# Why we need the metric system **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 17, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140 "2010-09-17T22:28:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/21 "2010-09-18T20:55:25Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > We did a design recently that had three different values for the volume of a cistern: US (liquid) gallons, Imperial (liquid) gallons, and litres. What, no U.S. DRY gallons? I demand cisterns labelled in half-pecks! ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/22 "2010-09-18T21:16:42Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > > [@Kobal2](#): > > > > [some checking later] > > Wikipedia lists the correct English pronounciation as /ævərdəpɔɪz/ which would be something like “ah vur duh poise” I think (both "u"s pronounced as in supply) > > I checked the pronunciation by visiting the online Merriam-Webster dictionary ([www.m-w.com](http://www.m-w.com)), looking up the word, and clicking on the little speaker icon to have someone speak it to me. > > Sure enough, her voice said “Ah vur duh POYZ”. OK, but all this merely demonstrates that the American English pronunciation of “avoirdupois” is nothing like the French pronunciation of the word, which is no great surprise. Speakers of other varieties of English may pronounce it more like the original French. In my limited experience of this word, British English speakers typically pronounce it “a-vwah-duh-pwah”, which is closer to the French. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/23 "2010-09-18T23:40:16Z")
Personally, I kind of think that metric is, today, a solution in search of a problem. With universal automated calculation, the whole powers-of-ten rationale is a whole lot less persuasive. Standardization with other countries is somewhat more convincing, but not a whole lot. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/24 "2010-09-19T01:15:34Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > RadicalPi, thank you for this. I deal with this problem daily. Having an offset in a “unit” is as dumb as toast. As soon as you start adding and subtracting temperatures, the idea of a Celsius degree changes meaning. 301 ºC minus 300 ºC is 1 ºC? But that is almost frozen, and we were talking about something hot! Do you write that 301 ºC (574.15 K) minus 300 ºC (573.15 K) equals 1 ºC (1 K)? Because that seems impossible. There is a unit for temperature, the kelvin, and we don’t need a scale, which confuses most people anyway. Do people really make this mistake? I figure most people would understand that “301 ºC minus 300 ºC” would translate to “574.15 K minus 300 K”. It’s a temperature level minus a number of temperature units, not a temperature level minus another temperature level. Kelvins _are_ better, though. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/25 "2010-09-19T01:28:09Z")
> [@dzero](#): > > Haven’t areas that could really benefit from the switch, like science and medicine, already made it? Nope. Well, sometimes. Unless they haven’t. The hospital I’m at now uses mostly mLs, except when it’s tsp. Weight is in pounds and temp in F, the last hospital used kilos and F and the one before that, kilos and C. As a nursing student, I’m tested on mL, grams/mg, units, mEq (milliequivalents, which is some chemistry thing I don’t grok, but I can do the math), tsps, ounces, and even grains. Who the F uses \*grains \*anymore? Medical people, that’s who. Or at least, medical people who write nursing exams. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/26 "2010-09-19T01:34:39Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > > [@Napier](#): > > > > RadicalPi, thank you for this. I deal with this problem daily. Having an offset in a “unit” is as dumb as toast. As soon as you start adding and subtracting temperatures, the idea of a Celsius degree changes meaning. 301 ºC minus 300 ºC is 1 ºC? But that is almost frozen, and we were talking about something hot! Do you write that 301 ºC (574.15 K) minus 300 ºC (573.15 K) equals 1 ºC (1 K)? Because that seems impossible. There is a unit for temperature, the kelvin, and we don’t need a scale, which confuses most people anyway. > > Do people really make this mistake? I figure most people would understand that “301 ºC minus 300 ºC” would translate to “574.15 K minus 300 K”. It’s a temperature level minus a number of temperature units, not a temperature level minus another temperature level. > > Kelvins _are_ better, though. It’s not that people make the mistake, at least not that I see, but that it makes stating things so clumsy. If you do any math with temperatures, except in trivial cases you practically need to use kelvins. For instance just yesterday I was using inverse temperatures. But everybody remembers the Celsius versions of things. I remember that Aluminum melts at 660 ºC but would have to convert into K. To discuss math with temperature, I guess it’s best to announce from the get-go we’re using K. But if you just barely sneak into it, for example if you say a temperature will change by 3.5, do you say kelvins or degrees or both, or what? It just introduces a weird clumsiness into everything. And I guess it makes us forget when for example we are making something twice as hot. The air is twice as hot, it’s half as dense and twice as viscous, its kinematic viscosity is four times greater, that sort of thing. Celsius is just kind of bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/27 "2010-09-19T01:46:16Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > From _the Simpsons_ > > > [@](#): > > > > Grandpa Simpson) The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that’s the way I likes it. Don’t worry, Google Calculator will actually convert from rods per hogshead into mpg and back. > **[Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=40%2Brods%2Bper%2Bhogshead%2Bin%2Bmpg&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)** 40 (rods per hogshead) = 0.00198412698 miles per gallon ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/28 "2010-09-19T02:15:31Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Who the F uses \*grains \*anymore? Medical people, that’s who. Or at least, medical people who write nursing exams. It’s still used in calculating the amount of smokeless powder that goes into a bullet - [Yahoo Search - Web Search](http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061020175703AAc6MHx) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/29 "2010-09-19T03:26:18Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > As a nursing student, I’m tested on mL, grams/mg, units, […snip…] Surprisingly, even when certain areas of American medicine _have_ gone metric, they’ve done so differently than Europe has. For example, in the U.S., the concentration of glucose in your blood is measured in milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). But in Europe, the concentration of glucose in your blood is measured in Molarity (a.k.a. moles per liter), which is the way chemists normally deal with concentrations in a fluid. Personally, I think some of the metrification the world has undergone hasn’t gone far enough. The Metric System as used in most places isn’t the same thing as S.I. units. Most metric-speaking countries use liters (instead of cubic meters), kilograms of weight (instead of kilograms of mass), degrees Celsius (instead of Kelvins), speeds in kilometers per hour (instead of meters per second), et cetera. