Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Okay guys, this is probably my angry 1 AM self again posting here, but this is something that has been bothering me for a few weeks now. I am posting it here because I know this is a website primarily of American people, and I don't know who else to rant this about.


Okay, first off, temperature. We all know what the three useful temperature measurements are. Only one is used in daily use, it's Celsius, and across the entire world. It is the most logical of the three, 0° is water's freezing point, 100° is its boiling point, every semi-educated person knows that. Only THREE countries use Fahrenheit exclusively, and surprise surprise, the United States is one of them. Why? Why is that necessary? Why use a system that is absolutely outdated, makes no sense whatsoever (water freezes at 32° and melts at 212°? yeah, totally makes sense), that is used by basically no one else? Even, excuse me for this term, stubborn countries like the United Kingdom now use Celsius exclusively and primarily. Even Canada, and its influence of the country did not force it to keep Fahrenheit. It annoys me because every time someone says "it's 60° outside!" I have to google and convert it because that means nothing for me, and I don't communicate enough with Americans to bother learning it. I could get away with it if it was something that was used interchangeably in multiple countries, but it isn't, it's outdated.

Second, measurement units. On one hand, you have the most logical system on the planet, the metric system. Simple, each unit correlates with each other, and there are basic prefixes which simply divide or multiply the numbers by multiples of 10. And I will be blunt here, the imperial units are more intuitive and are still somewhat logical. However, once you want to do anything slightly more complex, it becomes annoying. You can't do anything with a system like that. You have to learn the massive amount of words and how each of them correspond with each other. Imagine instead of having to use Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes, you would instead use Floppies, Discs, Drives, and Servers. It seems like the logical option, but they do not work together well at all and you gotta remember all of that crap. Once again, only the United States along with two other small countries exclusively use this system. In fact, when I thought that the United Kingdom was responsible for the same thing, it turns out it's technically the main measurement system of today (even though many people still use the other one), so I've actually gotta give them credit for having the guts to defy a traditional system. Every commonwealth country has adopted the SI, even if some like Canada still offer it occasionally. Seriously, why do this? Sure, I can deal with that, it's not like it's stupid or anything, but NOT when it's officially only used in a SINGLE GODDAMN COUNTRY (I'm excluding minor countries here because they are usually very small and have very little influence on the rest of the world).

Finally, this one pisses me off so much I just want to die. The date system. The entire world uses one or the other, either a DD/MM/YYYY system (common in European countries), either a YYYY/MM/DD system (common in East-Asian countries and some other places). Both are perfectly fine, as they represent a proper level of importance. What is NOT fine is when a single country just comes to troll everybody and bring a MM/DD/YYYY system, which completely messes up the order of the dates. The month, then a small part of the month, and then the year which the month takes place in? WHAT? How does that make any sense? WHY IS THAT NECESSARY? WHY THE ILLOGICALITY? I can bear with a January 1st, 2016 date system because it is closer to being a feature of the language, but not when it's a purely written form! At least use YYYY/MM/DD if you want to keep the M/D part! Seriously!


Okay, I understand that this was a bit blunt. But I can't accept that. I can't accept a country where there are people so lazy to adopt systems that are, by far, much more convenient than whatever is present, especially considering we are in 2016 and no improvement has been made to this date. And not to mention I'm sure there will be some idiots defending this system saying that "we are not sheeple to follow other people like that!". Well, uh, then you're sheeple to your own ****ing community. Any thoughts? Sure, you may call be brainwashed if that's what you believe, but I'd just like to point out that even though I grew up in a 24h system and I completely switched to 12h. And now I'm (partially) back at 24h. During this whole time, I barely spent any time outside. How exactly can you prove this against me if that's your intent? Anyway, any reasonable and non-biased explanations and/or defenses? Thank you.

I'm late to this talk

We see even in any technology, software and hardware, that whenever standards change there are things that linger for a long time before being excised.

