• 'Pokémon Go' Is Forcing Americans to Learn the Metric System
    288 replies, posted
[QUOTE=patq911;50708671]we equally say July 4th. or September 11th. or December 25th. actually we probably use this format more in everyday speak.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure that "the Fourth of July" is actually the only example that ever really gets used, let alone commonly.
[QUOTE=Ignhelper;50708724]The worst is when baking recipes ask for cups instead of grams. Like for fuck sake baking is pure science. You need an exact amount[/QUOTE] I like to find recipes from European websites with that as one reason, measuring is a PITA when coming from American websites. Sometimes it's metric, other times it's imperial. Also this is a great change. Metric kind of blew my mind way back when I was taught it in science class, you just memorize the order of pico, micro, etc. and then you learn how to get between them and it's just so fast and logical. I'd bet that if I went into the street and asked fellow Americans how many feet are in a mile most probably would get it wrong, but if I asked Europeans meters -> KM they'd probably get it right much more often. There is the argument "I know what a foot is!" but if we just switched to metric that problem would go away with time.
[QUOTE=TheDrunkenOne;50708010]why are muricans still using imperial anyway? it's a retarded system[/QUOTE] We're not, technically. Federal government switched to metric years ago. Nobody is in a place to force the change though. It would generally be an unpopular switch with all but a few percent of the population.
[QUOTE=Giraffen93;50708697]wow i had no idea about this, talk about wasted hype [t]http://rp.braxnet.org/scr/146851431634622.png[/t][/QUOTE] Well this game is about GOing out and moving around. You are not taking full advantage of the game if you only walk .05-1km a day.
[QUOTE=MissingGlitch;50708757]Well this game is about GOing out and moving around. You are not taking full advantage of the game if you only walk .05-1km a day.[/QUOTE] exactly, so no point in me being hyped about it anymore then v:v:v
[QUOTE=fruxodaily;50708581]lmfao i can tell you right now, this does not happen at all anywhere also i dont get you americans, you're so opposed something as simple as DD-MM-YYYY but you literally say (for somethings) the "4th of july" which translated is 4/7/YYYY So you literally already do this, and you know it's the correct way to do shit. Even if you say "July the 4th" the common saying is the 4th of july or the 18th of september, 9th of august etc[/QUOTE] Nah, we use the other one much more. Then again, what do i know, I just live here. :v:
[QUOTE=Ignhelper;50708724]The worst is when baking recipes ask for cups instead of grams. Like for fuck sake baking is pure science. You need an exact amount[/QUOTE] Strictly speaking, cooking is generally considered to be the only area where metric is not superior. For whatever bizarre reason, probably intentional, imperial units of measurement generally coincide with the volumes of goods used for cooking and, as an added bonus, divide readily. It is easier to decrease or increase the size of the item being cooked by utilizing imperial. Cooking really is easier with imperial.
[QUOTE=Giraffen93;50708760]exactly, so no point in me being hyped about it anymore then v:v:v[/QUOTE] Well just cheat if you really want to play but are too lazy. [editline]14th July 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=GunFox;50708768]Strictly speaking, cooking is generally considered to be the only area where metric is not superior. For whatever bizarre reason, probably intentional, imperial units of measurement generally coincide with the volumes of goods used for cooking and, as an added bonus, divide readily. It is easier to decrease or increase the size of the item being cooked by utilizing imperial. Cooking really is easier with imperial.[/QUOTE] I don't see how it's easier or objectively better at all. The numbers are different, but different does not equal better or easier. Math is math. I'm used to the metric measurements even when cooking.
[QUOTE=FFStudios;50708169]except it has been shown and proven time and time again that this format is actually horrible and makes things very confusing?? lmao why do people have stupid levels of pride in something as basic and arbitrary as a measurement system or how to tell time[/QUOTE] this post is so meta "damn people get so aggressive over these formats by the way yours is horrible and confusing and your pride in it is stupid"
A relevant video on how hilarious the imperial system is [video=youtube;r7x-RGfd0Yk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7x-RGfd0Yk[/video]
[QUOTE=i-am-teh-sex;50708800]A relevant video on how hilarious the imperial system is [video=youtube;r7x-RGfd0Yk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7x-RGfd0Yk[/video][/QUOTE] [QUOTE]The meter was originally defined as one ten-millionth (0.0000001 or 10-7) of the distance, as measured over the earth's surface in a great circle passing through Paris, France, from the geographic north pole to the equator.[/QUOTE] How is this any less arbitrary than three grains stacked end to end?
