Of course, the left side of the road is the right side of the road to drive on. (Maybe this sentence is a good reason why the one common language shouldn't be English...)
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Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?
- Thread starter garirry
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Of course, the left side of the road is the right side of the road to drive on. (Maybe this sentence is a good reason why the one common language shouldn't be English...)
I often measure liquids such as added water (or milk - it's close enough in density) in grams. Put bowl on scale, add flour, add yeast, add water. Mix.
But I always have the option of measuring by volume and using the same number!
The rest of the governments of several billion agree on metric.
Most people just don't think about it because it was there when they were born. They use whatever the government of their country has decided they should use.
Many of us have read all sorts of books - fiction, histories, even religious texts - which make numerous references to units which are not those of our everyday life. Seven league boots, groats, from children's stories. Cubits, fingers, palms, spans, baths, homers, ephahs, and mites from the bible. Guinea, crown, half-crown, florin, shilling, farthings, even ha'pennies for currency.
Coming across them certainly stimulated my interest in the development and use of units and awareness of systems of units.
And the government of my country has vacillated about which units should be used.
Yet I still claim that metric measurements, probably mostly SI, make more sense than anything else.
Yeah. Most people would agree that the metric system is better than the English system. My point is about human nature and resistance to change. Also, there is a switching cost for eduction, manufacturing, tooling, transportation.....just about every aspect of life.
Honestly, I am not sure why conversion initiatives that started some 50 years ago never took hold. I suppose most people in the US just don't want to incur the costs and hassle of changing.
Because we ****ing feel like it. Me and millions of other Americans aren't sweating it, so maybe you shouldn't either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Does it make sense? No. Is it the most efficient? Absolutely not. Then again, I have no idea what's meant by "stone" in England but I think it's a cool link with their past that they use it.
Seeing your unhinged rant and knowing that it somehow pisses you off this much just makes me want to keep on using feet, inches, ounces and pounds. Good luck to you!
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The Wiki article is quite comprehensive. In the UK, a stone would nowadays most likely be 14 pounds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)
If we would have adopted French as the universal language, what would the "iPad" be called?
On the serious side, it makes no sense to persuade any country to adopt any type of measuring system, nor language. That choice is for the people to make. Each one of us thinks differently, and even within one's nation there are divisions among the people in numerous issues, not only in relation to what measuring system to adopt, but in politics and other social issues. The OP started this thread about the US not adopting the metric system, but if you look a Canada there are great divisions between Quebec and the rest of Canada. The times I traveled through Canada, the Canadians I had the pleasure to speak with were nothing but gracious. I visited Montreal several times and I enjoyed getting along with the people (they were very friendly, had some delicious beer, and pretty brunettes too). When I visited Quebec and spoke English, only a few people responded to any questions I may have asked. It was simpler for me to speak Spanish than English, although I do understand spoken French "just a little"
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“Me and many other Americans” says it all…..
Most polite folks I know would mention others before themselves, but it seems ya’ll put yourselves first. The few hundred million of you keep confusing the several billion of the rest of us with your archaic US Customary weights and measures (which are based on metric standards) and quaint way of writing dates. We can get along without you, and I don’t give a hoot.
However, that is a decision for the American people to make. How would you like if a tourist comes to your South Pacific Island and tells you on what side of the road to drive, or how you should speak?
In the US the metric system is used in the medical, engineering fields, and even in the military, space, etc. But US Americans have the freedom to use the measuring system they have known from childhood, or the metric system-if they choose. Most mechanics used metric and other tools. Carpenters and others who work in the construction business, use "tape measures" stamped with inches, foot, and fractions of inches.
Americans aren't forcing other nations to adopt the "American way." In fact this has been a nation of immigrants from all around the world. I was born in a place where the metric system was used, but when I immigrated to the US years ago, I adapted to the measuring systems used here. When I drive through Canada, I obey the "metric" speed limits, and don't whine about it. All the automobiles I have driven show MPH and KPH, but I don't have problems with any of these tow systems.
The bottomline: things like metric versus other measuring systems should not matter to anybody. Every one of us has more important things to worry about each day of one's life. If one decides to use the Lira, or the Pound, or even the RMB instead of the US dollar, by all means go for it. A word of caution: don't tell the Taliban what money they should use
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Of course.
The one that catches people day after day is date format. Fine to use MM/DD/YYYY if you wish. But please, when developing things that will be used outside the USA, make it clear that is the format used. The problem is primarily where the numbers allow interpretation either way.
when writing dates, and if allowed, I tend to abbreviate the month to avoid confusion. ie. Mar 3, 2022 or 03 Mar 2022. Albeit, today, 03/03/2022 works regardless.