 

[Huntn]

Okay guys, this is probably my angry 1 AM self again posting here, but this is something that has been bothering me for a few weeks now. I am posting it here because I know this is a website primarily of American people, and I don't know who else to rant this about.


Okay, first off, temperature. We all know what the three useful temperature measurements are. Only one is used in daily use, it's Celsius, and across the entire world. It is the most logical of the three, 0° is water's freezing point, 100° is its boiling point, every semi-educated person knows that. Only THREE countries use Fahrenheit exclusively, and surprise surprise, the United States is one of them. Why? Why is that necessary? Why use a system that is absolutely outdated, makes no sense whatsoever (water freezes at 32° and melts at 212°? yeah, totally makes sense), that is used by basically no one else? Even, excuse me for this term, stubborn countries like the United Kingdom now use Celsius exclusively and primarily. Even Canada, and its influence of the country did not force it to keep Fahrenheit. It annoys me because every time someone says "it's 60° outside!" I have to google and convert it because that means nothing for me, and I don't communicate enough with Americans to bother learning it. I could get away with it if it was something that was used interchangeably in multiple countries, but it isn't, it's outdated.

Second, measurement units. On one hand, you have the most logical system on the planet, the metric system. Simple, each unit correlates with each other, and there are basic prefixes which simply divide or multiply the numbers by multiples of 10. And I will be blunt here, the imperial units are more intuitive and are still somewhat logical. However, once you want to do anything slightly more complex, it becomes annoying. You can't do anything with a system like that. You have to learn the massive amount of words and how each of them correspond with each other. Imagine instead of having to use Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes, you would instead use Floppies, Discs, Drives, and Servers. It seems like the logical option, but they do not work together well at all and you gotta remember all of that crap. Once again, only the United States along with two other small countries exclusively use this system. In fact, when I thought that the United Kingdom was responsible for the same thing, it turns out it's technically the main measurement system of today (even though many people still use the other one), so I've actually gotta give them credit for having the guts to defy a traditional system. Every commonwealth country has adopted the SI, even if some like Canada still offer it occasionally. Seriously, why do this? Sure, I can deal with that, it's not like it's stupid or anything, but NOT when it's officially only used in a SINGLE GODDAMN COUNTRY (I'm excluding minor countries here because they are usually very small and have very little influence on the rest of the world).

Finally, this one pisses me off so much I just want to die. The date system. The entire world uses one or the other, either a DD/MM/YYYY system (common in European countries), either a YYYY/MM/DD system (common in East-Asian countries and some other places). Both are perfectly fine, as they represent a proper level of importance. What is NOT fine is when a single country just comes to troll everybody and bring a MM/DD/YYYY system, which completely messes up the order of the dates. The month, then a small part of the month, and then the year which the month takes place in? WHAT? How does that make any sense? WHY IS THAT NECESSARY? WHY THE ILLOGICALITY? I can bear with a January 1st, 2016 date system because it is closer to being a feature of the language, but not when it's a purely written form! At least use YYYY/MM/DD if you want to keep the M/D part! Seriously!


Okay, I understand that this was a bit blunt. But I can't accept that. I can't accept a country where there are people so lazy to adopt systems that are, by far, much more convenient than whatever is present, especially considering we are in 2016 and no improvement has been made to this date. And not to mention I'm sure there will be some idiots defending this system saying that "we are not sheeple to follow other people like that!". Well, uh, then you're sheeple to your own ****ing community. Any thoughts? Sure, you may call be brainwashed if that's what you believe, but I'd just like to point out that even though I grew up in a 24h system and I completely switched to 12h. And now I'm (partially) back at 24h. During this whole time, I barely spent any time outside. How exactly can you prove this against me if that's your intent? Anyway, any reasonable and non-biased explanations and/or defenses? Thank you.

For metric I have no issue with the temperature or distance/speed scale. For cooking, maybe because I am so used to it, like it, and see no real advantage, I believe English measurement kicks the snot out of metric. I’ll take tablespoon, cup, pint, quart, any day over 15ml, 225ml, 500ml, etc.

