Post by veltas »

ljf wrote: post #24
beardyw wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

It's worth pointing out the convenient imperial units are the ones that are hardest to get rid of. The "pints" in pubs is because a pint is about how much a drink should be, in fact I've often found drinking 500ml to be just slightly too little to drink, probably because I'm used to the pint, but "1 unit" is also just a lot easier to keep than "500 units" or "50 units".

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

#66

Post by ghaff »

bluGill wrote: post #53
plaguna wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

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 temperature scale. (Which does use Celsius degree increments of course.)

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

#67

Post by bluGill »

c048 wrote: post #30
rob74 wrote: post #3

[flagged]

I've heared Americans, unironically, state that the metric system is less precise than the imperial system. I have no clue what the origin is of this myth, but at this point I wouldn't be surprised if Trump held this belief too.

Depends on the field - it happens that 1\1000 inch is a good tolerance for many machining operations, while metric doesn't have a convient round number close enough to that range to be useful. That doesn't slow down mathinists though, they know the fraction of mm tolerance they need to use and it is what is marked on their tools.

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

#68

Post by mschild »

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.

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

#69

Post by sevensor »

alkonaut wrote: post #47

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

> manufacturing

This is sadly far from the truth. Manufacturing is nowhere near metric conversion. Horsepower, foot-pounds, and my all time least favorite unit, the mil, are everywhere. And relatedly, manufacturing execution systems that use localtime internally cause all manner of hilarity twice a year. It’s like we’re just deliberately trying to be bad at measuring things.

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

#70

Post by bluGill »

kstenerud wrote: post #23
jxdxbx wrote: post #2

The metric systems's worse flaw was doubling down on base 10 instead of the plainly superior base 12.

The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!

Someone else must be paying for your fuel. Nobody who pays for their own fuel likes that.
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