Agree completely, and very well said.
Actually, as an aside, an re-visiting this thread, many of the US responses on this thread do give rise to an inevitable question about their currency, the dollar.
I wonder the fact that it is based on, or calculated off, a metric base, or system, has anything more to do with a vehement rejection of Brirish rule (and British values), and the British currency, (in revolutionary times), the genius of Alexander Hamilton, or the simple convenience of a metric method of currency calculation for everyday use?
For, it almost seems paradoxically odd, if not downright bizarre, to have a currency derived from, based on, a metric means of calculation, while yet, steadfastly rejecting and utterly refusing to introduce this system in every other system - or possible unit - of measurement?
We end up with both systems combined in many cases.
The majority of screwdriver bits (exchangeable such as are used in electric screwdrivers) are referred to as either 6.35 mm or 1/4 inch.
The screw-driving tips themselves might be sized for metric or inch-based screws. So we end up with a 1/4" bit for a 5 mm screw head. Or a 6.35 mm bit for a size 10 screw head (screw gauge based on 1" head for a 32 screw). Similarly, for sockets - almost always 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2'" even in totally metric sets. But with SDS, the fitting is always in metric, even when the bit is in inches.
And 15 mm copper water pipe is just about compatible with 1/2" pipe and fittings (and vice versa). But 22 mm is not directly compatible with 3/4" pipe and fittings. Yet much of the world continues to use British Standard Pipe threads. Even France. Even when the fittings are otherwise entirely specific in metric units.
Probably the most silly seeming measurement is of computer and television screens. There is no doubt that the factories are set up totally in metric units. The heights and widths are almost always a neat cm multiple. Yet inches are standard in the USA and UK for diagonal measurements.
The UK long been preparing for decimal currency, even in 1849, when we got the two shilling piece, the florin, value being one tenth of a pound.
And yet here you are, whinging about the units we use within our own borders. Not sure why you're so mad about it, but maybe find something else to worry about.
Beautifully written, but in reality US Americans aren't rejecting the metric system. Try to persuade the American public to think of the US dollar this way:
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What puzzles me is why America adopted a decimal currency system well before most of the rest of the world, but stayed with imperial measurements?
And why do they drive on the wrong (right) side of the road?
And why do they drive on the wrong (right) side of the road?
America was actually looking at the metric system from the beginning. That whole period was a renaissance in thought and doing things differently.
But basically, blame it on pirates…
How Pirates Of The Caribbean Hijacked America's Metric System
In 1793, French scientist Joseph Dombey boarded a ship bound for the United States carrying with him a standard kilogram weight. Thanks to pirates, he and the weight never arrived.
www.npr.org
Basically: Joseph Dombey was sent to America with a cylinder intended to be the standard. His ship ran into a storm, which forced it into the Caribbean, where it was waylaid by British supported pirates. Dombey died in captivity and the cylinder was auctioned off.
As to driving on the right, IDK.
Left- and right-hand traffic - Wikipedia
There's also a couple of maps on that page showing current left vs right-hand traffic by country. The text provides more detail, such as breakdown by population.
Finally, all boat traffic is right-hand traffic, i.e. meeting headon should pass port-to-port.
Why the heck do drivers in those blue regions shown in the map still drive on the wrong side of the road?Left- and right-hand traffic - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
There's also a couple of maps on that page showing current left vs right-hand traffic by country. The text provides more detail, such as breakdown by population.
Finally, all boat traffic is right-hand traffic, i.e. meeting headon should pass port-to-port.
They should Be Different by adopting the American way of driving" 😂
~Just kidding folks!
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I must admit that I learnt to do long division when Australia was still using pounds, shillings and pence.
Now, pounds were in base 10, shillings in base 20 and pence in base 12.
In order to do a long division, say divide 3 pounds, 15 shillings and 7 pence by 5 entailed --
Unfortunately, I was taught so well that those brain cells are still taken up knowing how to do multiple-base long-division. In black ink, with no corrections.
Now, pounds were in base 10, shillings in base 20 and pence in base 12.
In order to do a long division, say divide 3 pounds, 15 shillings and 7 pence by 5 entailed --
- doing a division in base 10
- taking the remainder, converting it to base 20 and add to the shillings
- doing a division in base 20
- taking the remainder, converting it to base 12 and add to the pence
- doing a division in base 12
- remembering that all divisions were integer, so there would usually be some pence left over.
- unless ha'pennies and farthings were involved...
Unfortunately, I was taught so well that those brain cells are still taken up knowing how to do multiple-base long-division. In black ink, with no corrections.
Are those imperial or metric pounds 🤣 I live in the UK, I just use kilo grams.