When will the USA fall to the metric system?

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-01-29 07:23pm

I can see the US going partially metric. Eventually, standardization concerns will force a metric conversion in industry--of course, eventually, the sun will run out of hydrogen, so "eventually" doesn't mean all that much. I think you'll end up with metric used "officially" but certain Imperial measures being retained in everyday life--Farenheit becuase people are just used to it, acres because nobodys going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to resurvey everything, and miles because of the American fascination with distance and the road and whatnot. "Kilometers" lacks the mythic weight that "miles" does. I just can't picture "kilometer markers" along the highways (for that matter, who pays to re-sign the roads--50,000 miles in the Interstate system alone. Plus in many states, the exits are numbered by mile, so that's even more resigning to do).

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-01-29 09:34pm

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! We stand forever against the evils of metric! You shall not overcome us, puny Europeans/Canadians!

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-01-29 10:03pm

RedImperator wrote:"Kilometers" lacks the mythic weight that "miles" does. I just can't picture "kilometer markers" along the highways (for that matter, who pays to re-sign the roads--50,000 miles in the Interstate system alone. Plus in many states, the exits are numbered by mile, so that's even more resigning to do).

The USA has a total of about 7 million miles of road..

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2004-01-29 10:15pm

I doubt that the cost of resigning would be that much greater then the annual costs of regular road maintenance.

Rainfall · Post by **Rainfall** » 2004-01-30 11:49am

I say in about 50 years. no chance of that happening now. Why complicate our lifes more than they are?

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-01-30 12:46pm

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.

Knots are neither SI nor Imperial. They are used even in areas that are completely SI. Don't worry about them going away.

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-01-30 03:10pm

Rainfall wrote:I say in about 50 years. no chance of that happening now. Why complicate our lifes more than they are?

My life is already plenty complicated having to do Imperial to metric conversions and back for homework. You might ask, why do the conversions? Why not just do the calculations in straight Imperial units? Because they're easier to do in metric and make more sense to me than the mish-mash of foot-pounds and slugs and whatnot. Engineering is hard enough without irregular crap being thrown in.

GySgt. Hartman · Post by **GySgt. Hartman** » 2004-01-30 04:32pm

I guess the British will have to retake their colonies before we can make them comply with any international standards.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-01-30 04:49pm

GySgt. Hartman wrote:I guess the British will have to retake their colonies before we can make them comply with any international standards.

Never happen.

Johonebesus · Post by **Johonebesus** » 2004-01-30 05:42pm

Just a note, to be picky, British Imperial and U.S. Customary (commonly called English Standard or just Standard) are not the same thing. The British reformed their measurements in the 19th century to make them a little bit more rational. The U.S. never adopted these changes. The Imperial gallon and ton are both quite a bit larger than the U.S. gallon and ton. To my knowledge, no-one uses the Imperial system anymore.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-01-30 09:06pm

Spyder wrote:I doubt that the cost of resigning would be that much greater then the annual costs of regular road maintenance.

It cost the state of Pennsylvania three million dollars to renumber all the exits on its section of the interstate highway system Link. And that was only on about 1200 miles of road, and only the exit numbers. Going metric would require at some point that every road sign with a distance measure and every mile marker in the United States be replaced. At the very least the entire interstate system would need to be converted, and you couldn't do it piecemeal. Add to that there simply won't be any public support for it. Nobody wants to pay for kilometer markers.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2004-01-31 02:10am

Darth_Zod wrote:it's trying to make conversions between the two that's a pain, not the system in and of itself.

Tell me about it.....I literally cringed everytime I had to do it in both Physics 1 and 2....

UltraViolence83 · Post by **UltraViolence83** » 2004-01-31 12:16pm

I remember back in 7th grade science we had to learn Metric values. Does ANYONE ANYWHERE use "hectagrams?" Deca? Deci?

Let's see...I've NEVER heard Metric people use these, save for deca-, which was in the movie Dune when Paul thought: "There must be billions of decaliters."

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2004-01-31 12:34pm

For cooking (something we all have a great deal of experience with, I hope), metric units are GROSSLY counterintuitive. It's hard to grok 335 milliliters, but anybody with working eyeballs can easily intuit a "cup." US Customary volumetrics are all based on powers of two (well, ALMOST all; a tablespoon is three teaspoons for reasons I have no understanding of) 1 cup = 2^4 tablespoons; 1 pint = 2^5 tablespoons; 1 quart = 2^6 tablespoons, etc. And since a pint is a pound the world around, it's easy enough to measure liquids by weight.

You can have my not-metric measuring cups when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

GySgt. Hartman · Post by **GySgt. Hartman** » 2004-01-31 03:17pm

RedImperator wrote:Going metric would require at some point that every road sign with a distance measure and every mile marker in the United States be replaced. At the very least the entire interstate system would need to be converted, and you couldn't do it piecemeal. Add to that there simply won't be any public support for it. Nobody wants to pay for kilometer markers.

They could start by replacing old aigns with new ones having both systems on road signs. Like a sign saying "Missoury: 2 Miles / 3.2 km".
THat way you wouldn't have extra costs, because you only replace signs that needed to be replaced anyway, and people have time to get used to it. Once all signs are replaced, they can start issueing signs that only have metric values on them.

OTOH, we could just nuke the US, and use the contaminated area to grow mutant armies on our quest for world domination.

For cooking (something we all have a great deal of experience with, I hope), metric units are GROSSLY counterintuitive.

"Cooking units" are used in every country, and they relate well to metric units.

U.S. to Metric
1/5 teaspoon = 1 milliliter
1 teaspoon = 5 ml
1 tablespoon = 15 ml
1/5 cup = 50 ml
1 cup = 240 ml
2 cups (1 pint) = 470 ml
4 cups (1 quart) = .95 liter
4 quarts (1 gal.) = 3.8 liters

taken from http://members.allstream.net/~jaguar/my_page6.html

Raxmei · Post by **Raxmei** » 2004-01-31 03:49pm

GySgt. Hartman wrote: They could start by replacing old aigns with new ones having both systems on road signs. Like a sign saying "Missoury: 2 Miles / 3.2 km".
THat way you wouldn't have extra costs, because you only replace signs that needed to be replaced anyway, and people have time to get used to it. Once all signs are replaced, they can start issueing signs that only have metric values on them.

OTOH, we could just nuke the US, and use the contaminated area to grow mutant armies on our quest for world domination.

It wouldn't work. The rest of the world uses metric road signs, so the mutant armies would all get lost.

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When will the USA fall to the metric system?

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