A general rant on things metric

[auto doctor]

38 x 89 sounds better.

That's so much easier to remember..

Next time I see Goob at the lumber yard counter I will make shure that I ask him for a 38 X 89 ten footer board.

 

[DonAngelo]

In Europe, two years after the old currencies were abandonned for the € (Euro) everyone is using Euros without difficulty. Why? Because after a one year of using both the new € and old multiple currencies (francs, marks, liras, crowns....) the only one in use was €. As long as we continue to use both systems we will never be fully metric.
You do not learn a new language by translating. You do by thinking directly in the new language. Canadians are just as smart as anybody else. Let's eliminate the obsolete Imperial measurement system.

...but they have the same problems in some areas, for instance horsepower in cars etc.. Cars are supposed to be rated in kilowatts (kw); 136 hp equal 100 kw. Nobody talks in "kw" in Europe and the public really hangs on tight to the old rating "hp".

 

[DCork]

BTW, as any old guy knows, there are 1728 cu in in a cu ft; how much does half a litre of nice cold, say 4ºC, spring water weigh?

500 grams.

I worked on a Alberta highway crew that converted all of the destination and speed signs to metric on highway 2 between Calgary and Red Deer. The old speed limit of 70 MPH changed to 110 KPH. For the next couple of weeks it was dangerous to work along the road because the traffic was often moving at 110 MPH.

And another thing, space is metric. When NASA crashed one of the mars landers, it was because they had incorrectly converted metric distance. Nobody seemed to criticize them for using imperial in the first place.

I can understand both systems reasonably well, I was trained in imperial and have worked in technical areas using metric. But I'm still screwed on a golf course when I'm with my European friends and they ask me what the distance is in meters without looking at any yard markers. Conversely, I can easily judge the distance in yards just by looking at the flag.

On the original rant, I agree, but it's not surprising that we still have imperial references. I think old jones and raydeon have nailed it. Until we use it in everything, we will fall back to our comfort. It isn't about measuring stuff, it's about how we communicate. Until metric supplants our spatial references in a meaningful way, we will communicate using the method delivers the message.

 

[johnhenrygalt]

There's nothing wrong with either system of measurement; each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Learning and using metric doesn't stop one from learning and using the Imperial system, or the US system (remember the US gallon is NOT an Imperial gallon).

 

[Meister]

divide in two's a half, half of that's 1/4, half of that's 1/8 etc. the Imperial system is the system that makes sense.

Probably makes sense to people who know nothing else. Try operating a machine in a machine shop. Most machines these days have a digital readout, ie 3.0000 inches. So if you are asked to mill off 9/16" from a block of steel you do what?

Grab your calculator, because you can't type in 9/16 into the machine.

And, btw, how many stones are in a pound?

 

[red]

isn't it 16 pounds in a stone

 

[Meister]

isn't it 16 pounds in a stone

I have absolutely no idea.

 

[johnhenrygalt]

Fourteen pounds to a stone.

 

[Esco!]

Canada switched to the metric system??????
When did that happen???????

 

[Meister]

Ireland just switched their speed limit signs to kph last week.

btw, Liberia and South Yemen are the only imperial countries left. That shows real confidence in the imperial system.

But wait, the imperial system is so easy. So far I have to memorize 14 lbs to a stone or was it 16? And then I have to memorize 1728 cu in in a cu ft. Nevermind the 12" in a foot, the 3 feet in a yard, the 7/16", the #10-32 Screw (what the hell is that about?), the bushel, the .....

 

[icto]

I prefer imperial measure for most things. I agree 100% with the human-size appeal of the imperial units mentioned in a previous post. The thing I like least about metric is that they often have numbers larger than you can easily picture. For example, I can picture 5 feet, 10 inches, but I cannot clearly picture 178 centimetres or 178 anything else. Sure the powers of 10 sound like a nice idea, but when was the last time you saw a 'decimetre' anywhere? So converting mentally to 'almost 18 decimetres' doesn't help. You have to mentally convert it to a fraction (almost 1 4/5 metres) which makes it seems almost imperial.

When they introduced metric to Canada, there was a huge sales pitch saying we were doing it because the US was, and we needed to be the same as them. Then the US backed out, so the justification for doing it became justification for not doing it, but the politicians wouldn't want to look foolish by officially backing out (so they unofficially backed out).