Imperial and Metric systems. - General

The only think accepted in Italy from the Imperial system are screen and monitor sizes, measured in inches......

Because dividing by five and multiplying by eight is so difficult. Of all of the conversion problems one could run into, that is probably the easiest to remember and calculate in your head. I prefer metric for everything except for measuring mass, as I have a better idea of what 200Ibs is, instead of 90kgs

[QUOTE=AK'z;32473409]You people don't get it do you?[/QUOTE] Why? he's right.

[QUOTE=Rad McCool;32471648]It's stupid to use imperial, because it means you're gonna have to learn two systems and even mix them. You imperial users seem to forget that pretty much every unit used aside length and mass have no imperial counterparts. Like seconds, voltage, pressure, energy, current, force, effect, and much much more are all metric units and relate to one and another. For example... [I]Effect[/I] is measured in [I]Watts[/I] all over the world (even in imperial countries). 1 Watt = 1 J/s. 1 J = 1 Nm / s 1 Nm / s = 1 ([B]kg[/B] * [B]m[/B]²) / s^3 That's kilogrammes and metres. SI units! [U]Why mix?[/U] Just switch to SI already.[/QUOTE] You're missing the fact that laypeople are never going to need to know what a watt is, and that the people that do are already trained for both systems. Nobody "mixes" metric and imperial units right now in that fashion except in really weird contexts, like material resistance calcs using millimeter cross-sectional area and feet for length or shit involving Ohm-feet (because heaven knows the Ohm-foot is a wonderful unit). Your average Joe has no idea what the fuck I just said, and the people responsible for shit like circular-mil based wire gauges don't really give a damn because they could switch to milliliters more or less overnight if somebody forced them to. Average folk aren't "mixing" anything, they only need to know how fast their car is going, how tall they are, and how much their fat ass weighs, and you can do that just as easily with any system. They could be using fortnight-intestines, stumps, and kilosquids for units, it wouldn't matter at all to the technical fields.

This isn't really much of a debate since pretty much everyone here posting is from Europe.

Temperature hasn't been mentioned much, so here's my take. Let's look at how the scale was made, what references were taken. For celsius: 0° - Water freezes at normal pressure 100° - Water boils at normal pressure Wow, that's simple AND memorable! Since water is so abundant, it makes sense, right? Normal body temperature is 37° so that's a bit harder to memorize since it's a weird number. Now let's see what Fahrenheit used: 0° - Stable temperature of brine 96° - Normal human body temperature (fixed to 98°) For the record, water freezing is 32° and boiling is 212°. Why anyone would prefer using Fahrenheit over Celsius is beyond me. This was probably posted already but whatever. [img]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/converting_to_metric.png[/img]

How ironic that the only world power that uses imperial measurements is an imperialist nation. Metric. [editline]25th September 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Murkrow;32474594]Why anyone would prefer using Fahrenheit over Celsius is beyond me.[/QUOTE] Because they both have completely different uses when it comes to temperature measurements?

Metric, even our own military uses and doesn't bother with Imperial shit. I get weird looks when I say "that car was 100 meters away" instead of saying "that car was 300 feet away"

[QUOTE=rosthouse;32455730]I don't think so. What if you aren't exactly 6 feet? Like 6 feet and 12 inches. How do you say that?[/QUOTE] 12 inches in a foot boyo. 6ft+12in=7ft. I guess that's just your country not ever using Imperial... frankly I don't blame you.

[QUOTE=Van-man;32473846]Why? he's right.[/QUOTE] No, you don't get what "English Culture" is. That's okay, because you are European, but let's leave it for now.

Same reason why UK should change to right hand driving

[QUOTE=maxolina;32475375]Same reason why UK should change to right hand driving[/QUOTE] Dude, we drive on the right side, like most normal countries.

[QUOTE=AK'z;32475618]Dude, we drive on the right side, like most normal countries.[/QUOTE]No, you drive on the left side...?

[QUOTE=Ond kaja;32475789]No, you drive on the left side...?[/QUOTE] He means the wheel's on the right side. For some bizarre reason we drive on the left. Either way, imperial is clunky and archaic. If "English culture" is to use imperial, then please nuke me now.

[QUOTE=Terminutter;32475829]He means the wheel's on the right side. For some bizarre reason we drive on the left. Either way, imperial is clunky and archaic. If "English culture" is to use imperial, then please nuke me now.[/QUOTE] England is a weird mix, mostly because half the population are old enough that they were brough up with imperial and the younger lot were by metric. Personally I prefer metric but I can use most imperial measurements due to having learnt them for my work. I still get baffled as to what 1.6Inchs is though, is it 1Inch and 6/10ths of an Inch which is awkward of convert with the 32nds of an Inch on rulers etc.

[QUOTE=Terminutter;32475829] Either way, imperial is clunky and archaic. If "English culture" is to use imperial, then please nuke me now.[/QUOTE] It's more [I]English history[/I] but it's like there's a fair lot of people over there who has a hard-on for how it was in the old days.