 

[Herdfan]

I don't remember what my post was in this thread, but it certainly is valid enough to repost.

If you are a manufacturer and build something, pick a lane and stay in it. Use EITHER SAE or METRIC. NOT BOTH on the same machine. I know, you buy parts from other manufacturers who may use SAE while you use METRIC, but this madness needs to stop.

When I was a kid they were introducing the 2-liter bottle as a way to get people comfortable with the metric system. Still, 49 years later, no car manufacturer makes a cup holder for one.

 

[Huntn]

My wife claims she just rented a car from Budget which only had a metric speed scale. Maybe it was metric in big numbers and English in small? However she insists it was metric only, and I have to ask myself , is that possible in a country with no metric speeds posted?

 

[AustinIllini]

My wife claims she just rented a car from Budget which only had a metric speed scale. Maybe it was metric in big numbers and English in small? However she insists it was metric only, and I have to ask myself , is that possible in a country with no metric speeds posted?

It's not.

 

[DeltaMac]

Probably just a changed setting in the car. Budget (?) should have been asked how to change that setting. That would be the same as any other control that might be unfamiliar to the driver.
I had an old (maybe 2003?) Pontiac rental that would change to KM on the mechanical speedometer, with no other evidence of MPH, until I changed the setting to US. Just the push of a button.
Maybe it wasn't obvious how to change the setting, but the rental office SHOULD have been able to find someone to change that setting, when asked.

 

[Huntn]

It's not.

I did not argue with her.
[doublepost=1557584243][/doublepost]

Probably just a changed setting in the car. Budget (?) should have been asked how to change that setting. That would be the same as any other control that might be unfamiliar to the driver.
I had an old (maybe 2003?) Pontiac rental that would change to KM on the mechanical speedometer, with no other evidence of MPH, until I changed the setting to US. Just the push of a button.
Maybe it wasn't obvious how to change the setting, but the rental office SHOULD have been able to find someone to change that setting, when asked.

Oh, I did not know that. Our cars do not have electronic speed read outs.

 

[flat five]

When I was a kid they were introducing the 2-liter bottle as a way to get people comfortable with the metric system. Still, 49 years later, no car manufacturer makes a cup holder for one.

lol

a cup holder for a 2 liter bottle?

pretty sure the reason they don’t exist in cars has nothing to do with metric system

 

[Gutwrench]

Kelvin or go home.

 

[0388631]

I can just imagine a young herdfan's father wanting to strangle him for needing to potty every 20 minutes after he finished off a 2 liter bottle of cola.
[doublepost=1557588137][/doublepost]

Kelvin or go home.

They said the same about kevlar.

 

[cube]

I cannot immediately understand TV set advertising in centimeters in Europe.

Fortunately, the model codes usually contain the number of inches, which is quicker than dividing mentally by 2.5 .

I hate all those assorted articles on the web written only in imperial units.

 

[DeltaMac]

I can just imagine a young herdfan's father wanting to strangle him for needing to potty every 20 minutes after he finished off a 2 liter bottle of cola.
...

Don't forget, no cup holder, so they were in the car, and young herdfan had no place to put the 2 liter bottle. Had to drink it all, right? So, no need to stop every 20 minutes. Young herdfan gets to pee in the bottle.

 

[cube]

I never asked myself before why there are 2.25l bottles as it looks nice.

 

[bunnspecial]

Kelvin or go home.

Rankine for me!

 

[ejb190]

And in my neck of the woods, distances are communicated in time.
Miles or kilometers are worthless numbers when traveling.

 

[throAU]

That's where this all started, when a foot measure was based on a typical human foot.

Except the "standard" for a foot in imperial measure varied depending on which country you were in and what time period.

I see a lot of "we write dates retarded in MM/DD/YYYY form because that's how you say it".


Guess what?

In other countries, we say "First of January, 2019" for example. The way it is written. So that argument is basically moot. You say that way because you write that way.

