DaveFromCampbelltown
macrumors 68020
Mate, a 102cm TV is lots more impressive (2.5 times more) than a dinky little 40 inch one...
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Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?
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Mate, a 102cm TV is lots more impressive (2.5 times more) than a dinky little 40 inch one...
bunnspecial
macrumors G3
Look at enough and you'll not mistake metric and SAE fasteners because the threadforms are different.
With that said, it's not exactly hard to tell if you're putting fasteners together and the threads aren't correct...just pay attention and don't force things or try to get past it with power tools.
throAU
macrumors G4
Units are about measuring things and often for calculating stuff, and imperial measure just doesn't work well in science.
Hence the SI units are metric.
Hence the SI units are metric.
The city of Brookline, MA, a suburb of Boston, used my idea, but they applied it to smoking instead of to the metric system.
As this article explains, they banned the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after January 1st, 2000.
I have always managed both (Imperial and SI/metric). Learned both systems in and out of school but, thankfully, all science was in SI.
I am often amazed how many people of my own age, and even significantly younger, seem to have problems with units.
The only real issue I have is buying milk and simply forgetting to look whether it is a pint (473 ml) or half a litre. Which can matter for recipes. And the companies which package things like coffee in 227 gram packs - when many competitors use 250 grams. That is plain exploitation of ignorance.
DaveFromCampbelltown
macrumors 68020
I went to high school in Australia when it was transitioning from imperial to metric, in both weights and measures and currency. I can still think accurately in both sets of measures. 30 mph ~ 50 kph.
Interestingly, when I was in hospital, they handed out pills in little disposable cups, which had on the side --
And these little cups weren't leftover stock from the '60s. They have a recycling symbol on the bottom.
Interestingly, when I was in hospital, they handed out pills in little disposable cups, which had on the side --
- mls and ccs
- table- and tea-spoons
- fl oz, and, wait for it
- drams
And these little cups weren't leftover stock from the '60s. They have a recycling symbol on the bottom.
Great answer!
Like some others in this forum, I find the efforts made by others to change a nation's system sort of tyrannical. If I travel to other nations I most adapt to whatever measuring systems they use. For example, whenever I drive through Canada, I obey the road speed limits used in Canada. When I immigrated to the US from a country where the metric system was the norm, I had to adapt the the measuring system used in the US.
This subject reminds me of the efforts one takes to change one's spouse (or anybody else) to one's way of thinking.
-Maybe the "nautical mile" should be changed to something else?
-Then we use another measuring unit, "yard"
Well, maybe the US "founders" listened to the Apple commercials about, "be different"? I was born in one of those "green color regions," but adapted in a short period of time to the "red color regions." I don't have a problem with one of the other measuring system.Almost every other country in the world, including China.
There are 7.4 billion people in the world, 3 countries do not use Metric. 2 of them are third world.
http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/metric-map-which-countries-dont-belong-with-the-others/
And amongst those who do not use metric, you don't even use the same measures for gallons and who even knows what else.
Every single one of those countries did not start out with Metric, every single one of them managed to convert.
It is not a big deal regardless of how one feels about it. Isn't it nice for the masses have the freedom to speak and measure things the way they like?
Common Unit Systems
An introduction of the three common unit systems used in the world, including International System of Units (SI), United States customary units, and Imperial system.
www.unitconverters.net
I can only imagine a doctor asking me to "urinate" 29.574 milliliters in the urinalysis cup. One ounce is much easier to relate to. The same at the kitchen cooking or baking. in this case I prefer the "American way" of measuring as follows (quoted from the web address above):
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throAU
macrumors G4
There was a recent Planet Money podcast episode that discussed a related case of switching to the metric system and the costs involved. It's the reason why to this day Eastern Canadian provinces sells milk in plastic bags instead of jugs. When they switched to the metric system, the costs involved of changing all of the packaging to metric resulted in the decision being made to use plastic bags to sell milk instead of more solid containers.
They don't go into detail about what kind of costs would be involved for the US to go the same route, but mention that the incredible costs of switching to be one of the key reasons why we haven't done it.
Of Memestocks and Milk Bags : Planet Money
We answer your questions about memestocks, milk in bags, the size of cereal boxes, and products exclusive to the rich, but not for long? | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.www.npr.org
so you can re brand or slap a sale price tag on an item or offer “50% more!” but can’t put a sticker on with metric? don’t buy it. the container sizes do not need to change initially.
AustinIllini
macrumors G5
PRSI returns!
