[alligator]

25 years ago I was in elementary school. They told us that that we were going to convert to the metric system "soon". It's been 25 years, and we are no closer to that conversion.

I want to know who's responsible for this . . .

They outta be fired.

[The Godfather]

I was expecting a solution to this on Bush's State of the Union, but he disappointed me again.

[CharlesS]

Obviously, it's because the Metric System is the devil, the spirit of pure evil. The mere fact that the whole rest of the world uses Metric is reason enough for us not to use it. Because Americans invented the British Imperial System of Measurements, it's clearly a matter of national pride, and if we convert to Metric, then we won't be our own country anymore, because clearly the British system is the only unique thing about our country.[/color][/quote]Yes, CharlesS, I agree with everything you say, because it's obvious you're not joking at all, and I'm totally not a dumbass if I take you seriously![quote][color=wh ite]

[davesimondotcom]

Blame Carter.

[Dork.]

Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do.
Who leaves the Atlantis off the maps? [shot of Carl]
Who keeps the Martians under wraps? [shot of Lenny]
We do! We do. [shot of Martian]
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star? [shot of Steve]
We do! We do.
Who robs cave fish of their sight? [shot of Skinner]
Who rigs every Oscar night? [shot of Homer]
We do! We do.

{shamelessly stolen from http://www.snpp.com/episodes/2F09.html }

[rjenkinson]

remember, 25 years is actually something like 91.25 years in metric.

-r.

[PookJP]

I swear, there are enough right wing nuts on this board that eventually someone's going to come along in favor of the existing system. "You liberal heart bleeders have swallowed so much punch from Bill Clinton's dong you can't even see how much more sensical it is to have freezing at 32!"

[davesimondotcom]

Originally Posted by PookJP

I swear, there are enough right wing nuts on this board that eventually someone's going to come along in favor of the existing system. "You liberal heart bleeders have swallowed so much punch from Bill Clinton's dong you can't even see how much more sensical it is to have freezing at 32!"

Do you realize how expensive it would be to totally toss out the system we currently use in the US in favor of the metric system? For EVERYTHING?

We're talking a quite a few billion dollars to convert everything in industry, commerce and even simple things like road signs.

[PookJP]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

Do you realize how expensive it would be to totally toss out the system we currently use in the US in favor of the metric system? For EVERYTHING?

We're talking a quite a few billion dollars to convert everything in industry, commerce and even simple things like road signs.

Great, I have a solution that will satisfy everyone! Instead of tossing hundreds of billions of dollars at Iraq just to watch more and more soldiers get killed and terrorists get recruited, lets save some lives while using a fraction of the money saved to convert the entire nation to the metric system. Not only will each and every American immediately benefit from the conversion, a whole slew of us won't get killed in decades of future attacks.

[davesimondotcom]

Originally Posted by PookJP

Great, I have a solution that will satisfy everyone! Instead of tossing hundreds of billions of dollars at Iraq just to watch more and more soldiers get killed and terrorists get recruited, lets save some lives while using a fraction of the money saved to convert the entire nation to the metric system. Not only will each and every American immediately benefit from the conversion, a whole slew of us won't get killed in decades of future attacks.

Your non-sensical blabbermouthing is making me sleepy...

[KeriVit]

I personally hate not being on the metric system. All of our equipment is metric- so much easier than multiplying by 25.4

[PookJP]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

Your non-sensical blabbermouthing is making me sleepy...

Oh, I'm sorry. So American deaths in Iraq haven't increased steadily since we "won," and Al Qaeda recruitment hasn't been strengthened?

[davesimondotcom]

Originally Posted by PookJP

Oh, I'm sorry. So American deaths in Iraq haven't increased steadily since we "won," and Al Qaeda recruitment hasn't been strengthened?

Dude, go to the Political Lounge already... jeez.

[PookJP]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

Dude, go to the Political Lounge already... jeez.

Nice dodge. You should have Scott McClellan's job.

[davesimondotcom]

Originally Posted by KeriVit

I personally hate not being on the metric system. All of our equipment is metric- so much easier than multiplying by 25.4

You are a Pats fan, right? A football fan?

