Americans will do ANYTHING to avoid the metric system

[Bronson]

This is my Glastron-Carlson C-537 METRIC.
I couldn't figure out what the 537 stood for.
It is the LENGTH of the boat, in centimeters.
I guess in 1980, they were trying to bring in metrics.

 

[pstemari]

I think Fahrenheit set up the scale based on what temperature humans could tolerate and live in
...

More or less. The Fahrenheit scale was defined with 0° as an ice-salt slurry, 32° as freezing water, 100° as body temperature, and 212° as boiling water. Once thermometers advanced far enough, they discovered that the 0° and 100° definitions weren't really consistent and dropped them.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[dutchgray]

Sweden changed the side of the road they drive on overnight in 1967!

They were already driving mostly left hand drive cars already and all their neighbouring countries were right side of the road driving, it was thought that switching would be safer as they would then be driving left hand drive cars on the correct side of the road, but accident rates only dipped for a short while, in the end it made no difference, they also only had 1.5 million cars on the roads then, in Britain we don't have to worry about land boarders and almost all our vehicles are right hand drive, there is also over 30 million cars on our roads.

 

[Y00PER]

Yeah, first we go metric, then we start driving on the wrong side of the road. I think not.

Dont forget changing horsepower to kilowatts and torque to Newton-meters....

 

[PelicanPines]

The biggest complainers about the metric system... sucked at math in school... didn't bother to learn how to solve problems and decided to go into an industry that uses tools measured I the metric standard... anybody else see the irony...

 

[tanukiboy]

I live in Japan, where everything is metric EXCEPT:

Carpenters still build houses using scales marked in "shaku", now standardized as 10/33 meters (30.3 cm or 11.9 inches).

House and room floor area is measured in "jou", the size of a standard rice straw mat (which varies depending on the region where you live).

Land is measured in "tsubo", the size of two rice straw mats.

Rice is measured in "gou", which is the amount of uncooked rice (180.4 mL) that will make a bowlful of cooked rice. If you buy a high-tech electric rice cooker, the lines marked on the inside of the pot still indicate the number of gou. Rice cookers always come with a plastic gou-size cup in the box.

 

[mrborohachi]

tanukiboy don't tatami mats actually measure out perfectly in Inches? I remember reading that somewhere.

 

[tanukiboy]

tanukiboy don't tatami mats actually measure out perfectly in Inches? I remember reading that somewhere.

You're right, the size of a Nagoya tatami mat is almost exactly 3 feet by 6 feet.

From Wikipedia:

The size of tatami traditionally differs between regions in Japan:

Kyoto: 0.955 m by 1.91 m
Nagoya: 0.91 m by 1.82 m
Tokyo: 0.88 m by 1.76 m

In terms of traditional Japanese length units, a tatami is (allowing for regional variation) 1 ken by 0.5 ken, or equivalently 6 shaku by 3 shaku – formally this is 1.81818 by 0.90909 meters (5.9652 ft × 2.9826 ft), the size of Nagoya tatami. Note that a shaku is almost the same length as one foot in the traditional English-American measurement system.

 

[MikeF2316]

...
Changing the billions of highway signs in the US would cost many billions if not trillions of dollars, so we stick with our MPH and miles to X signs. I suppose we could nickle and dime the change so as you drive down the highway you pass a sign for 65mph, and then a bit later pass one for 105kmh. Probably a bad idea as the biggest issue seem to be conversion, there is usually little issue if you stay within one system or the other.

When we changed in Canada, they put a sticker over the number, one that was the same colour as the sign, with the number the same physical size and font. Then below the sign, they bolted a "km/h" sign, the same with as the speed sign above it. So I don't think the cost was as high as you think.

Here's an example I found that's been out in the weather for 40 years. The "km/h" is missing.

 

[American Locomotive]

Changing the billions of highway signs in the US would cost many billions if not trillions of dollars, so we stick with our MPH and miles to X signs. I suppose we could nickle and dime the change so as you drive down the highway you pass a sign for 65mph, and then a bit later pass one for 105kmh. Probably a bad idea as the biggest issue seem to be conversion, there is usually little issue if you stay within one system or the other.

There's only 4 million miles of road in the U.S. I don't think we average 250 signs per mile of road.

 

[bonneyman]

There's only 4 million miles of road in the U.S. I don't think we average 250 signs per mile of road.

Most people wouldn't see them anyway, because they're too busy texting.

 

[3 at 8]

Metric System lol!

 

[WittHay]

Everything you eat and use is brought to you by the metric system

For whatever reason Cummins diesel engines, Case IH tractors and John Deere tractors and equipment started using the metric system in the 80's about 35 years ago.

 

[dutchgray]

There's only 4 million miles of road in the U.S. I don't think we average 250 signs per mile of road.

In the UK we have 260,000 miles of roads approximately, or a 16th of approximately the USA total, but our total land area is about a 40th of the USA, our population at 66 million is about a 5th of the USA 327 million, gives an idea at just how busy the place is.

 

[Downwindtracker 2]

A funny story about 25 years ago we went up to Dawson City in the Yukon. While camping on the Alaska Highway, the camper next to us was an American who had a hard time understanding kilometers per hour. " I didn't think a 100 was miles per hour, our old truck couldn't do that." (100kph=61mph) They had no idea what speed it was.