I'm a Chemical Engineer, so I have spent an uncomfortable amount of time with lb of mass or force, barrels, and BTUs. I consider metric generally superior to imperial or whatever with a couple of exceptions:
I'm a Chemical Engineer, so I have spent an uncomfortable amount of time with lb of mass or force, barrels, and BTUs. I consider metric generally superior to imperial or whatever with a couple of exceptions:
- I prefer miles to kilometers
- I prefer horsepower to kW for certain measures (In general, I would settle for a clear conversion to horsepower)
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PlayUltimate
macrumors 65816
For cooking, excluding the fact that most Europeans measure solids by weight, cups/pints/ounces are much easier for doubling and halving since it, nominally, is a base 2 system.
throAU
macrumors G4
Most countries were imperial before they were metric.
It isn't just about measuring stuff, metric is just so much better for conversions; if you do any sort of science or engineering, metric makes sense with its powers of ten and things like 1000 cubic centimeters and litres being interchangable. I mean i know for example that a 10x10x10cm cube is 1L in volume. And that 1L container can hold 1kg of water. Or that 1 cubic metre of water is 1 metric tonne.
Or, 1km = 1,000m = 1,000,000 mm.
Imperial simply does not make sense for conversions like this.
Perusing this thread though i am stunned that dual labeled rulers, measuring tapes, etc. are not commonplace over in the USA. Here in metric countries pretty much any measuring device does both imperial and metric. I guess selling measuring devices in the country that do both as a matter of course would be a good first step.
Micky Do
macrumors 68020
Some countries used UK imperial units before they went metric, but many other countries used their own non-imperial units. Some still do for some units, such as the rai for land measurement in Thailand. Some customary units used in the USA are imperial (feet, inches etc), and some are different from imperial units despite having somewhat imperial names (US gallon v imperial gallon for instance).
US customary weights and measures have been defined in terms of the metre and the kilogram since the Mendenhall Order of 1893, making the US a metric country that customarily uses non-metric units...... except that in science and medicine, as well as some sectors of industry, government and the military metric units are used.
50 years ago, where I am now was in the process of going metric We started with money, changing from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents in 1967. It was common for rulers etc. to have both imperial and metric measurements. Nowadays measuring devices are all metric, as is the case in just about every country I have been to that is metric.
Today only three countries are mainly non metric for day to day use: the USA, Myanmar/Burma, and Liberia. The UK is mixed... Generally metric, Brits still use miles to measure distance on the roads, and they traditionally buy beer in pints at the pub.
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Which would be extremely stupid.
False accuracy pervades the media. Any rational doctor would ask for 30 ml. Few of us would have the means to measure a half a millilitre accurately, let alone thousandths of a millilitre.
Today, in a newspaper, I read a story which referenced 40 miles and gave a conversion of 64 km - not 64.3738. That was a sensible choice.
The most awkward non-metric measurements seems to be fractions. As in 1/64, 1/32, 3/64, 1/16, etc. - widely used for drills. And when you see something in, for example, sixteenths of an inch with a numeric of 24.13/16 (or 1 and 8.13/16). Mixing decimal and fraction in one measurement.
justperry
macrumors G5
Agree with most except the bolded part, can't even remember when the last last time I saw a dual system measuring tape/rule was. (NL)
Imperial and older systems also include a vast collection of units which are (almost) totally ignored. Few actually use roods, chains, poles, gills, etc., in their everyday lives.
Those who favour old systems very often miss out many units, and inconsistencies. For example, a stone (weight) can be anything from about 7 to 15 pounds. And a fluid ounce doesn't weigh an ounce.
rhett7660
macrumors G5
Had me at pint... wait, wrong thread. Carry on.
DaveFromCampbelltown
macrumors 68020
I love it when our weather people on TV when they say '40 mls' of rain, when they really mean '40 millimetres' of rain. There is a subtle difference.
DeepIn2U
macrumors G5
throAU
macrumors G4
gallons aren’t universal
neither are feet
or pounds
or miles (nautical vs regular plus different definitions in different countries in the past)
as to measuring household items and wondering what is exactly 1cm (another poster in thread)… who cares. units are for measuring for the purposes of science of construction and in both metric is superior due to the way they calculate.
I am 62 y.o.. I remember when my school district announced we would all be converting to the metric system soon. That was almost 50 years ago. It's a great example of human resistance to change and switching costs. I suppose it would be more efficient if the entire world adopted one common language too. But heck, we can't even agree on which side of the road to drive on.