Imagine this: "Brady brings the Patriots to the line. They are starting on the 36.576 meter line after Kasay's kick went out of bounds. Troy Brown catches a pass from Brady for an 11.8872 meter gain, but the Patriots lose ground on an offensive pass interference penalty on Brown, bringing them back to their own 39.3192 meter line. Brown makes another 11.8872 meter catch followed by Daniel Graham grabbing a 3.6576 meter catch. It's now 3rd down and 2.7432. Brady to Branch, 15.5448 meter gain! First down and 9.144! It's up to Adam Vinatieri to make this 37.4904 meter field goal... Patriots take the lead! 4 seconds left on the clock!"

[davesimondotcom]

Originally Posted by PookJP

Nice dodge. You should have Scott McClellan's job.

If you want to debate the war, that's the proper place to do it.

Simply put, I don't agree with your over-simplistic view about how the world just gets so great when we just up and leave Iraq. Sorry, Pollyanna.

[Spliffdaddy]

Originally Posted by KeriVit

I personally hate not being on the metric system. All of our equipment is metric- so much easier than multiplying by 25.4

ACK. What have you been doing?

It's 24.5 !

Wait a minute...you don't work at Ford, do you?

That would explain the build quality.

[KeriVit]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

You are a Pats fan, right? A football fan?

Imagine this: "Brady brings the Patriots to the line. They are starting on the 36.576 meter line after Kasay's kick went out of bounds. Troy Brown catches a pass from Brady for an 11.8872 meter gain, but the Patriots lose ground on an offensive pass interference penalty on Brown, bringing them back to their own 39.3192 meter line. Brown makes another 11.8872 meter catch followed by Daniel Graham grabbing a 3.6576 meter catch. It's now 3rd down and 2.7432. Brady to Branch, 15.5448 meter gain! First down and 9.144! It's up to Adam Vinatieri to make this 37.4904 meter field goal... Patriots take the lead! 4 seconds left on the clock!"

Oh that's just stupid. It could be easily converted w/o all that crap.

[PookJP]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

If you want to debate the war, that's the proper place to do it.

Simply put, I don't agree with your over-simplistic view about how the world just gets so great when we just up and leave Iraq. Sorry, Pollyanna.

Well I don't agree with that view, explicitly, either. As you accurately observed, I wrote it in an overly simplified fashion. It's the general sentiment I believe in.

[KeriVit]

Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy

ACK. What have you been doing?

It's 24.5 !

Wait a minute...you don't work at Ford, do you?

That would explain the build quality.

No, it's not dumb-ass.

[Kerrigan]

ibl etc

[Spliffdaddy]

um, I was kidding about the 24.5 thing. dumbass.

PS, put a sock in it, Pook.

[Kerrigan]

why do you people get so fekking bitchy about your fords and your chevrolettes?

[KeriVit]

Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy

um, I was kidding about the 24.5 thing. dumbass.

PS, put a sock in it, Pook.

Hey. I can't read sarcasm w/o the smilie!!!

Oh, and I love you too, Pooky.

[Spliffdaddy]

Originally Posted by KeriVit

Hey. I can't read sarcasm w/o the smilie!!!

I'll accept responsibility for the smiley omission.

[Ozmodiar]

I don't see what the big deal is. When I'm in the lab and they tell me to keep the prep at 25º, I know they don't mean to put it in the fridge. When I'm out of the lab and someone says it's 16º out, I know I need a heavy coat.

I'm perfectly ok with leaving metric in science and Imperial in the public sphere.

[JoshuaZ]

I just find it silly that so many random things ARE metric in the US. Boxes have things in grams, drinks come in liters, some road signs have kilometers per hour on them.

I think it could be done quite easily and efficiently. Plus all the money we spend would go right back to the workingman in the US. Who would be we paying to change signs? Or redesign boxes? Or train people on the new weight system.

[Andy8]

I remember a few years ago when the usa crashed a European satellite into Mars because they used the wrong measurement system to calculate the trajectory.

It could have been avoided by using a uniform system. (like everyone else does)

[Scotttheking]

I'm switching my brain over to metric. Yesterday I confused someone by using temperature in Celsius.

[goMac]

Giving in to the metric system is giving in to the terrorists.

You don't want to help the terrorists, do you?

