# Should the US go metric?



## Ugg (Feb 11, 2003)

So, for all of you living outside the borders of the US, is it confusing to deal with the US system of measurements?  

I remember when the highway signs started to show measurements in miles and Kms and the bank signs showed temps in cent. and celsius.  Unfortunately, mr Reagan came riding in and trashed the idea as being un-american.  

We pay such a high price for not going metric.  How much did the Hubble fiasco cost???????


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## Giaguara (Feb 11, 2003)

Well, not just the metres.. also liquids/ space/ temperatures etc .. I got tired of fighting against temperature - could not make Meteorologist work in °C so I know now it's 32 °F out here..      I think the system with BOTH makes sense for at least 5 or 10 years. In UK they seem to use kind of both .. for about all of those. Why to make unnecessary stress for e.g. elderly forcing them to learn the other systems too fast? The more time you allow people to get used to it the less they complain.


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## BitWit (Feb 11, 2003)

I want to go metric so badly... Its so much easier, but the first hurdle is updating my mental images of size and wieght to metric portions.. Whats the one between centimeter and meter?


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## Ugg (Feb 11, 2003)

I know now it's 32 °F out here.

I didn't know that Jaguars could live in such cold climates?? 

I agree, a gradual transition is best, maybe over 10 years, that is what President Carter's plan envisioned was a slow but sure transition.  

Mechanics must have two sets of tools, metric and US.  International freight is shipped via Kgs domestic freight via pounds.  What is 1/32nd of an inch???  or 1/10th of a yard?  Ok, I'm not very good at celsius but it is a lot easier to envision 1000 metres than it is to envision 1781 yards or however many there are in a mile.


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## brianleahy (Feb 11, 2003)

Gradual or swift, we really need to convert.  Inertia is the ONLY reason for maintaining the old system, and that's no reason at all.  Never do something only because you always have!


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## ~~NeYo~~ (Feb 11, 2003)

YES! i live in the UK, but quite often get US Measurements, albeit in many different fields, and it can be very confusing! ... MOVE with the times! 

Besides, doesn't 0 Degree's Celcius = Freezing, make MORE sense than something silly like 27 Degrees Farenheit?! 

Neyo


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## hazmat (Feb 11, 2003)

I think we should simply because it makes so much more sense.  I have live outside of the US and it is not hard at all to get used to.


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## chevy (Feb 11, 2003)

Meter is far more regular than any other usual length measurement system. Therefore it is an advantage to use it.

The discussion between °C and F is less obvious. Both are absolutely arbitrary. Luckily the relation between both is first order, it may have been logarithmic ! Let's promote K !


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## hazmat (Feb 11, 2003)

Well the thing that makes sense about Celsius is that 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling.


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## Decado (Feb 11, 2003)

They have the metersystem in Star Trek 
I think they should remake the clock also. It would be cool to have a decimal-system there too! But i guess THAT would really be a hard transition. 
Meter-system rules. 
10 Millimeters= 1 Centimeter
10 centimeters= 1 Decimeter. 
10 decimeters = 1 Meter. 
1000 meters= 1 Kilometer. 
10 kilometers = 1 swedish Mile.

And the Liter-system is also logical.


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## chevy (Feb 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by hazmat _
> *Well the thing that makes sense about Celsius is that 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling. *



Fahrenheit has probably been created for a good reason by Mr Fahrenheit when he played with thermometers. And selecting water as the reference is quite arbitrary too. One could define the stable temperature of  a metric black volume heated by 1 amp loop and radiating in free space to be 1 degree, zero being of course equivalent to 0 K.


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## mrfluffy (Feb 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by hazmat _
> *Well the thing that makes sense about Celsius is that 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling. *


100 is only boiling point at sea level if I remember anything from science lessons.


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## Androo (Feb 11, 2003)

i live in canada, and it's fun here. Not inches, but centimetres. not feet, but metres. not hands, but ... i don't know


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## pds (Feb 12, 2003)

going metric is not just saying a balmy spring day is 23 degrees, it means changing the whole industrial plant. it must be done, but it needs time.

one of the old arguments against it is that mechanics (and therefore consumers) would suffer because of a lack of tools. today every mechanic in the US, commercial or industrial, has a full set of both. 

the SAE standards hurt american products overseas and change is overdue.


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## JetwingX (Feb 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by mrfluffy _
> *100 is only boiling point at sea level if I remember anything from science lessons. *


he he he (shhhh let the rest of the world live it's happy life thinking that water boils at 100º C and that tile is colder then the room is even though it really is room temprature) sorry i am in Pysical Science and we arn't allowed to use "standard" only metric (thank god)

and also we should thank Bill Nye the science guy for trying get kids to learn it at an early age


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## hazmat (Feb 12, 2003)

Jet, my young friend.  When you get older you'll realize that you forget little details you learned in school and such.  I was a math major at NYU and now can't remember crap about calculus.  :-/


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## Cat (Feb 12, 2003)

I don't know exactly all the relations between measures in the US (how many inches make a yard etc.), but the metric system is really straightforward and intuitive. It's always 10 of one kind that make 1 of the next higher order.
Likewise with volumes (liter) and weights (gram). 
With temperature the best approach is to put the zero where the zero really is: no temperature, thus 0 Kelvin. Then, like negative weight or volume, negative temperature has no meaning.


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## kenny (Feb 12, 2003)

...for temperature, at least... It annoys the hell out of everyone around me when they ask, "So, how is it outside?" And I say, "It's nice, sunny, 20 degrees"..


