“Inefficiency in production.”
Yes. And that’s money, isn’t it? I would think U.S. industry would save money and man-hours in the long run if the nation switched to the metric system. Americans like money and they like having more time to lay on the coach watching TV.
Eating potato chips.
Germany wasn’t a country when that inch converter was printed.
If we are determined and hold tight to 4 different versions of gallons and ounces, 7 versions of drams and dribs and drabs; if we are steadfast in upholding our fine traditions and we resist the liberal metrical system, then maybe we can finally go back to each city and town having their own, different time of day.
I never liked those so-called “time zones” anyway. Don’t trust em.
If they say it’s 3:00 PM over in Oakland then, by god, you better believe it’s 2:55 PM here in San Francisco.
In pharmacology there is still use of grains, along with grams/milligrams. What’s up with that?
See, now I’m not much of a fan of Libertarianism, but I think we’d all have to agree that this is one of their most righteous ideas. It’s a universal belief that every man and woman is created with the God-given right to devise their own system of weights and measures and Free Persons must never be shackled in the pillory of Tyrannical Measures.
That’s not Libertarianism, that’s common sense. That, is American Freedom.
Well, the metric system is simply better because it is a consistent and coherent system of units just like our base 10 number system . In other words, it fits together very well and calculations are easy because it is decimal. This is a big advantage for use in the home, education, industry and science.
The units are the same internationally and, because it is consistently based on decimal numbers: it naturally works well with percentages.
Might I suggest that while your experience as a Canadian old enough to remember the official Metric conversion is interesting, it isn’t representative of the average Canadian (who’s median age is 41 years). In my experience, current use of imperial measurements is situational, still relevant but Canadians are not becoming more familiar with them, only less.
Yes, and the standard we had was metric. The US has never had a standard of units that wasn’t metric. We used to have a hodgepodge of different standards, and when we finally (after far too long) realized what a mess that was, we standardized into something based on metric.
And nobody anywhere in the world uses American units. Everyone who actually uses units, uses metric. Some people who don’t use units complain about metric, but when people aren’t using units anyway, why should anyone care which particular system of units they’re not using?
Is there still? In which countries?
However, that is not too interesting insofar as a “grain of wheat” or “grain of barley” is supposed to define a mass, if not precisely then good enough for medical doses. The more important issue is that pharmacological substances are measured using a variety of special units, including the International Unit, Cell Culture 50% Infectious Dose, ELISA units, etc., that go beyond merely specifying mass, but probably also result in some confusion.
This. The standard foot in the US is defined as 0.3048 meters exactly.
We are converting to our silly system from metric; because the rest of the world is on one system, and America, in its infinite wisdom, can’t handle changing.
Because American units are intrinsic and unchanging, right? But… we don’t even have just *one* foot in use in this country; there is the Standard Foot, and the US Survey Foot (used for geodetic measurements/land measurements). So an acre is 208.7103262 (very intuitive) US Survey feet, and just a bit smaller than that in standard feet. Which causes no end of problems when an engineer designs something using the wrong foot… but I’ve never had a problem when something was designed in metric units.
Sure, if you asked me how tall I am, I couldn’t tell you in metric units, because they don’t make sense to learn as of now. But if somebody told me tomorrow that we were going to join the rest of the world, I would happily jump on board.
It is an interesting history—perhaps someone has more knowledge? — in that the English-speaking countries already in the 19th century realized their existing standards were shit (at least, not precisely defined and not up to modern standards) and joined the Metre Convention/Bureau of Weights and Measures along with everybody else. As @Chronos mentions, fundamental standards were quickly defined in terms of metric standards as soon as such existed and were refined. So why, at such a late date as 1959, did they feel the need to introduce “international pounds”, “international yards”, “international inches” etc. that were precisely defined (and not precisely equal to what they were using before). Did any scientists push for that, in order to be able to conduct scientific measurements in inches? Was it envisioned as facilitating trade (and, if so, why was it not a problem for the previous 50 or 100 years)?
Yep, USA.
Phenobarbital
Each phenobarbital tablet contains 16.2 mg (1/4 grain), 32.4 mg (1/2 grain), 64.8 mg (1 grain) or 97.2 mg (11/2 grain) of phenobarbital.
This is always brought up in any metric discussion, but regardless of history and different uses, I don’t believe that you have any issue with knowing what an inch or a foot or a mile is. If I am doing survey work, that many come as a surprise to me but as most of us are not surveyors, a foot is perfectly fine. Which is the whole point of those of us arguing against forced change. If something works, and has worked for a long time, why the need to change? Especially when if you need the metric units, which is hardly ever, it takes a couple of clicks on your smart phone.
Your position is that you do not actually know nor care how long a foot is exactly, or if your Texas mickey contains an extra third of a shot. OK… but, if you will stretch your imagination, you might imagine some situations in which someone, a surveyor or machinist or scientist, does. In which case we are right back to the real-life scenario where there is a Bureau of Weights and Measures, and nobody bats an eye if you order half a pound of salami, but why are you against the idea of printing the exact weight out on your receipt? You can disregard that number if you wish.
That does not answer the question.
What do you mean? I know how long a foot is exactly. We have standards of weights and measures.
As far as the salami, well right back at you. I want the weight printed out, in pounds. So does the grocer. Why would you want to make that illegal?
I probably would’ve gotten fed up with this and bought a calculator that can convert DMS to DD (degree-minute-second to decimal degrees). The divisions are the same as with h:m:s so it’d work out. I did get fed up with this in my surveying classes and found a calculator that can do the conversion with a single button press. Saved me quite a bit of time, several keystrokes, and several errors.
Yes, metric standards. By definition, 1 US survey foot = 1200/3937 m, 1 US “international” foot = 381/1250 m, etc.
They do not want to make it illegal (and I do not care to, nor am I personally involved with any of those committees). The proposal is to have the exact weight, let’s say rounded to the nearest gram, appear on the receipt in addition to whatever you do or do not feel like seeing there. This would seem to take care of metrication requirements as far as the consumer is concerned.
Yes, and the surveyor knows exactly how long a foot is, too. But the length the surveyor knows is different from the length that an engineer knows. Does the surveyor or the engineer know that those are two different lengths? And if a surveyor tell a length to an engineer, which one is meant?
Yes, if something works, then there’s no point in changing it. But the American “system” doesn’t work. Nobody uses them as units, not even Americans: Any American who actually needs to use units (as opposed to just labels) very quickly learns and prefers metric. Which is made unnecessarily difficult by all the American labeling.
What distinction are you making here? Just in driving to work, I stop and buy gasoline by the gallon. I buy a cup of coffee in fluid ounces. I determine how long it will take me to get to work by knowing how many miles away it is and how many miles per hour I can legally drive. I determine what to wear based on degrees Fahrenheit the weather is. I print things on 8.5 X 11 inch paper. Etc.
Those are not just labels; they represent real quantities of things I am using.