When will the USA fall to the metric system?

The Third Man · Post by **The Third Man** » 2004-01-28 05:32pm

phongn wrote: Ft-lbs defines work

Just to make things messy again I'll point out that ft-lbs is also used for torque. Or you could use foot-poundals. Imperial work can also be measured in any of 5 different types of calorie or BTUs, and there are a similar number of different types of horsepower.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-01-28 05:34pm

Darth Wong wrote:The Farenheit scale is the worst thing about Imperial, and it would be the easiest thing to change by far. At least you don't have to worry about machine components not fitting together because of it.

In Celsius, freezing point is 0 degrees and boiling point is 100 degrees. Nobody can successfully explain to me how Farenheit can possibly be a better system for "everyday use" than that. They're just used to its idiosyncrasies, that's all.

Actually I think some of the volume measurements are the worst but Farenheit is rather annoying but mainly when trying to use it for science.

I think the your right about the idiosyncrasies part though. I'd say that's the primary reason I don't use it ( 38 degrees just doesn't seem hot when your used to 100.

). Plus the tv weather forecasts don't use it either. Most of the web ones use both though and I think that's necessary if we're ever going to switch. 38 degrees just doesn't seem hot when your used to 100.

I've just seen it explained that for every day use the average user is going to get slightly more out of the Farenheit scale because he'll make more use of a larger part of the range provided since it's spread out more than the centigrade scale (32-100 vs 0-38 ).

For science you can bet that I'm all for using centigrade it's much easier to use for that but I think it's advantages aren't as great for people not doing science which is another small reason for why the US hasn't switched to using centigrade.

This about how Farenheit was developed makes me want to use it less because he seems to have mostly pulled it out of his ass.

In short, 100 means nothing at all on the Fahrenheit scale, 96 used to mean something but doesn't anymore, and 0 is colder than it ever gets in Denmark

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-01-28 05:42pm

Darth Servo wrote:In my job here in Houston (which is a lab tech at a medical research college so its a bit of an anomoly) we're entirely metric. And how often do you buy a gallon of soda?

The only things I buy in gallons are gasoline and milk. I wouldn't complain if they decided to put out a 4 liter "metric gallon". I'm sure someone would bitch about paying more for a gallon of ________ because they wouldn't realize that they are actually getting more than in an imperial gallon, but the dumbasses are going to bitch anyway.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-01-28 05:44pm

Probably better for them to make a three-liter milk bottle and charge less for it. Although there's still going to be somebody who will complain.

Gambler · Post by **Gambler** » 2004-01-28 06:05pm

I don't understand how you can buy milk in gallon bottles. Unless you have a big family and all drink milk, how do you consume that much milk before it gets bad?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-01-28 06:14pm

Gambler wrote:I don't understand how you can buy milk in gallon bottles. Unless you have a big family and all drink milk, how do you consume that much milk before it gets bad?

You refridgerate it.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2004-01-28 06:19pm

it still goes bad in the fridge

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-01-28 06:20pm

Crayz9000 wrote:Probably better for them to make a three-liter milk bottle and charge less for it. Although there's still going to be somebody who will complain.

That would probably be a better size for me. The gallon is a little too big for me by myself to easilly drink it all before I'd rather not drink it, and the 1/2 gallon is a little too small.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-01-28 06:22pm

The Third Man wrote:
phongn wrote: Ft-lbs defines work
Just to make things messy again I'll point out that ft-lbs is also used for torque. Or you could use foot-poundals. Imperial work can also be measured in any of 5 different types of calorie or BTUs, and there are a similar number of different types of horsepower.

N-m is also used for both work and torque

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-01-28 06:25pm

Gambler wrote:I don't understand how you can buy milk in gallon bottles. Unless you have a big family and all drink milk, how do you consume that much milk before it gets bad?

I ocassionally go through stints where I drink lots of milk. It's usually when I don't have much other than water to drink in the house and I find myself wanting something different. Water-juice-milk. I end up going through them all rather quickly.

If I have a lot of other things to drink in the house a half gallon will last me long enough but usually I finish it too quickly. It's all those giant servings that we Americans are too used to.

**On a related note** I almost never eat breakfast cereal with milk on it. I prefer it dry and my milk in a glass.

There are a couple brands of cereal that I don't mind having the milk in the bowl but I always ate my cereal dry as a kid and I still mostly do that when I actually eat cereal.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » 2004-01-28 06:36pm

It will never happen. The fact that we don't use the metric system and we hate soccer are the things that set us apart and make us unique.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2004-01-28 06:45pm

Gambler wrote:I don't understand how you can buy milk in gallon bottles. Unless you have a big family and all drink milk, how do you consume that much milk before it gets bad?

Refridgeration, like Spanky said, and drinking more than a couple of tablespoons a day.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-01-28 06:48pm

I'd like to see the four litre pepsi bottle....*drool*

Then again...I'd like a gallon of pepsi alot more....cause it's a GALLON! BITE ME, METRIC SYSTEM!

Seriously, though. My brain would take awhile to wrap itself around the whole It's going to be 0C outside this morning and stop myself from thinking "CHRIST! THE RIVER'S GONNA FREEZE!" Oh, that's only 32F. I have the same problem when learning foreign languages. As I learn, I think of it in terms of their english equivalents instead of a new and independent concept. Know what I mean? so I would, in the event of a full conversion, never be able to stop myself from thinking in terms of farenheit while speaking/hearing/seeing Celsius. Does that make any sense?

