Metric system ofc!
Even though it seems weird to hear "kilometers" instead of "miles" in a movie.
Still, at least I'd have a better idea.
[QUOTE=mobrockers2;32479578]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.[/QUOTE]
Officially the US Government does use metrics and school does teach metrics.
Like I said, it isn't a matter of learning, it's a matter of converting. All our machinery and laws are written in Imperial measurements. Do you know how much money and time you would have to spend to change everything to metrics?
Even though the the metric system makes more sense, I still like the imperial.
It seems like such an inconvenience for them to change everything over to metric here in the United States. Were just so used to it. It would take forever to change all those road signs...
[editline]25th September 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=mobrockers2;32479578]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.[/QUOTE]Why do they have to? Oh yeah, because you want them to.
The imperial system is for regular measurements whereas when things need to be quick and precise it would be better to use the metric system.
The imperial system has real world examples. A foot being your foot, an inch being your pointer finger up to the first joint from your hand.
Also, the imperial system's volume system makes sense with gallons and quarts and pints. You don't say you want a liter of milk, you say you want a gallon.
It isn't really even an argument that metric is far better; Imperial is an arbitrary mess and the only reason I and the rest of the US still use and/or prefer it is out of habit.
It's actually kinda odd. I'm not used to metric temperatures for weather, but for PC temperatures Fahrenheit just confuses the shit out of me.
[editline]25th September 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=space1;32480567]The imperial system is for regular measurements whereas when things need to be quick and precise it would be better to use the metric system.
The imperial system has real world examples. A foot being your foot, an inch being your pointer finger up to the first joint from your hand.
Also, the imperial system's volume system makes sense with gallons and quarts and pints. You don't say you want a liter of milk, you say you want a gallon.[/QUOTE]
Yeah except it doesn't.
My foot isn't a foot long, and some people have feet considerably over a foot in length. Liquid measurements are entirely arbitrary, whereas metric is based entirely around the properties of water; 1 gram = 1 cubic centimeter of water, 1 liter of water = 1 kilogram, 0 degrees is the freezing point of water, 100 degrees is the boiling point of water at sea level. I could go on and on.
Although I was born with imperial, I'd openly welcome America converting to the Metric system. The Imperial system isn't as easy to remember, all the awkward numbers being tossed in, Metric makes much more sense. Although I typically speak with imperial units.
Could be worse though, we could be using fathoms, handspans, furlongs, and paces....
What a hell that would be.
Which reminds me, why doesn't time have a base ten measurement system?
[QUOTE=space1;32480567]The imperial system is for regular measurements whereas when things need to be quick and precise it would be better to use the metric system.
The imperial system has real world examples. A foot being your foot, an inch being your pointer finger up to the first joint from your hand.
Also, the imperial system's volume system makes sense with gallons and quarts and pints. You don't say you want a liter of milk, you say you want a gallon.[/QUOTE]Body sizes differ considerably between people so those frames of reference are completely out, and I buy milk cartons in 1L, 2L and 3L sizes, depending how much I need.
[QUOTE=Cows Rule;32481434]Which reminds me, why doesn't time have a base ten measurement system?[/QUOTE]
Time is a bit tough.
The metric system is built off of constants- mainly, one meter is one specific fraction of the time it takes light to travel in a second.
The time of day is nowhere near as exact, so we define it as the length of time of a [I]certain[/I] number of cesium oscillations, and add leap seconds when needed.
But yes there is a decimal time. Nobody uses it though.
[QUOTE=Atlascore;32458958]No, we speak American.
And we use the democracy measurement system.[/QUOTE]
American English is actually a language?
[QUOTE=Matrix374;32482982]American English is actually a language?[/QUOTE]
No, it's just English with a few tiny spelling or wording differences.
Colour: "Color" in American English
Humour: "Humor"
Centre: "Center"
And wording:
Lift (building structure): "Elevator"
First floor: "Second floor"
Ground floor: "First floor"
90% of the simple spelling differences can be attributed to Noah Webster, the first motherfucker to print a dictionary in America, way back when. He knew how they WERE spelled, but took some liberties.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary is one of the big dictionaries over here even today.
[QUOTE=Eric95;32470396]Yeah, here in sweden one inch seems to be one "tum (thumb)". We still use it for screens and some construction for some reason
[editline]25th September 2011[/editline]
I weigh 52 kilos.
I'm 1 and 70 tall.[/QUOTE]
Do you really say "I'm 1 and 70 tall"? When people ask me how tall I am I just say "170" and they know what I mean.
I'd love if we'd change to metric, but I'm sure there'd be a shitstorm here if we did.
I've used the metric system since I learned maths and it seems like a better system than the imperial one because the numbers are relatively smaller (1 meter and 70 centimeters Vs 5 feet and 10 inches) and they seem a bit handier.
It's only my opinion though, it's rather hard to genuinely tell which one is better because we all grew up learning one at first (then possibly the other). But as the metric system is (I think) more used worldwide we should stick to it.
I use imperial in day to day life and metric if I need to do some sort of calculation for scientific type things.
