America And The Metric System

[DanS]

Most things are given in both English and Metric. Over time, we'll move to the metric, so it's all good. No need for the gov't to be coercive.

[Pius Popprasch]

I'm definitely not american and I hate the metric system. The Americans should continue their way of success.

[TCO]

Originally posted by rah
Yep, they tried, didn't work.
People are always more comfortable with what they're familiar with.

What I find amusing, is the iritation it causes some poeple. It's worth keeping it for that alone.

Get over it.

RAH

yeah...it has that value of pssing off the Euro-weenies. I'm pretty ambivalent about the death penalty or gun control. But I enjoy letting them sputter, when we decide to do something different in our own country.

[TCO]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


We changed 30 years ago. It wasn't that big a deal. I never knew Americans were so math-deficient...

Has nothing to do with math. People can adjust to kph and to Celcius.

The issue is with tooling. There is actually some federal law which requires metric units on government parts. So what happens is that you get a lot of silly parts labeled 2.54 cm.

When and if America decides to bite the bullet and switch all the nuts, bolts, bricks and lumber to metric standards, it will have a significant cost. Not saying it won't happen or might not be worth it (that's an interesting argument). Just saying that the cost will be significant.

As an aside, I wonder if you all up there really use metric standards for stuff. Don't you have to keep English wrenches and stuff?

[Dauphin]

The railways are still gauged to imperial measure, all across Europe (couple of exceptions). You can thank the British engineers for that.

[Skanky Burns]

Besides, when you do 120 on a US highway, you really feel the speed!

But we in metric countries will be travelling at the same speed, but doing 160

There is actually some federal law which requires metric units on government parts. So what happens is that you get a lot of silly parts labeled 2.54 cm.

"cm" aren't officially part of the metric system - it being based on lots of 1000, and cm meaning "a hundreth". Not sure of my point (its 4:30 am here), but just though that was something interesting to bring up.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns

Besides, when you do 120 on a US highway, you really feel the speed!

But we in metric countries will be travelling at the same speed, but doing 160

More like 190 I'd have thought.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns

"cm" aren't officially part of the metric system - it being based on lots of 1000, and cm meaning "a hundreth". Not sure of my point (its 4:30 am here), but just though that was something interesting to bring up.

Better to spare us such trivial insights/remarks. Go to bed.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Sava
Engineers and scientists in America primarily use the metric system. The English system is just used for roads, basic home construction, and people's vital statistics. It would be too difficult for people to get used to the metric system. Why change something just to appease some canucks?

Why? Because Americans are stupid???

*Note* This is just a logical conclusion considering all us Euros and Canadians have managed it perfectly easily...

yeah...it has that value of pssing off the Euro-weenies. I'm pretty ambivalent about the death penalty or gun control. But I enjoy letting them sputter, when we decide to do something different in our own country.

You're not doing anything different, we are!

You're the ones stuck in the past with a dinosaur.

If you think that p*sses me off, think again. I gave my own reasons why I think it's a good thing that the US keeps with metric...

Hell, I grew on Imperial. I can do both equally well (it wasn't too 'difficult' for me ), I like coming to the US to be reminded nostalgicly of a bygone era...

Doesn't p*ss us off GP, we just think it's, er quaint. Yes, quaint that you guys want to hold onto your last vestiges of dominion by your mother country in the face of progress...

[axi]

Science and engineering is done in metric.

What? Say that again?

Not ALL engineering is done in metric. In some fields where the Americans have set the standards, all engineers intrenationally use imperial units. Refrigeration is a classic example. I have in front of me a pressure - enthalphy diagram of refrigerant R-12:

temperature in Farenheit.
volume in ft3/lb
entropy in BTU/lb/R
pressure in lbs/in2
enthalpy in BTU/lb

It all works fine, untill you have to do an energy balance equation in klioJoules.

[TCO]

do you know how to convert tons of refrigeration?

[axi]

Not out of my head. I'll have to look it up.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by GP


Has nothing to do with math. People can adjust to kph and to Celcius.

The issue is with tooling. There is actually some federal law which requires metric units on government parts. So what happens is that you get a lot of silly parts labeled 2.54 cm.

When and if America decides to bite the bullet and switch all the nuts, bolts, bricks and lumber to metric standards, it will have a significant cost. Not saying it won't happen or might not be worth it (that's an interesting argument). Just saying that the cost will be significant.

As an aside, I wonder if you all up there really use metric standards for stuff. Don't you have to keep English wrenches and stuff?

Machine shops keep complete sets of metric and standard sizes. Everybody knows what an inch and a pound are and that 90 F is a hot day, but you buy gas by the litre.

Meats are packaged dual-system, but cereal's by the gram only...

I would think that most machine shops down there are already stocked with both systems.

[TCO]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


Machine shops keep complete sets of metric and standard sizes. Everybody knows what an inch and a pound are and that 90 F is a hot day, but you buy gas by the litre.

Meats are packaged dual-system, but cereal's by the gram only...

I would think that most machine shops down there are already stocked with both systems.

Well...studies have been done showing that it would be a huge cost to actually change all the parts over to metric. It's more than just an issue of having metric and standard wrenches. It's the parts themselves and all the associated peices. Construction is the hardest to change, I understand.

For instance if we were to use metric sizes for bricks it would be a real hard changeover. That's why we have all these wierd parts that are metric labeled but have English round number unit measures.

[KrazyHorse]

From what I've seen there isn't that much of a problem. Things seem to have shaken themselves out. People are more adaptable than you give them credit for, but they won't change unless given a little push. My father's generation thinks in inches, mine thinks in cms. We didn't exactly shove it down everyvody's throats; we gave ourselves time to change. Seems to be the same course that you guys are supposed to be taking, but you haven't really started on it yet...