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-01-28 06:57pm

XaLEv wrote:
Gambler wrote:I don't understand how you can buy milk in gallon bottles. Unless you have a big family and all drink milk, how do you consume that much milk before it gets bad?
Refridgeration, like Spanky said, and drinking more than a couple of tablespoons a day.

During my winter break (three weeks) I went through two and a half gallons of milk. Just me. The rest of the family drank maybe a couple glasses combined. (But that's nothing compared to the many liters of Dr. Pepper I drink when exams come around.)

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2004-01-28 09:08pm

I say the US will go metric when it wants to. And since I'm sure many Americans have no problems with measuring how fast they're driving in miles per hour and putting a coat on when the thermometer says 30, I don't think it will be anytime soon.

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2004-01-28 09:15pm

Zac Naloen wrote:it still goes bad in the fridge

Man, you guys must have crappy refridgerators.

jenat-lai · Post by **jenat-lai** » 2004-01-29 02:55am

There are some parts of the American system I like, mostly because they make sense to Aviation. This is Feet. Knots I like too. Fahrenheit however just sucks and makes no sense.

I don't mind Pounds and Gallons, but Litres and Kilograms are better.

So I guess I like Metric, except for Feet altitude. "Climb to Flight level 330" sounds so much neater than "Climb to 8,732 metres"... and 100 metres is a little close for seperation between aircraft, and 1000 is way too much.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-01-29 03:13am

XaLEv wrote:
Gambler wrote:I don't understand how you can buy milk in gallon bottles. Unless you have a big family and all drink milk, how do you consume that much milk before it gets bad?
Refridgeration, like Spanky said, and drinking more than a couple of tablespoons a day.

The milk cartons that I bought today (28-1) have an expiration date of 09-2, or nearly three weeks of refrigerated shelf life.

Basically, a family of four each drinking about two glasses a day will go through a gallon of milk roughly every three days or so.

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2004-01-29 04:47am

The Imperial system is just damn horrid! I had to learn it for uni, and while I am far from an expert at it, I can get by using it ... although on the plus side, during exams writting 'lb~' with the '~' being a fudged letter usually meant I got full marks since I had a good chance that whatever the fuck unit I was calculating had a 'lb' something!

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2004-01-29 05:02am

Gambler wrote:I don't understand how you can buy milk in gallon bottles. Unless you have a big family and all drink milk, how do you consume that much milk before it gets bad?

Milk goes in cereal, or as a straight up beverage, also an ingredient in various foods and other beverages.

hell our family of five goes through gallons of milk like theyre going out of style just for beverages, we have to get two if we're stocking cereal.

*reminds self to go eat a bowl of Cookie Crisp*

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-01-29 10:28am

jenat-lai wrote:There are some parts of the American system I like, mostly because they make sense to Aviation. This is Feet. Knots I like too. Fahrenheit however just sucks and makes no sense.

I don't mind Pounds and Gallons, but Litres and Kilograms are better.

So I guess I like Metric, except for Feet altitude. "Climb to Flight level 330" sounds so much neater than "Climb to 8,732 metres"... and 100 metres is a little close for seperation between aircraft, and 1000 is way too much.

Everyone says something like that for any given unit of the Imperial system. People say "hey, one inch makes sense! I mean, that's my thumb, but what the heck is one meter!" or "how can people use metric? a kilogram is too much, a gram is too little, but one pound is just perfect!".

You measure altitude in Tens of meters. In your example you'd just say "climb to S873". There are always ways to say that metric is "harder" or "less intuitive".

Even if you think 873 is an ugly number, the only reason 330 is better is because it's a rounded number. Just like, say, 870 or 880.

Thinkmarble · Post by **Thinkmarble** » 2004-01-29 11:26am

Slartibartfast wrote:
jenat-lai wrote: People say "hey, one inch makes sense! I mean, that's my thumb, but what the heck is one meter!" or "how can people use metric? a kilogram is too much, a gram is too little, but one pound is just perfect!".

One metre is roughly the lenght of one big step.
20 cm is the distance from extended thumb to extended smallest finger.
1 kg is one litre of water, which is the amount you can drink in one go, when you are really thirsty.

GySgt. Hartman · Post by **GySgt. Hartman** » 2004-01-29 01:15pm

NASA engineers confusing metric units with English units are to blame for a navigation error that may have sent the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter into a suicide path with the Martian atmosphere on September 23, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory review board announced Thursday.
[...]
In preliminary findings, the review board says that project teams in Colorado and California were using different measurement systems -- one in feet and pounds, and the other in metric units -- to measure "critical" information for the spacecraft's maneuvers.

from http://www.space.com/news/orbiter_error_990930.html
I am pretty sure this is not the first time Imperial units have caused an accident like this.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-01-29 01:26pm

Darth Fanboy wrote:*reminds self to go eat a bowl of Cookie Crisp*

Jesus, I could really go for some of that right now...

Luzifer's right hand · Post by **Luzifer's right hand** » 2004-01-29 03:14pm

Damn the metric system!

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

When will the USA fall to the metric system?

When will the USA accept the metric system as its standard system?