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## chemistry_geek (Feb 12, 2003)

The USA should go 100% metric ASAP.  A person working in the physical sciences or engineering is very familiar with the metric system already.  When I started college 17 years ago, chemistry was ALWAYS taught using the metric system.  Everything is measured in grams, liters, and centimeters/meters.  The only exception to this is one of the contractors NASA hired to help send a satelite to Mars for study.  OOPS!....We used the English system of measurement and sent the craft hurtling through the Martian atmosphere in a little ball of flame.

All Americans: step on your bath room scale and see what your mass is.  If you quote a number in pounds (lbs) you are absolutely dead wrong.  The English system of "weighing" is indeed in pounds, but pounds is a force unit.  You have to divide the pounds by 32 ft/sec^2 to determine your mass in "Slugs".


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## chevy (Feb 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chemistry_geek _
> *
> All Americans: step on your bath room scale and see what your mass is.  If you quote a number in pounds (lbs) you are absolutely dead wrong.  The English system of "weighing" is indeed in pounds, but pounds is a force unit.  You have to divide the pounds by 32 ft/sec^2 to determine your mass in "Slugs". *



For this one, we Europeans do the same... with the great difference that we created a weight unit that is (nearly) equivalent to the regular mass unit.... but often we use the one for the other.


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## mdnky (Feb 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by pds _
> *the SAE standards hurt american products overseas and change is overdue. *



Sad part is there's more metric stuuf on our 88 Chevy truck than here is on a 96 Toyota Camry.  Go figure.

We should have went metric in 1990 when it was first suggested, and finally at the turn (thank Clinton for that one) to 2000.


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## AdmiralAK (Feb 13, 2003)

metric all the way! 
I have used both systems in my life, and I think the metric makes more sense


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## pds (Feb 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by mdnky _
> *Sad part is there's more metric stuuf on our 88 Chevy truck than here is on a 96 Toyota Camry.  Go figure.
> 
> We should have went metric in 1990 when it was first suggested, and finally at the turn (thank Clinton for that one) to 2000. *



really!?!? 

is the Camry on of those made in the USA Japanese cars?? Or the Chevy was one of those hybrids like the Ford/Mazdas?? 
 Why would the Camry have SAE, seems that's the best time to change to metric, when you're building a whole new plant, wouldn't you say?


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## mdnky (Feb 18, 2003)

> _Originally posted by pds _
> *really!?!?
> 
> is the Camry on of those made in the USA Japanese cars?? Or the Chevy was one of those hybrids like the Ford/Mazdas??
> Why would the Camry have SAE, seems that's the best time to change to metric, when you're building a whole new plant, wouldn't you say? *



Camry is made less than 60 minutes from where I live in Kentucky.  Toyota's North American Division headquarters are located about 5 mins near the NKY International Airport (CVG).


I never did figure this one out...it a royal pain as not everything is SAE, some are metric.  You never know what you'll need.

Hybrid?   No, 1988 Fullsize truck


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## pds (Feb 18, 2003)

I had a Mazda Bus when I lived in Suriname and had to buy the parts at the Ford dealership because Mazda was the manufacturer of the Ford Courier, lock stock and barrel.

Royal PIA to have to deal with both systems in one car. But although the US should go metric, the inertia is just too great and it won't happen soon.


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## Pardus (Feb 19, 2003)

I live in Vancouver close to the USA border and we get really messed up. Half our telivision is american and we get a lot of US influence here. I use imperial for short measurements like feet and inches but km instead of miles. i use grams for light stuff. I weigh 192lbs but I have no idea how many KG I am. I am 6'2" but no idea how many cm i am. Temp is always in ºC but know farienhiet pretty good. I dont speak french but can this count for being bilingual?


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## chevy (Feb 22, 2003)

UK is switching from "british" to metric, without too many problems. I may sound impossible for US, but this is possible, even for the old England.


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## oldmac (Feb 22, 2003)

I've owned metric tools since the mid-1960s, when I started working as a mechanic on VWs, and I can't believe the U.S. is still bucking the tide on this! It's so much easier than 1/2", 17/32", etc.


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## pds (Feb 23, 2003)

2003's iMac G4 1GHz 17", SuperDrive, 256 MB (to be increased for iPhoto) (bought in 2003 for 3000 CHF), used daily 
 1999's B&W G3 300MHz overclocked to 400, 448MB (bought in 1999 for 3000 CHF), used daily 
 1995's 7200 G1 90MHz, 32 MB, ATI-3D (bought in 1995 for 3000 CHF), used daily 
 1992's Mac LCII 68030 16 MHz, 4 MB, used daily 
 1986's Mac Plus 68000 8 MHz, 1 MB extended to 4 MB (bought in 1988 for 5000 CHF), used twice a week 
 1983's Apple IIe 6502 1 MHz, 48 kB extended to 64 kB (received in 1990), dead 
 1977's Apple II 6502 1 MHz, 48 kB extended to 64 kB (bought in 1983 for 5000 CHF), dead 


your beautiful pedigree just reminded me that apple has been metric for the longest time, 
for them 1024 =1000

lol
=^)


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## iGuy (Mar 4, 2003)

We may have already conceded to the logic of the metric system.  Or, at least that is what I think; as I buy a two liter diet coke, while watching the guy in the expensive 1.5 liter engine Italian sports car try to score a gram from the guy smoking a 100mm cigarette, who is trying to lose a kilo,  while the cop who is about to bust them both, sets a digital camera to focus at 20 meters (click --  in just a micro second) and cocks his 9 mm.


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## chevy (Mar 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by iGuy _
> * ..., while watching the guy in the expensive 1.5 liter engine Italian sports car ... *



I'm not sure expensive Italian sports car have 1.5 liter motor. Unless it's an old Formula 1.


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