America And The Metric System

[TCO]

Understood. It is. But in that particular usage, it grates more than normal. Just the sound of it...

I'm more used to seeing they used to cover for a singular third person pronoun where the sex is unknown. In this case, pretty easy to use your without any PC issues.

[KrazyHorse]

I got in trouble in high school for using "their" to avoid referring to sex. I've followed the letter of that particular law ever since...

[Sikander]

Originally posted by CyberGnu

Why is it important? Do you people realize how disadvantaged your scientists and engineers are? Science and engineering is done in metric. There is no argument there. If you are used to the metric system you have an innate understanding of scale, something you completely lack when you are only used to whatever archaic system you favor...

Well parts of the U.S. population like our military and our scientists do use the metric system all of the time. It's not hard, and doesn't seem to be much of an issue. It really isn't a disadvantage for these people, it's the common folk who don't have a feel for the metric system generally.

[CyberGnu]

Sikander, I know plenty of scientists who use metric measurements in the lab, but still don't have an innate understanding of how much even simple things like weight is. '5 grams? How much is that? Like, umm, let me get my calculator, 9 farthogs? Ahh, ok.'

and while it isn't such a big deal in science, in Chemical Engineering it really is... all forumulas are in metric, while variables in the US are given in archaic, since that is the only thing the process people are familiar with... *shudder*

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Saint Marcus
how many inches in a yard? how many yards in a mile?

and is there anything smaller than an inch that people work with?

That's a rather personal question.

[Jack_www]

It seems to me that many who like the english system and dont want to change to the metric that they seem to think that the metric system is hard to learn, which is not the case. It is very easy for even for a person who is not very intelligent to learn the system. Scenists in this country now use the metric system, is because it is much better to use when taking messurement and all the other things they must do. I just wonder that the many mistakes that have been made in industry when they have to convert form english to metric, and maybe back again, and how much these misstakes have cost us. Why dont you want to start using the metric system? Because everyone else is doing it? Because you think that english system is better, when you dont even know what the metric system is and have not taken the time to learn it? I could understand not doing it because everyone else does it, this would be good case say if people starting jumping off bluildings or something like that, but if it is a good thing, there is no harm in it, following everybody else when they are doing something good or at least that is not bad. I dont see what harm could come form switching to metric system. If there is plz tells us so that we may know.

[CyberGnu]

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

Actually, we can thank the Romans for that... They set an imperial standard for how far apart chariot wheels should be, and that measure stayed the same until the present day

[CyberGnu]

Sikander,

[Dauphin]

I know why the US doesn;t convert - The Star Trek universe uses the metric system, so do the Europeans.

i.e Metrication = Communism.

[ZoboZeWarrior]

I've responded answer #2. But in reality I don't care. It's USA business only.

Inches, Feet & Miles are quite hard to use for scientific business but they are fun.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
I know why the US doesn;t convert - The Star Trek universe uses the metric system, so do the Europeans.

i.e Metrication = Communism.

I already postulated that...

[The Vagabond]

Face it. Americans subconsciously reject the metric system because it's actually French.

It seems that it's easier to introduce a new currency (as in Europe) than to adopt a new system of units. Anyway, America's transition to the metric system is impossible without coercive measures.

[TCO]

We won't give an inch!

[Akka]

Originally posted by The Vagabond
Face it. Americans subconsciously reject the metric system because it's actually French.

You know what ? I bet that's much closer to reality than you could think
I would not be surprised that Americans are reluctant to use the metric system mainly because it's not THEM that invented it

[Ari Rahikkala]

There's only one reason why imperial is better than metric: It's a lot easier to say "a mile" than "a kilometer". Too much easier, really. I sometimes measure trips in miles simply because saying "a mile" feels so comfortable .