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[QUOTE=fruxodaily;50708581]lmfao i can tell you right now, this does not happen at all anywhere also i dont get you americans, you're so opposed something as simple as DD-MM-YYYY but you literally say (for somethings) the "4th of july" which translated is 4/7/YYYY So you literally already do this, and you know it's the correct way to do shit. Even if you say "July the 4th" the common saying is the 4th of july or the 18th of september, 9th of august etc[/QUOTE] Same reason we use imperial, we got it from Europe and never bothered changing it. Technically speaking the "American accent" is actually thought to be far more representative of what Brits sounded like originally. The British accent has been heavily bastardized as time went on, but for some odd reason American accents largely remained unaffected, with some obvious exceptions. Yet another thing we got from the motherland and never bothered to change. [editline]14th July 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=paul simon;50708770] I don't see how it's easier or objectively better at all. The numbers are different, but different does not equal better or easier. Math is math. I'm used to the metric measurements even when cooking.[/QUOTE] The benefit is generally minimal, but the ability to alter portion size with basically no math is handy.
[QUOTE=Call Me Kiwi;50708826]How is this any less arbitrary than three grains stacked end to end?[/QUOTE] The point isn't how metric units are defined, it's what number of smaller units comprises them and how many of them comprise a larger unit. Which is always 1,000. 1 kilogram divided by 1,000 is a gram, while 1 kilogram multiplied by 1,000 is a tonne (or megagram). 1 metre divided by 1,000 is a millimetre, while 1 metre multiplied by 1,000 is a kilometre. 1 litre divided by 1,000 is a millilitre, while 1 litre multiplied by 1,000 is a kilolitre. Whereas Imperial is all over the place with 3, 12, 16, 1760 etc. And that was the original definition of a metre. We use a different definition now. Edit: Metric is interrelated though. Eg 1L of pure water is exactly 1kg.
[QUOTE=Call Me Kiwi;50708826]How is this any less arbitrary than three grains stacked end to end?[/QUOTE] While the original root of the base unit may be kind of arbitrary, the rest of the metric system extrapolated logarithmic from that 1 point. Give me conversions in factors of 10 rather than changing the factors for every single thing I might want to convert to.
[QUOTE=Psychopath12;50708894]While the original root of the base unit may be kind of arbitrary, the rest of the metric system extrapolated logarithmic from that 1 point. Give me conversions in factors of 10 rather than changing the factors for every single thing I might want to convert to.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=sb27;50708884]The point isn't how metric units are defined, it's what number of smaller units comprises them and how many of them comprise a larger unit. Which is always 1,000. 1 kilogram divided by 1,000 is a gram, while 1 kilogram multiplied by 1,000 is a tonne (or megagram). 1 metre divided by 1,000 is a millimetre, while 1 metre multiplied by 1,000 is a kilometre. 1 litre divided by 1,000 is a millilitre, while 1 litre multiplied by 1,000 is a kilolitre. And that was the original definition of a metre. We use a different definition now.[/QUOTE] I'm not at all against the value of metric in being factors of ten, its really handy some times. But the video I replies to uses the basis of the imperial system to call it shit, which I feel is fucking stupid because the basis of all measurements is stupid.
[QUOTE=TheDrunkenOne;50708030]relevant [IMG]http://kaero.wz.cz/jokes/imperial-vs-si.png[/IMG][/QUOTE] This is a bit overdue but I have to share [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/1qEA8Ps.jpg[/IMG] In any case Americans in STEM learn the metric system and I do think its more convenient. Most products have both the metric and imperial units on them anyway.