There is a legitimate reason for why we still use Imperial guys. It's really REALLY fucking expensive to change to metrics. Every piece of machinery in the United States would need to be replaced. Every speedometer in every car would need to be replaced. Every mile marker and every sign would need to be changed. Hundreds, if not thousands of traffic laws would need to be revised. Metrics makes sense, but sticking with the old ways is cheaper.

Only reason the US is still using Imperial is because of old men and the fact that it would be immensely expensive to replace equipment from factories and replace every car and tool on the streets with metric measurements.

You guys say x is more useful for y. That's because you're used to it. I'm not taking sides, but you're just saying that imperial/metric is only useful for x and y, yet you're only saying it because you are used to it.

Living in Britain which is essentially stuck halfway between imperial and metric, I'm exposed to and use both types of measurement every day. For example, I measure beer and milk in pints but water and juice in litres. I measure road distances in miles but walking distances in metres. It's partly due to the fact that I was raised using imperial, but studying physics and maths have made me start to use metric more often. I personally have no personal preference (and I will add that all these arguments about "not socially acceptable" and "it doesn't sound right" are complete and utter bullshit and have no bearing on the argument whatsoever) though I can see the benefits of using both systems (e.g metric is much more practical but imperial is generally easier to visualise, although this may be another side-effect of being raised with the imperial system).

[QUOTE=Mr.T;32470616]If the US really wanted they could switch overnight. They can do what Sweden did in 1967 when switching from left hand traffic to right hand traffic. It was done overnight. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H[/url][/QUOTE] Yeah but this is much bigger and much more costly and knowing Americans switching left hand to right hand or whatever would case crashes everywhere and confusion

This is a serious question to americans, something i just cam upon wondering when reading through the thread. Do top american universities like Stanford, Yale, Harvard teach/use metric measurements in classes? since many of the students are foreigners. (and ofcourse some americans)

[QUOTE=smfE;32477376]This is a serious question to americans, something i just cam upon wondering when reading through the thread. Do top american universities like Stanford, Yale, Harvard teach/use metric measurements in classes? since many of the students are foreigners. (and ofcourse some americans)[/QUOTE] Depends. Science always teaches in metrics because metrics is the standard. However for other shit it would be up to the professors, and Imperial measurements would probably be used.

[QUOTE=Rad McCool;32471648]You imperial users seem to forget that pretty much every unit used aside length and mass have no imperial counterparts. Like seconds, voltage, pressure, [b]energy[/b], current, force, effect, and much much more are all metric units and relate to one and another.[/QUOTE] Foot-pound. [editline]25th September 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=smfE;32477376]This is a serious question to americans, something i just cam upon wondering when reading through the thread. Do top american universities like Stanford, Yale, Harvard teach/use metric measurements in classes? since many of the students are foreigners. (and ofcourse some americans)[/QUOTE] Science is done in metric. Always. I have never ever had a physics class that worked in Imperial.

Thanks! That was my guess too

[QUOTE=yawmwen;32476272]There is a legitimate reason for why we still use Imperial guys. It's really REALLY fucking expensive to change to metrics. Every piece of machinery in the United States would need to be replaced. Every speedometer in every car would need to be replaced. Every mile marker and every sign would need to be changed. Hundreds, if not thousands of traffic laws would need to be revised. Metrics makes sense, but sticking with the old ways is cheaper.[/QUOTE] This argument, and another argument ("US electric wall outlets are shitty and flimsy compared to foreign!") makes me think. The US was the first to have electrical outlets and shit, with peeps like Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla and all that shit. We were the first to really mass-produce cars. So we were the first to develop wall outlets and mile markers on highways and all that shit. Later implementations in other countries, then, allowed for great improvements to be made. So we're stuck with primitive-seeming shit. This is all off of my understanding! Please correct me if I am wrong with regards to anything. [editline]25th September 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=smfE;32477376]This is a serious question to americans, something i just cam upon wondering when reading through the thread. Do top american universities like Stanford, Yale, Harvard teach/use metric measurements in classes? since many of the students are foreigners. (and ofcourse some americans)[/QUOTE] Hell even high schools (schools from age 14-18) use Metric in any science class. Imperial is too shit to use it for science, but we use it for everything else, e.g. "Montgomery's 20 miles away".

[QUOTE=Terminutter;32475829]He means the wheel's on the right side. For some bizarre reason we drive on the left. Either way, imperial is clunky and archaic. If "English culture" is to use imperial, then please nuke me now.[/QUOTE] Actually, driving on the left side of the road and having your steering wheel on the right, combined with traffic coming from the right still having priority over traffic from the left is the best way you can have it. Would work the other way round too obviously.

Just as the rest of world is learning the English language, I think that the US (and UK) can pull their shit together and learn Metric already. It's only fair.

[QUOTE=Rad McCool;32479489]Just as the rest of world is learning the English language, I think that the US (and UK) can pull their shit together and learn Metric already. It's only fair.[/QUOTE] It's not a problem of not knowing it. Pretty sure everyone understands the system, unless they're a complete dumbass. It's a problem of implementation.

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;32479566]It's not a problem of not knowing it. Pretty sure everyone understands the system, unless they're a complete dumbass. It's a problem of implementation.[/QUOTE] Point is your government isn't even trying to implement it, they could do it in baby steps and not notice a thing, but they're not.