I can't really think in metric though, it's harder for me to visualize 1 kilometer than it is for me to visualize 1 mile.
Metric is superior though, but I love Imperial because I have strong xenophobic tendencies and it's quirky.
[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]Or you know, the switch could be retroactive.
[QUOTE=RusMar;32480554]It seems like such an inconvenience for them to change everything over to metric here in the United States. Were just so used to it. It would take forever to change all those road signs...
[editline]25th September 2011[/editline]
Why do they have to? Oh yeah, because you want them to.[/QUOTE]
Baby steps. Start with making all new road signs in metric and imperial, let people get used to it, and when you're done with that continue over to the next thing. It isn't costly at all if you don't replace for the sake of changing, but change while you have to replace anyways.
And no, the US shouldn't change because I say so, but because everyone and their mom knows metric > Imperial. Hell, even your military uses kilometers.
I love it when anyone brings this up, it always turns into "america is dumb retarded because they use nonsense inperial", when the primary reason we still use it (besides everyone growing up with it) is how fucking expensive changing the entire nation's infrastructure.
Every single road sign, every single workshop and tool kit, every single nut and bolt
Yeah that wouldn't cause the US to bankrupt now would it
Just to point out that you are constantly replacing the signs anyway.
Why not bother to replace them with both measurements on them, and when every sign has that, start replacing them with metric only.
[QUOTE=Elecbullet;32483141]No, it's just English with a few tiny spelling or wording differences.
Colour: "Color" in American English
Humour: "Humor"
Centre: "Center"
And wording:
Lift (building structure): "Elevator"
First floor: "Second floor"
Ground floor: "First floor"
90% of the simple spelling differences can be attributed to Noah Webster, the first motherfucker to print a dictionary in America, way back when. He knew how they WERE spelled, but took some liberties.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary is one of the big dictionaries over here even today.[/QUOTE]
There are more than just wording differences. There are grammatical differences as well.
Example:
British: The Clash are a well-known band
American: The Clash is a well-known band.
British also use irregular forms for past tense verbs more often as well.
British: learnt, spoilt, spelt, spillt, are all acceptable ways to say the word.
American: learned, spoiled, spelled, spilled, are the only acceptable ways to say or spell the word. The exceptions to the rule are burnt, leapt, and dreamt.
There is also the use of tenses.
British: I've already eaten.
American: I already ate.
At least this is what wikipedia states. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences#Grammar[/url]
So there are definitely quite a few differences between British English and American English.
[QUOTE=Ond kaja;32484172]Or you know, the switch could be retroactive.[/QUOTE]
I don't understand what you mean by that. As vast as my vocabulary is I don't know the word retroactive that well and my google search hasn't really helped me figure out your context.
Metric system is superior, but I understand why America can't just change.
It would cost a fuck ton of money.
The only way I could see a change shaping up, is if it took place over several years, even decades.
I think more people would welcome a slow integration of the system instead of changing everything in an instant.
I think metric is a far superior system but changing would of course cost the US a lot and people would have lots of trouble switching over. I'm usually decent at on-the-fly conversions and I constantly have to pull up calculator's conversion functions to get them done. (Although I'm slowly working at remembering what different imperial measurements convert into for metric.)
Myanmar is so hipster. Actually, the metric system is much easier to use and used by almost all of the world. However because I'm in America I have to use the imperial system with no other options.
[QUOTE=Eltro102;32472247]I'd like a pint please[/QUOTE]
Mate, if the metric system was used universally, just for the ease of conversation, they might raise the largest glass size to be a litre!
I'd fucking LOVE to be able to order a litre of beer at the pub!
[QUOTE=Xenocidebot;32474322]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.[/QUOTE]
With your shitty-ass education maybe :eng101: Here every 8th grader is taught what a watt is and how to calculate them. It is useful with many things.
[QUOTE=sltungle;32485748]Mate, if the metric system was used universally, just for the ease of conversation, they might raise the largest glass size to be a litre!
I'd fucking LOVE to be able to order a litre of beer at the pub![/QUOTE]
You can get those in finland
I think the imperial system is superior, but the word mile just sounds better than kilometre. Would you really watch a movie called 8 Kilometre?
[QUOTE=AK'z;32455166]Imperial is nice too.
In a boxing match you can't really imagine the guy saying "IN THIS CORNER, WEIGHING IN AT 80 KILOGRAMS"
it doesn't sound right..
same with kilometres per hour...[/QUOTE]It sounds fine to me.
[QUOTE=JustGman;32486509]I think the imperial system is superior, but the word mile just sounds better than kilometre. Would you really watch a movie called 8 Kilometre?[/QUOTE]
Again that's just because you're used to it, we've used kilometre for 150 years here so it's ofcourse a complete different relation :)
[QUOTE=sltungle;32485748]Mate, if the metric system was used universally, just for the ease of conversation, they might raise the largest glass size to be a litre!
I'd fucking LOVE to be able to order a litre of beer at the pub![/QUOTE]
Go to Oktoberfest, order "ein Mass". That's exactly a liter beer.
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