[euphras]

Originally Posted by goMac

Giving in to the metric system is giving in to the terrorists.

You don't want to help the terrorists, do you?

As for the football thingy: for some special purposes the old system could be left in use (here in GE display width and bike wheel diameter are given in inch for some historical reasons).

[Millennium]

Technically, the low-level changes have already occurred: the US measurements are all defined in terms of metric units. For example, an inch is 2.54 centimeters not because when you measure these distances they come to the same length, but because the modern definition of an inch is "2.54 centimeters". That's all.

When exactly all of this propagates up to an "interface" level, though, is anybody's guess.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

Do you realize how expensive it would be to totally toss out the system we currently use in the US in favor of the metric system? For EVERYTHING?

We're talking a quite a few billion dollars to convert everything in industry, commerce and even simple things like road signs.

Do you have any idea how much your stupid Imperial system is ALREADY costing your industry and commerce?

You can bet your ass that NASA losing a 400-million-dollar space probe due to a conversion problem introduced by your idiotic system is just the very prominent tip of the iceberg.

Every other country on the planet measures, plans, designs, and manufactures in metric units. Keeping specially-tooled production lanes for people who think 1/16ths and factors of 12 in happy mix are a useful thing is something YOU are paying for.

[allblue]

Cost of conversion is an issue - every road sign for example. Like the OP I was educated in the 60s/70s in the UK and maths, physics and so on was all in metric and there is this slightly uneasy hybrid system in place in the UK at present - I saw a piece of glazing recently that was measured as 18" x 12' x 45mm! Of course this leads to confusion, as graphically illustrated by the lost Martian probe. Mind you, about thirty years ago Sweden changed from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight! I bet there was fun at pub closing time for some time after...

[Y3a]

the Farenheit system is more precise than the Celcius version.
you have more degrees in the Farenheit sysem between water freezing and water boiling.

An all base 10 system for measuring length might not be too bad however.

We gotta do something about a League though.

[vmarks]

What we REALLY need to do is go to Kelvin units.

You take your sissy Celsius and your freaky Farenheit, I'll stick with kooky Kelvin!

[allblue]

Originally Posted by Y3a

the Farenheit system is more precise than the Celcius version.
you have more degrees in the Farenheit sysem between water freezing and water boiling.

Not really. Just one zero after the decimal point gives you 1000 graduations and so on ad infinitum. 32 - 212 is an entirely arbitrary range with no logic to underpin it. The farenheit/centigrade thing is a tough one to crack in terms of weather I have found. After several years I am just about at the point where if I hear 18˚c I can relate it to the weather without converting it into farenheit for it to have any meaning for me.
There is one flaw with metric - if you have a pie and cut it fairly three ways you will get a third, an actual real thing. The Avoir Dupois fraction of 1/3 is a precise decription of this, but metric has to introduce an impossible number - 3.33 recurring to express it.

[euphras]

Originally Posted by Y3a

the Farenheit system is more precise than the Celcius version.
you have more degrees in the Farenheit sysem between water freezing and water boiling.

An all base 10 system for measuring length might not be too bad however.

We gotta do something about a League though.

Degree Celsius has nothing to do with the metric system. It´s just as arbitrarily as the Fahrenheit one. From a scientific point of view both should be replaced by degree Kelvin.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by PookJP

Great, I have a solution that will satisfy everyone! Instead of tossing hundreds of billions of dollars at Iraq just to watch more and more soldiers get killed and terrorists get recruited, lets save some lives while using a fraction of the money saved to convert the entire nation to the metric system. Not only will each and every American immediately benefit from the conversion, a whole slew of us won't get killed in decades of future attacks.

Ah total political zealous tripe derail.

BTW the Iraqi's that have died since we did nothing in the past decade thank you for your kindness.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by allblue

Cost of conversion is an issue - every road sign for example.

Road signs get replaced in a regular cycle in most places.

Simply sticking a dual-unit sign there next turnaround is no extra cost at all - it just takes time.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by euphras

Degree Celsius has nothing to do with the metric system. It´s just as arbitrarily as the Fahrenheit one. From a scientific point of view both should be replaced by degree Kelvin.

Well, Celsius scale's origin was the attempt to metrify temperature by using 0° as the freezing point of water at standard atmospheric pressure and temperature, and 100° as the boiling point of water at SPT.

