# How do you feel about converting to the Metric system? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 23, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666 "2023-01-23T15:52:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/141 "2023-01-24T07:04:40Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > celsius/kelvin doesn’t _get_ you anything aside from compatibility with most science Oh, _only_ that? What a nothingburger. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > And then there’s kelvin sitting off on its own, with almost no connection to anything else STP isn’t no connection. Hell, anyone using natural gas uses that one one, indirectly. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/142 "2023-01-24T07:25:40Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Oh, _only_ that? What a nothingburger. Clearly that’s important, but it’s not an _inherent_ quality of SI units in the way that coherence is. You have the other units that fit together like a nice set of puzzle pieces, where if you altered one you’d have alter all the others to keep them fitting together. And then you have kelvin off to the side. The shape doesn’t matter because it doesn’t actually connect to anything (except via ugly constants like the Boltzmann constant). STP is just an arbitrary point on the scale. 275 K frankly would have been easier to remember. Or really, 300 K would have been fine since all that matters is that it’s standard. It’s not even consistent. STP itself changed in 1982. And there are several other “XTP” measures that use 0 C, 15 C, 20 C, or other. You mentioned natural gas, but Wikipedia says that: > The International Standard Metric Conditions for natural gas and similar fluids are 288.15 K (15.00 °C; 59.00 °F) and 101.325 kPa.[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_temperature_and_pressure#cite_note-ISO13443-7) That’s not STP at all. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/143 "2023-01-24T07:41:31Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Clearly that’s important, but it’s not an _inherent_ quality Importance is all that concerns me. I see no reason to prioritize coherence exclusively, it is sufficient that K is important. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > STP is just an arbitrary point on the scale. All these scales are arbitrary anyway. That’s not a counter-argument. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > 275 K frankly would have been easier to remember “Easier to remember” isn’t one either, or _g_ would just be 10. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > That’s not STP at all. There’s not _one_ STP. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/144 "2023-01-24T07:45:28Z")
> [@Honolulu\_Lulu](#): > > As an over-zealous advocate of the Metric System, I just don’t understand why the USA is so stubborn in its refusal to do more than sell Pepsi in 2-litre bottles. Don’t be ridiculous. Coke comes in 2 liter bottles also. As far as why? We’re Murricans and don’t have to make sense. And I have no clue why we haven’t switched. A couple decades ago there was a movement to have highway signs showing mileage in both miles and kilometers - but I haven’t seen that in ages. No clue what happened. If we’d just made the switch when the momentum began, people would barely remember it and would be wondering what this baloney was with miles etc. Of course in the UK, they still measure people’s weight in stones, versus pounds OR kg - so at least we’re not the only holdouts, if only in that one little way. Decades ago, a friend was driving somewhere in Canada with her mother. Both grew up with the imperial system (miles etc.). The mother was British, but pre-metric; the daughter was American, but well educated in metric. The friend was translating distances from metric to imperial - e.g. 60 km, that’s about 35 miles - that sort of thing. She found herself somewhat absentmindedly translating a POPULATION sign from imperial to metric, and cracked them both up. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/145 "2023-01-24T08:52:02Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > “Easier to remember” isn’t one either But they _did_ pick round numbers in C. It’s just that it inherently makes for un-round numbers in K. If they had thought a little further ahead, they’d have picked a round number in K instead. Within reason, it didn’t matter what number they picked as long as it was convenient to work with. > [@MrDibble](#): > > There’s not _one_ STP. Uh, that’s not exactly an argument in _favor_ of STP being a compelling use-case here… ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/146 "2023-01-24T08:59:24Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > But they _did_ pick round numbers in C. It’s just that it inherently makes for un-round numbers in K Clearly I don’t have the allergy to decimal fractions that imperial users seem to. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Uh, that’s not exactly an argument in _favor_ of STP being a compelling use-case here I don’t see how K/C actually being used for multiple things is an argument _against_ it “getting you anything”. It’s clearly _useful_. ---
**Author:** ![SailorHG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SailorHG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SailorHG)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/147 "2023-01-24T09:12:52Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Not just filing cabinets, but everything else that’s currently sized specifically for American letter-size (8 1/2" x 11") or legal-size (8 1/2" x 14") paper: folders, envelopes, printers and copiers, etc. Presumably the B-series envelope sizes would come along with the A-series paper, so envelopes and folders would not be a problem… after the old supply is used up, of course. As for printers, any consumer-level printer/copier sold internationally can accommodate both US and ISO paper. Certainly if the printer can hold US legal, it can hold A4 as well. (I can’t speak for old consumer printers or for industrial-sized printers. And it could also be the case that cheap printers would have size-specific paper trays for the market they are sold in, just like they have for power cords/adapters. It’s just that the printers I am familiar with can do both US and ISO.) ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/148 "2023-01-24T09:45:59Z")
> [@EastUmpqua](#): > > Some of us are married to witches 🙂 I wouldn’t go there if I were you. That reads as casual misogyny. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/149 "2023-01-24T09:55:56Z")