 

[Vvmvbb]

Changing the billions of highway signs in the US would cost many billions if not trillions of dollars, so we stick with our MPH and miles to X signs. I suppose we could nickle and dime the change so as you drive down the highway you pass a sign for 65mph, and then a bit later pass one for 105kmh. Probably a bad idea as the biggest issue seem to be conversion, there is usually little issue if you stay within one system or the other.

You’re fighting the last war. Speed limit signs are obsolescent. Built into vehicles nav with changeable units at the touch of a virtual button on a touch screen. Skate to where the puck will be.

 

[Hagatronics]

lol ... who the hell told you that metric bar stock isn't available in the U.S.?

The manufacturer. Say so on their website http://www.speedbleeder.com/install.htm

when australia lands a man on the moon and returns him safely to earth then we might listen to you about the superiority of your measuring system.

So your argument is that once a great technological achievement is made you lock in and never change for the better? In that case we should thank the Egyptians and go back to the Cubit. Those pyriamids are damn impressive for their day.

NASA has moved on. The next moon mission is being run in metric. Kinda puts a hole in your arguement.

 

[TangoFoxTrot]

The very reason I consider myself fortunate to have been educated in the 1950s-1960s. I was taught math and arithmetic the right way. I have seen common core problems posted on other forums, and all I can say is, why complicate it so much?

I have no idea how that got shoved down our kids throats out of nowhere.

I sort of thought it was over blown until I actually saw how my kids were being taught math when I did homework with them.

There's been studies it actually has hurt math scores across the board and I'm not surprised.

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/10/17/math-scores-slide-to-a-20-year-low.html

 

[garandman]

Im not sure what idiot thought up that stuff but its like doing every *** backwards..the answer is sooo easy to get if you do it normally but 10x harder to get their way

I disagree: my kids were taught techniques I regularly used as an engineer.

I didn’t take Calculus until a couple years of college. My kids have or will graduate HS having taken it. And computer science and graphics as well.

 

[garandman]

The biggest complainers about the metric system... sucked at math in school... didn't bother to learn how to solve problems and decided to go into an industry that uses tools measured I the metric standard... anybody else see the irony...

Bought some digital calipers 10-20 years ago. Now we have one that will also do fractional inches. Touch a button and it switches units. They’re like $25. Just bought a Starrett tape measure marked in CM and MM as well.

It takes about five minutes in a modern CAD system to add a second drawing sheet in inches or M. And CAM systems, don’t care, since they are operating directly on the model.

 

[Dingleburry]

Metric system is superior in many many (most) ways.
But wtf is a kilo pascal?
Or newton meter?
Sorry USA but ditch the english system. No one uses it.

 

[Mr. T]

But wtf is a kilo pascal?

I get what you’re saying but when working with higher pressures psi gets pretty cumbersome.

I’d personally rather set, say a pumps, max pressure output to 215 bar (21.5MPa) than 3118.31 psi.

Of course thinking of pressure in bar is pretty specific to certain industries, but it’s just how my mind thinks when it comes to pressures.

Or newton meter?

Again, even here in the good ‘ol US of A, %99 of the times I need to torque to spec, the spec is in Nm. So I personally have a metric calibrated elbow. When I have to do something in FtLbs I usually have some mental disconnect with seeing the number and then feeling like it’s over torqued when the wrench clicks.

 

[Dingleburry]

Yeah i hear you.
Im in canada, but 80% or so of my work is, in PSI, NPT, standard threads, thousands of inch etc etc. I got no problem with either system. Just gets tiresome always having to guess/figure out if its metric or english. Especially if its a part so fucked up its extremely hard to measure properly. Or them pesky inch sized bearings. Machines that use both systems. Alot of my school courses used USA material using the english system.

 

[PelicanPines]

My hair is growing at the rate of 4.6 Yoctometers per femtosecond. If you're quiet, you can hear it.

How hard would it be to say that in English measures... smack... mic drop...

 

[PugetDude]

My hair is growing at the rate of 4.6 Yoctometers per femtosecond. If you're quiet, you can hear it.

How hard would it be to say that in English measures... smack... mic drop...

But meters per fortnight(squared) is so much easier to understand.

 

[Willie Makeit]

So your argument is that once a great technological achievement is made you lock in and never change for the better? In that case we should thank the Egyptians and go back to the Cubit. Those pyriamids are damn impressive for their day.

NASA has moved on. The next moon mission is being run in metric. Kinda puts a hole in your arguement.

I work for NASA and can tell you that the next moon mission is most definitely NOT being run in metric.

That kinda puts a hole in YOUR argument, now doesn't it.

 

[PelicanPines]

But meters per fortnight(squared) is so much easier to understand.

lets not put moving fungi into the conversation.

 

[Hagatronics]

I work for NASA and can tell you that the next moon mission is most definitely NOT being run in metric.

That kinda puts a hole in YOUR argument, now doesn't it.

That's interesting. It's been widely reported it was. It's NASA policy and say so on multiple NASA publications.

Why is it being run in Imperial or is a combination of the two depending on the system?

Also. I stumbled across this white paper. The Apollo 11 gudance.computer was programmed in metric - just used imperial for the output display.

https://www.doneyles.com/LM/Tales.html

 

[Y00PER]

Metric tire sizes are confusing too. What's wrong with height by width and then rim size? I know a 31x10 tire will fit my truck, as long as the rim size is correct. 31x10r15 or 31x10r17 will fit the exact same (provided the rims clear calipers etc), but a 265/75r15 and a 265/75r17 has a 2" height difference

 

[GirchyGirchy]

Too bad Jimmy didn't go for it, that might have been his lasting legacy.