Posted on 08/22/2013 6:49:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I’ve met a lot of people and learned a lot while traveling Europe the past several weeks. Of all the things I have had to explain to fellow travels as not only an American – but a Texan – by far the most frustrating thing is our stubborn refusal to embrace the metric system. I can confidently argue the finer points of how the use of y’all and the plural form all y’all are descriptive and have a place in the American lexicon. I take pleasure in explaining the intricacies of chicken fried foods.
But the metric system is another matter. “I don’t understand why y’all don’t use the metric system” is something I’ve heard too often. I don’t argue with them because there is no technical argument for why we haven’t adopted the Système Internationale – our refusal is based on emotion and familiarity.
Our choice of unit system is perhaps more important now than in recent years. Science is conducted using the language of SI units. If we want to have a scientifically literate populace, we should make sure that scientists and non-scientists speak the same language. In terms of national competitiveness, Americans are competing on a global market of information now more than ever. We are at a disadvantage by not speaking the international language of science at a time when we are struggling with truly global issues like climate change and resource depletion.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government arm that sets standards and measurements to support American competitiveness, concludes that “the current effort toward national metrification is based on the conclusion that industrial and commercial productivity, mathematics and science education, and the competitiveness of American products and services in world markets, will be enhanced by completing the change to the metric system of units. Failure to complete the change will increasingly handicap the Nation’s industry and economy.”
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Biker #2: [the whole gang holds Pee-wee hostage] I say we kill him!
Biker Gang: [shout] Yeah!
Biker #3: I say we hang him, *then* we kill him!
Biker Gang: [shout] Yeah!
Biker #4: I say we stomp him!
Biker Gang: [shout] Yeah!
Biker #4: Then we tattoo him!
Biker Gang: [shout] Yeah!
Biker #4: Then we hang him...!
Biker Gang: [shout] YEAH!’!
Biker #4: And then we kill him!
Biker Gang: [shout] YEAH!’!’!
Pee-wee: [tries to throw voice without moving lips] I say we let him go.
Biker Gang: [shout] NO!’!’!
Have no fear. We’ll convert for the New World Order.
You are correct. The workers vs the nerds. Anyone who has worked to create any material thing with their hands will know how natural fractions are. All they need to do is to fold a piece of paper in 1/2!
In the spirit of 'can't we all get along', I propose a hybrid system that we will call fractional metrics. We will use standard metric terms but with fractional components eg 22 2/3 kilometers or 1/5 centimeter and so on. (flame away!)
I've used metric professionally for 60 years. It's fine for the technical work I do. However, it doesn't seem to be really convenient for everyday things. Grams are too small, kilograms are too big (yeah, there are decagrams, but who uses them?). Inches, pounds, feet and yards are human-scale.
That fractional system sounds half-baked.
I was an engineering designer most of my life and I’m proud to have cornholed metric every chance I got. There are bolted connections in nearly every product and machine. It goes hand in hand with manufacturing, steel making, American standards, and economics. When you look up at the moon I don’t know what you think about, but I think of Neil Armstrong and a piece of wood from the Wright flyer sewn into his suit and the little old ladies who hand-stiched his boots.
You thing they gave a frig about metric.
It's not just Obama. I ran into severe and irrational anti-Americanism in London while Clinton was still in office. I agree that Obama has gone out of his way to offend the U.K.
That's interesting. I just checked with Wiki and got this answer:
"petrol in the UK (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) - is sold by the litre. This is the case in all European countries."
While speaking in metric English at home is encouraged, I disagree with Mr. Gallagher’s statement that being bilingual in the unit system sense is good – it’s unnecessary. We need a national standard – not a choice – if we want to speak the language of science the United States.
I started as a mechanic in 1969, and that was always a problem. I could look at a bolt and know what wrench to get from my toolbox. Metrics, not so much. I was happy when I got a supervisor job where I didn't have to chase tools.
2 farthings = one half penny
2 half pennies = one penny
12 pennies = one shilling
5 shillings = one crown
4 crowns = one pound
21 shillings = one guinea
Much better than pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and on up which are only based on the numbers 1, 5, and 10.
You think your being clever, but there are legitimate reasons to use systems based on other systems than decimals.
Let's say you have a pie, and you want to slice it fairly. You can easily cut into halves, quarters, sixths, eighths, or even twelvths, or sixteenths if you want to be chincy about it. Not nearly so easy to deliver 5 or 10 slices the same size.
Just because something makes something easier doesn't necessarily make it better for all applications.
Personally, I like the elegance of the design of the metric system, but there are common things that just aren't easily expressible in it. An inch or a foot is intuitive, a centimeter, much less so. Meters are ok because it's pretty close to a yard.
If you really want to go metric all the way it'll be a really expensive proposition. I'd hate to think how much waste and fraud the government could wrangle out of re-surveying the country. How many square meters (or kilometers if you'd rather) are in a Section of land?
Well, they don't seem to want it any more. Seems fair to me.
Been done. See "Beat Tune".
Might as well go for the Metric Calendar as well. There are several to choose from.
Personally, I like both ideas, but I suspect we'll take the 60-second minute with us into space when we leave this rock.
NO
Halves, quarters, eighths are powers of 2. Computers love powers of 2, do most of their calculations using base 2 math. Common metric and accounting numbers like 0.1 and 0.01 cannot be represented exactly in base 2 floating point, so must be approximated. That is why accountants often get rounding errors using Excel. Base 2 is the language of the universe. Base 10 is a ridiculous base and offers no advantages other than humans happen to be born with 10 fingers.
I'll bite. How do you divide things accurately in thirds using the metric system? One third of a yard is one foot. What is 1/3 of a meter, exactly? Whether metric is better or not kind of depends on what you're measuring, don't you think?
And I don't understand why you do.
You are working with an invented system that has no real world connection.
A cup is a cup, there is a real world connection. An inch is the length of a finger joint.
If you lack a measuring cup just use a regular cup, it's close enough. No measuring tape? Just use your finger. But where is the real world equivalent for a kilogram? It is a hunk of metal that they decided was going to be called a kilo. Of course since then it has been losing mass so the measure they are using is now off. By how much? They can guess but to be exactly sure they would have to compare it to something real and there is the rub.
So why are they wedded to this invented disconnected system? I would say it is the same reason they buy into other illogical ideas such as socialism, global warming and "muslims are our friends". They just don't reason things though.
The kilometer was originally 1/10,000th of the distance from the equator to the North pole...that may have sounded scientific to the inventors of the system, but in terms of the universe, the dimensions of the earth are utterly insignificant. The mile, of course, is from the Romans--1,000 paces.
It’s sold by the litre, but many older Brits, like my bro-in-law, still refer to imperial gallons.
Measurements invented by smelly Frenchman are better?
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