I think the overall theme is: let’s make everything the same everywhere, because Science and Convenience, the twin gods of modernity. But there’s the minority opinion, which is let’s not. Let’s not have everyone speak one language. Let’s not have all foods be Fusion Cuisine, all houses be three bedrooms two baths, all cars be silver automatic SUV crossovers, and on and on. There are those of us who don’t want everything to interchangeable and universal. If I were world empress we’d still be using spans, hands, and ells (horses are still measured in hands, which is pleasant). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/150 "2023-01-24T10:10:48Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > In Canada, we call it a “4’x8’ piece of plywood”. Building materials are one of those odd items that did not convert from metric for the most part, so our dimensional lumber is still sold in inches and feet. Hell, I live in a country that has never been anything other than metric, and yet pipe diameters are measured in inches (referred to as “tzoll”, which I think we stole from the Germans). ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/151 "2023-01-24T11:34:22Z")
> [@Leo\_Krupe](#): > > I too remember the push in the 70s, and one thing against conversion (could be taken as a joke, but then again, not really) was “We’d have to change (American) football to meterball!” “The ball’s on the 30-meter line…” “He threw the ball 20 meters and the wide receiver ran for another 50 meters!” That sounds odd. The most popular sport in the metric world (football/soccer) uses yards instead of meters. American football wouldn’t need to change. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/152 "2023-01-24T12:01:50Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I think the overall theme is: let’s make everything the same everywhere, because Science and Convenience, the twin gods of modernity. > > But there’s the minority opinion, which is let’s not. Let’s not have everyone speak one language. Let’s not have all foods be Fusion Cuisine, all houses be three bedrooms two baths, all cars be silver automatic SUV crossovers, and on and on. There are those of us who don’t want everything to interchangeable and universal. If I were world empress we’d still be using spans, hands, and ells (horses are still measured in hands, which is pleasant). An interesting idea, but can you actually name a single non-metric unit? It’s all very well to talk about, say, inches, but by the early and certainly by the mid 20th-century traditional units had been abandoned in favour of standards like 1 inch ≔ 25.4 mm, and no more elementary-school quizzes involving converting between Virginia inches and New Hampshire inches and Flemish vs English ells. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/153 "2023-01-24T13:29:36Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > An interesting idea, but can you actually name a single non-metric unit? I agree and yet this is just one more example of the forcible uniformity we are all funneled toward. Obviously, this heavily STEM-oriented discussion board is heartily in favor of it. There are no different drummers in that world. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/154 "2023-01-24T13:38:33Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > > [@EastUmpqua](#): > > > > Typical driving speed is 60 mph (96 km/h). So it’s easier to estimate how long it takes to get somewhere using miles. > > You could probably just use 100km/h to make it easy to figure how long. Being 70 yrs/o and living in Canada all my life, I can work with both systems. Metric is far easier for calculating time to distance. 100 Km/hour is a common non-divided highway speed limit and that means at that speed it will take you one hour to travel 100 klms. If a place is 125 klms away, that means an hour and a quarter, 150 klms is 1 hour and one half hours away, 250 klms is 2.5 hours away, etc. Very easy. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/155 "2023-01-24T13:42:05Z")
I think there are some things about the non-metric system that are superior to the metric system, it’s name not being one of them (imperial, US-SAE, British, whatever). The main one is the units seem much more human related, at least to me, and many non-metric units were derived from practical units that real humans actually use. Foot and acre comes to mind right off the bat, the apx size of adult male foot and how much farm land that adult male can work in a day. Horsepower helps us decide what size engine we need to replace our horses, and though that is mostly no longer needed, it does relate somewhat to the original concept, teaching history and helping us realize what is needed in the past to do what we now do with engine. Fahrenheit I feel is far superior to centigrade, room temperature can be set in whole numbers, centigrade needs half units, and the basic 0F-100F scale which covers the human range of existence pretty darn well. That being said, the world would be a better place with one system, so I’m fine with the non-metric system going away. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/156 "2023-01-24T13:51:53Z")
I wouldn’t touch the metric system with a decafoot pole. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/157 "2023-01-24T13:55:42Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I don’t see how K/C actually being used for multiple things is an argument _against_ it “getting you anything”. It’s clearly _useful_. But it is not: > [@Cheesesteak](#): > > uniquely useful It is arbitrarily useful. It is not useful because it is structured more sensibly than F/R, or because it has a unique or deliberately designed connection to other metrics. Celsius is simply a different standard than Fahrenheit, and all of our SI units relating to temperature could have used F/R instead of C/K without changing anything but the size of the unit. Fahrenheit did not have ANY of the Imperial Measurement problems that have been described over and over, no strange association with other metrics, no historical use of fractions, or related units without simple conversions. It’s identical to Celsius, except each degree is smaller. If it hadn’t been replaced by Celsius, everything metric would work exactly as well as it does today. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/158 "2023-01-24T13:56:23Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > If a place is 125 klms away, that means an hour and a quarter Whoa, whoa, whoa. An hour and a quarter?? That sounds like imperial units to me! Surely you mean 1.25 hours, or 125 centihours? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/159 "2023-01-24T14:01:40Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > It is not useful because it is structured more sensibly than F/R I would argue that the freeze/boil associations are a more sensible structure than not, but I’m learning this is not the hill to even visit anymore, let alone watch people senselessly die on. I’m out. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666/160 "2023-01-24T14:05:04Z")
Well, I view a “quarter” as being .25, like “twenty-five cents” and a “quarter past one” is 1:15, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-converting-to-the-metric-system/978666.md?page=9)