Both are wrong if used for anything important anyway. Thats what ISO8601 is for.
[doublepost=1557811623][/doublepost]

As I said, I love measurements, but my whole point in this rambling is to just to continue to beat home the fact that any system is just as arbitrary as any other.

To a point.

However, given two arbitrary systems of measurement (i will concede that point - they are both arbitrary, though metric/SI is standardising on much better real world bases), one that works with base 10 (or base ANYTHING maths) is much more usable than imperial. Metric/SI works in base 10 which makes calculations between units just work far more easily. Imperial? Hahaha

People stuck with imperial measurement may as well go back to writing in roman numerals as well.

 

[Altis]

As much as I love the metric system, I will say that inches, feet, and pounds are very handy units that seem to work well for many applications. Even in Canada, we discuss height and weight in feet/inches and pounds, except for official documents.

In other countries, we say "First of January, 2019" for example. The way it is written. So that argument is basically moot. You say that way because you write that way.

You might say it that way out loud. But the written convention is month day, year (May 13, 2019).

 

[monokakata]

And in my neck of the woods, distances are communicated in time.
Miles or kilometers are worthless numbers when traveling.

Are you familiar with the unit "see?" It's very useful in country with ridges.

"Say, old timer, how far to Caspian Lake?"
"Well, go up that hill and it's about three sees."
"Sees?"
"Yep. At the top, one see is about as far as you can see to the next ridge. Do that three times, you're there."

 

[fivenotrump]

Rankine for me!

I’ll stick with Réaumur

 

[throAU]

You might say it that way out loud. But the written convention is month day, year (May 13, 2019).

Not where i live, and in many other parts of the world.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

You might say it that way out loud. But the written convention is month day, year (May 13, 2019).

You need to get out more, if you think that is the convention.

 

[Crazy Badger]

The only reason for using that format is Star Wars Day

 

[Altis]

Not where i live, and in many other parts of the world.

You need to get out more, if you think that is the convention.

In Canada, where our date format is not generally MM/DD/YY, it's still the convention for written dates for any kind of letter or document where the date is written out.

Not sure what date conventions have to do with "getting out more"

 

[chown33]

Without MM/DD format, Pi Day (3/14) would be impossible.

At least in base 10.

In base 8 (octal) it would be possible. Of course, the rendering of pi would no longer be 3.1415... because the fractional digits would signify 8ths, 64ths, etc. instead of 10ths, 100ths, etc. The whole part (3) would be the same, but not the rest.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

The question of MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, YYYY/MM/DD... all of them are arbitrarily based on local language, syntax, and custom. Favoring one over the other has little to do with logic and far more to do with cultural dominion.

However, we're talking about a mouse when compared to the real elephant in the room, our entire system of date and time-keeping.

Regardless of the position of Month, Year, or Day in notation, the calendar is an arbitrary, non-decimal dating system. While it's not going to happen in our lifetimes, eventually there has to be a debate over whether something as arbitrary as the rotational and orbital periods of a particular planet in a particular solar system at a particular period in time should determine time-keeping elsewhere in the solar system or universe.

The notion of 12-month years and seven-day weeks, of course, come from trying to incorporate lunar cycles into our time-keeping. We have a trio of incompatible clocks/time-bases forever tugging at our calendar grids.

It's so messy! Why is February 28/29 days? Why not steal a day from 31-day January and March to give us a string of 30-day months (January through April), with a 31-day February tossed in every fourth year for Leap Year? (Rhetorical questions - no need to rehash Roman notions of lucky numbers.)

To take that a step farther, a 365-day year could be divided into seven 30-day months and five 31-day months, alternating from month to month, with a sixth 31-day month on leap year.... Every fourth year would be so symmetrical! But woe unto anyone who tried to force that change on society.

The ApfelKuchenian Calendar:
30-day months: January, February (except Leap Year), March, May, July, September, November
31-day months February (Leap Year only), April, June, August, October, December

Feel free to jeer!

Now, anyone out there want to tackle hours, minutes, and seconds (and please, do take Einstein into account)?