The fact that these values have since been found to be only approximate doesn't change the fact that it was *supposed* to be metric.

And scientific calculations are done in Kelvin anyway, while the 254-degree offset is perfectly fine for public usage, due to the real-world values of 0° and 100°.

The potential for confusion and the complexity of conversion is nowhere NEAR as high as with Fahrenheit/Celsius.

[allblue]

Originally Posted by euphras

Degree Celsius has nothing to do with the metric system. It´s just as arbitrarily as the Fahrenheit one. From a scientific point of view both should be replaced by degree Kelvin.

In a scienticfic context kelvin is used, but in our day to day lives none of us are ever going to experience much outside the -20 to 40 centigrade range so I would argue it does make sense to use it in our day-to-day lives. To unfairly extrapolate your point to absurdity, instead of using hours, minutes and seconds to describe time, we could use the plank instead. This unit of time was created by scientists studying the Big Bang and is 1sec x 10 to the minus 42! So instead of saying to someone 'I'll be with you in a minute' you would have to say 'I'll be with you in a billion billion billion billion billion (yawn) billion billion billion planks!'
You are correct that centigarde is not part of the metric system, but as it uses the same decimal system there is a relationship.

[allblue]

Originally Posted by analogika

Road signs get replaced in a regular cycle in most places.

Simply sticking a dual-unit sign there next turnaround is no extra cost at all - it just takes time.

True.

[production_coordinator]

IMHO, they should assist the transition (have the government only pay for signs that have both miles and km etc.) but forcing it on the US is silly. For day to day use, it really doesn't make much of a difference.

Richard

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by analogika

Road signs get replaced in a regular cycle in most places.

Simply sticking a dual-unit sign there next turnaround is no extra cost at all - it just takes time.

Sure there would. Depending on the sign, some will have to be re-designed instead of using the template already existing, which does cost more.

Not that I am for or against this. I couldn't care one bit less what we use.

[ajprice]

I read the title, and then I read the thread, and all I can think about is...

Vincent Vega: You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
Jules Winnfield: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
Vincent Vega: No, man, they got the metric system, they don't know what the fu** a Quarter Pounder is.
Jules Winnfield: What do they call it?
Vincent Vega: They call it a Royal with Cheese.
Jules Winnfield: Royal with Cheese.
Vincent Vega: That's right.
Jules Winnfield: What do they call a Big Mac?
Vincent Vega: Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.
Jules Winnfield: Le Big Mac. What do they call a Whopper?
Vincent Vega: I don't know. I didn't go into Burger King.

[SSharon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit
An interesting read since it tries to explain the history of how it was all 'made up.'

[ReggieX]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

Do you realize how expensive it would be to totally toss out the system we currently use in the US in favor of the metric system? For EVERYTHING?

We're talking a quite a few billion dollars to convert everything in industry, commerce and even simple things like road signs.

Right. And if the US had done like Canada and actually STARTED back in the 1970s, everything would have been done for years by now.

But, Oh, no! That'll cost too much now! Let's delay and delay and when it finally starts there will be even more to convert and the cost will be even higher! Typical short-sighted crap.

Imperial/US measurement sucks.

[Andy8]

Originally Posted by ReggieX

Right. And if the US had done like Canada and actually STARTED back in the 1970s, everything would have been done for years by now.

But, Oh, no! That'll cost too much now! Let's delay and delay and when it finally starts there will be even more to convert and the cost will be even higher! Typical short-sighted crap.

Imperial/US measurement sucks.

Exactly

[ism]

From an engineering point of view I don't like inches. And the metric system really can save money: http://www.kok.com/pr02.htm

Luckily, inches are a rare thing for me nowadays although working in the Oil and Gas industry (heavy USA influence) means there is still a lot of inch usage kicking about.

However, I don't like the psuedo-metrification. I.e a 2.5 inch nominal bore pipe becomes 65mm nominal bore. It isn't anywhere near 65mm bore size, but then again it wasn't near 2.5 inches either, since it can very depending on the schedule (thickness). I don't understand why they weren't refered to by their OD since that is constant and is an exact inch measurement. It's a odd world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_Pipe_Size