[video=youtube;cCmAaQgXc9M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCmAaQgXc9M[/video] if you think imperial is better (objectively) then you're messed up lol
[QUOTE=TheDrunkenOne;50708010]why are muricans still using imperial anyway? it's a retarded system[/QUOTE] Because it's fucking expensive to change over an entire country whose landmass is about the size of Europe itself, but is much less densely populated. Europe was comparatively easy to switch over thanks to how packed in tight you guys are, where in America we don't even have broadband internet available to everybody yet. So we just still use the British system and just teach kids Metric in school too. You want us to change so bad, well guess what my tax dollars aren't going to that bullshit when we don't even have proper healthcare.
[QUOTE=Call Me Kiwi;50708826]How is this any less arbitrary than three grains stacked end to end?[/QUOTE] Because scientists decided this was the unit they wanted to use and now it is a measurement relative to the distance light travels in a second in a vacuum, which is a physical constant. Every unit system is arbitrary, I remember someone use his penis as a unit length for building something just because he could
[QUOTE=Call Me Kiwi;50708905]I'm not at all against the value of metric in being factors of ten, its really handy some times. But the video I replies to uses the basis of the imperial system to call it shit, which I feel is fucking stupid because the basis of all measurements is stupid.[/QUOTE] He was criticising how convoluted Imperial is with all of its different and loosely interrelated units, which factor into each other in so many different ways, eg 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 1,760 feet to a mile. In contrast to metric which is 1,000 millimetres to a metre, and 1,000 metres to a kilometre.
I can appreciate how hard it is to switch from metric to imperial, heck we're still using miles in the UK. All the US needs to do is to teach people in both metric and imperial, like we do here, and people will slowly adapt over time. The dates problem is another matter entirely though. Who knows when that'll be solved.
[QUOTE=Cloak Raider;50708206]except there is a standard for dates and it isn't the american one, because the american one is retarded and metric + imperial hasn't worked fine, a space probe has literally crashed because of the imperial system[/QUOTE] a space probe literally crashed because two different teams of scientists didn't communicate enough to figure out that they were using different systems of measurements sure you could argue that "well if the americans didnt use imperial this wouldnt have happened" but the blame still falls on both parties because youre telling me that two sepearate rooms full of brilliant scientists and not one of them managed to question whether or not they were using the same measurement system? thats not the blame of the measurement system thats the blame of the idiots running the project.
I hate the fact that there's DD-MM-YYYY and MM-DD-YYYY. I can never be sure which it is unless one of the numbers is greater than 12.
[QUOTE=Erfly;50708939]All the US needs to do is to teach people in both metric and imperial, like we do here, and people will slowly adapt over time.[/QUOTE] They're supposed to. Most public schools do an extremely half-assed job of it though. I remember only having a small handful of classes addressing metric across the entirety of my education. There were like 2-3 in elementary school then I had another class centered around metric when I took chemistry in high school which was just intended as a refresher since basically nobody had actually ever used metric outside of school anyways.
[QUOTE=ZachPL;50708070]Knowing the day before the month just doesn't make sense. -- its the 14th only 11 days till christmas! no it's july oh you should've said that first[/QUOTE] Even americans say it's 4th of July. Not July the fourth. Plus the ISO norm is year month day as well. Which also makes sense, as it automatically sorts by filename.
the imperial isn't that bad, you get used to it like anything else
[QUOTE=Jojje;50708951]I hate the fact that there's DD-MM-YYYY and MM-DD-YYYY. I can never be sure which it is unless one of the numbers is greater than 12.[/QUOTE] Yeah I encounter that a lot at work when handling foreign shit. Something says 9.8.2016. It's not from Finland. ... Good luck!
[QUOTE=sb27;50708884] Metric is interrelated though. Eg 1L of pure water is exactly 1kg.[/QUOTE] Which also takes up the volume of one dm^3. As such you can use plain water to convert between volume, fluid amount and weight. [QUOTE=Giraffen93;50708697]wow i had no idea about this, talk about wasted hype [t]http://rp.braxnet.org/scr/146851431634622.png[/t][/QUOTE] Seriously what the hell do you do that you're only getting so little amount of movement. That's microscopic. You've averaged 320 meters per day. Considering average walking speed, you walk roughly 4 minutes a day. I mean with your phone on.
Surprised this wasn't here yet. [t]http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/handy-guide-temperatures.jpg[/t]
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