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/30 "2010-09-19T03:29:53Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > speeds in kilometers per hour (instead of meters per second) Knowing how fast you are going in hours is useful. If I’m going 60 mph or 100 kph, I can tell you that in one hour, I’ll have traveled 60 miles or 100 kilometers. On the other hand, if I’m traveling in meters per second, I’ll have fuck-all idea how far I’ve gone in an hour. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/31 "2010-09-19T03:34:38Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > On the other hand, if I’m traveling in meters per second, I’ll have fuck-all idea how far I’ve gone in an hour. My dad once argued that if we calibrated speedometers in feet per second instead of miles per hour, people would be less inclined to drive too fast. 100 miles per hour sounds like “Great, grandma’s house is 100 miles away, so we’ll get there in one hour.” Whereas 145 feet per second sounds like “Holy shit, I’m going fast enough to kill somebody!” or “If I slam on the brakes I’ll be half way into the next county before I come to a stop!” ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/32 "2010-09-19T04:05:16Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > > [@Kobal2](#): > > > > [some checking later] > > Wikipedia lists the correct English pronounciation as /ævərdəpɔɪz/ which would be something like “ah vur duh poise” I think (both "u"s pronounced as in supply) > > I checked the pronunciation by visiting the online Merriam-Webster dictionary ([www.m-w.com](http://www.m-w.com)), looking up the word, and clicking on the little speaker icon to have someone speak it to me. > > Sure enough, her voice said “Ah vur duh POYZ”. And [here](http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=avoirdupois) is an alternative cite which pronounces it the French way. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/33 "2010-09-19T04:26:42Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > > [@tracer](#): > > > > speeds in kilometers per hour (instead of meters per second) > > Knowing how fast you are going in hours is useful. If I’m going 60 mph or 100 kph, I can tell you that in one hour, I’ll have traveled 60 miles or 100 kilometers. On the other hand, if I’m traveling in meters per second, I’ll have fuck-all idea how far I’ve gone in an hour. Pffth, simple, just multiply your Meters Per Second speed by 3.6. See? Metric is simple!😃 ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/34 "2010-09-19T05:30:35Z")
If you really like the metric system, **tracer** , go ahead and switch. I’m good with either one, so it’s fine by me. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/35 "2010-09-19T05:54:48Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Pffth, simple, just multiply your Meters Per Second speed by 3.6. See? Metric is simple!😃 It’s time’s fault! We need metric units of time! ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/36 "2010-09-19T05:58:28Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > > [@Raguleader](#): > > > > Pffth, simple, just multiply your Meters Per Second speed by 3.6. See? Metric is simple!😃 > > It’s time’s fault! We need metric units of time! And where does time come from? GREENWICH! Just like the whole problem with the Imperial and American systems, we can blame this all on the English! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/37 "2010-09-19T06:21:57Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > It’s time’s fault! We need metric units of time! You’re not one of those primitive, backward savages who still uses minutes, hours, days, and years, are you? On the freeway, I typically travel at 30 kilometers per kilosecond. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/38 "2010-09-19T06:34:22Z")
> [@Mogle](#): > > What do you mean by “especially when dealing with computers”? It’s _only_ a problem when dealing with computers, and that is the fault of the programmers of yore who redefined what the prefixes mean in a computer context. If they had just bothered to come up with a new name for 2[sup]10[/sup] back then instead of deciding that ‘1024 is pretty close to 1000 so let’s call it a kilo’ this wouldn’t be an issue. > As far as SI is concerned the prefixes are unambiguous. I admit that you are right that the ambiguity with metric prefixes referring to powers of two and ten is only a problem with computers. And I agree that inertia is keeping the kibis and the mibis and whatnot from taking hold. Also, that they sound kind of stupid. I do think, though, that SI officially determining the prefixes to refer to powers of ten alone doesn’t really matter all that much in everyday practice. _De facto_, the prefixes have two meanings, although only one in any particular context. My point is that this double-meaning doesn’t really cause any problems. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/39 "2010-09-19T06:47:36Z")
Oh, and the only pronunciation for avoirdupois in the _OED_ is _ˌævədəpˈɔɪz_, that is, the British version of the pronunciation in the video. I myself thought it was the Frenchy version, _avwaʁdypwa_, or something close to that. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140/40 "2010-09-19T08:14:59Z")
Worth noting with the GigaByte vs GibiByte or whatever have you, I always just assumed they were both called the same thing, but the little letter was to let you know this hard drive had 120 “Marketing Gigabytes”. IOW, the number was, you know, bullshit, and you had to make the math conversion from Decimal to that weird binary system we all long ago got used to computers using. You know, kinda like how there’s two kinds of BBQ. Real BBQ, and BBQ made outside of Western Texas.😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-need-the-metric-system/554140.md?page=3)