And then there’s highway design. For several years in the 80’s and later, thanks to (unfunded") mandates from the federal government, several states converted to metric for their US-funded roadway construction plans and several highways got built useng metric dimensions. Then they dropped the requirement and reverted to US Standard dimensioning.
I was surprised as heck the first and last time I drove on the Dover, Delaware, Bypass and saw that the milemarker signs were coming more frequently than my odometer said, then I saw the fine print on them, “km”. Anyone know of any other US highways with km markers vs. miles?
Are you familiar with using both systems on a daily basis? Canadians are, and we mostly prefer metric. If you are familiar with both and prefer the old style, that is of course your preference. If you are familiar with only one, then you don’t have much basis for comparison.
Saying that powers of 10 is overrated indicates to me that you haven’t used it often. It is tremendously EASY, is the better word for it. Not only can you go from larger to smaller measurements by moving decimal points, but you can go from one type of measurement to another by - moving decimal points.
I think there is a fear in the U.S. that if you convert completely to SI, that you will all be in unfamiliar measurements the rest of your lives and never be comfortable measuring things again. I don’t think that would happen. As I pointed out in my earlier example, Canadians use measurements that we as a society have de facto agreed on, and the government is officially all SI. It really isn’t that big a deal (except I too wish we would finish the conversion in building areas).
Then why do we use the decimal system for everything else? And all calculators use the decimal system.
And cm is just as good.
Which in my opinion is just about the most inconvenient unit ever. For measuring packages, household objects, human behings, etc., you need feet + inches. You have to deal with the whole non-decimal business. For measuring larger things (buildings, fields) you often run into 3 or 4 digit numbers, and areas in square feet often goes into 6 or 7 digits.
A kilometer is about 1/4 hour’s walk or 1 minute’s highway drive.
Whole degrees in Celsius is precise enough for cooking, weather forecasts or climate control. It’s not enough for body temperature, but neither is whole degrees Fahrenheit.
Except 0F is a pretty meaningless reference point. Many parts of the US get colder in winter nights. 0C is a far more useful reference point: negative temperature means freezing.
But for packages, cooking, etc., you need pounds + ounces. Again a non-decimal system. Even for body weight, I think most people think 1lb increments is not precise enough; using 0.1 kg increments is just as easy as 0.2 lb increments.
A liter is the same amount everywhere, and a liter of water weighs 1kg exactly.
Teaspoon and tablespoon are used in Metric countries as well. In fact, even in the US, they are defined as 5ml and 15ml respectively.
The whole reason we were never able to convert to metric back then is that they tried to impose it gradually. You just can’t do that. If everyone was forced to use metric for everything, we’d all be used to it within a month. Once it’s done, you don’t have to worry about how many cups are in a liter or how many meters in a yard - it’s just all metric and there’s no conversion to be done.
Another Canadian here, wishing we could just finish standardizing. I know height in feet and inches, weight of people and produce in pounds, deli items in grams, and beer comes in pints and milk comes in litres and never the twain shall meet. I am bilingual in terms of cooking measurements (1 cup = 250 ml and all that), I cannot make head nor tail of distance measures in either miles or kilometers (not a big deal as I don’t drive), and I still haven’t figured out if my oven is in F or C, I just know to roast my beets at 400 units of something. (I will, however, hear no nonsense about Farenheit for weather. Celsius rules!)
I literally could not fix my bike one day, for the sake of a single tiny nut. The bike had a metric bolt and all the nuts at the stores that were open that day were imperial. I had to first FIND a store that carried metric nuts (and do you think they put that information in the Yellow Pages? They do not) and then find out when they were open, and then get myself there, all while my main mode of transportation was inoperable because one of the nuts that held the gears together accidentally fell in my neighbour’s compost heap before I realized its irreplacability.
(Not that I’m still bitter.)
One time my Canadian friend wondered if he or my English friend weighed more. The Englishman only knew stones, the Canadian only understood kilograms. I knew that 1 stone = 14 lb, and that 1 kilo = 2.2 lb. And we didn’t have a calculator.
It was a helluva conversation. I don’t think we ever figured out who weighed more.
There’s your problem- Americans don’t use a stone as a unit of weight. We just use pounds and ounces. “How many ounces are in a pound” would have been a fairer question.
You drive way too slow on the freeway (1 km/minute ~ 37 miles per hour). For those of us who drive at normal freeway speeds when there’s no traffic, a mile is about 1 minute’s drive.
I would like it if people’s heights and weights were measured in metric. Why? Because 160 centimeters sounds taller than 5’3", and my weight would sound like it’s less in kilograms, because a kilogram is 2.2 pounds
Our freeways around Toronto are posted for 100 km/h, which means that people usually drive about 120. In younger days, I remember pushing my mom’s Chevette up to about 135 in the middle lane on the 401, when it developed a dismaying shimmy and I slowed down. And I was still being overtaken. Heck, I’ve been on public buses, big Greyhound-style ones, that may well have gone airborne over unexpected bumps.
I’m an American who’s been using Imperial all my life and I still have no idea how far a mile is. 5,280 feet? How far’s that? My mind just can’t imagine five thousand of someting. I can picture ten, or even one hundred. But then you need to switch to a larger unit of measure.
If I’m in the woods hiking I can look at a tree 50 meters away and know that twenty times that distance is a kilometer. I can view a ridge 500 meters away and know that’s half a kilometer. It’s a useful distance. Miles on the other hand are meaningless.
Also, everybody’s GPS units use the DTS measurements instead of the impossible to use Lat and Long. The DTS Datum is all based on meters.
We can argue about whether a ten based system or a twelve based system is best. But the current US 5,280 based system for distances clearly sucks.
It’s stupid that we haven’t switched to metric. Who knew there’d be such opposition to what would be initially painful but soooo much simpler in the long run?
Speaking of spirits, I have no idea what someone means when they say “a fifth” of liquor. “A fifth” of what?! If it’s a fifth of a quart, then isn’t it really “a ninth”?
I wholly support this and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I am also in favor of abolishing the penny. And I also hate how people say their precious baby is 24 months old instead of two years, but I digress…
For metric measurements, I am already used to liters and…well I always say a meter is basically a yard, but kilometers and grams and celsius are foriegn to me, unless, as previously mentioned, it is 0. I know how cold 0 degrees C is, I know how much 0 kilograms are, etc. It doesn’t bother me that on my car, there are kilometer markings under MPH. Or that I can change the display to be in degrees celcius for my car’s thermometer. I guess it’s just easier going with what we learned in grade school than to relearn a new system. So my vote is keep the liter, screw everything else.
But the US Customary System of Units is not the Imperial system! The US gallon is 3.8 L, the Imperial gallon (which was used in Canada) is 4.5 L. The pints and quarts, being subunits of the gallon, also differ.
Except that a U.S. customary pint is different from a pint everywhere else. You’d also have to specify whether you meant a dry pint or a wet pint, which are different.
Along the same lines, what weighs more, an oz of gold or an oz of feathers?
The gold does. Troy ounces are bigger than an Avoirdupois ounce.
So now that got that straight, now what weighs more a pound of gold, or a pound of feathers?
They weigh the same. cite
Yeah tell me again how the metric system makes no sense.
