Metric is ten times easier!
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Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?
- Thread starter garirry
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My primary problem with metric is that I cannot visualize it. I know how long a foot is, an inch, a mile - because I can see it in my head. I have an approximation of it.
But metric is just numbers to me. When I hear meter or kilometer I have no visual reference in my head of how long a meter is or a kilometer. I didn't grow up with this stuff. Although I was a kid in the 1970s when there was a movement to go metric, it didn't amount to much where I was.
Conversely, I don't have any problem with liters. Why? Because the soda industry popularized the 2-liter bottle. In the last decade or so they also made 1-liter bottles a standard. I can visualize those, so you tell me that something is X liters I can visualize that by thinking how many 2-liter bottles that is.
I'm probably an exception, but I think if some sort of effort had been made to get people to visualize these things then the metric system might have gone down better.
UK is now officially 230 volts mains. 50Hz/60Hz - yes, but such a large number of things now rectify as part of their power management, then run from DC, or are power devices (such as cooker rings, ovens, etc.) where the difference is pretty much unimportant.how about 110v/240v and 50Hz/60Hz?
US billion and UK billion?
Spelling of words next?
Since the days of Harold Wilson, the UK official billion is a thousand million, just like the USA.
I have heard that "theatre" has made a bit of a comeback in the USA.
It’s seems every engineering industry and discipline in the world uses metric, and then there’s America lol.
I very much understand the mental image side. But there are some very basic things that help many.
A metre is close to a yard - until you really need to measure it rather than guess.
A kilometre is close to five furlongs.
A US quart is close to a litre. No need to convert for an approximate value - regardless what soda pop makers do.
The UK had a whole series of approximations like:
"Two and a quarter pounds of Jam
Weighs about a kilogram"
"A metre measures three feet three
It's longer than a yard, you see."
I'm fine with either the existing measurements here in the US or switching to Metric. You guys figure it out.
But please, for the love of gawd, format dates YYYY-MM-DD. It's the only way to properly sort them as files.
But please, for the love of gawd, format dates YYYY-MM-DD. It's the only way to properly sort them as files.
I do residential construction and switching to metric would be hard. Probably because I think in 4' and 8' measurements.
Now when I am working on my SXS, get rid of SAE bolts. Go all metric.
Now when I am working on my SXS, get rid of SAE bolts. Go all metric.
One simple conversion, a kilogram is 2.2 pounds. For many uses you can just take a measurement in pounds (250,000 and divide by 2 for 125,000 kilograms). If it matters you can you can multiply by 0.45 but that sounds like too much work. I have no idea what a metric ton is, we have an imperial ton with 2000 pounds so essentially 1000 kg.
Another one, a yard is just slightly shorter than a meter. If someone tells you that something is X yards long, you can just mentally substitute meters.
A quart is a volume measurement and is almost the same a a liter. A gallon is 4 quarts and thus 4 liters. BTW a pint is half a quart. A lot of imperial measurements are based on fractions of 2 - 1/2, 1/4, 1/8.
I’ve read about a simple way to approximate temperature conversions but it sounds just a little too complicated and I’ll just do a web search and get the answer.
The date format comes from how we say the date: June 10th, 2022. That was just encoded into MM/DD/YYY. In most cases, the year doesn’t matter and you are only using MM/DD anyway. DD/MM would be 10 June and that sounds weird. 😊
We don't use the metric system in the US engineering fields? Professors and teachers emphasize paying attention to metric numbers, although both systems are used. Foreign students adapt to both in a short period of time. The armed forces and NASA use the metric measuring system, but the soldiers use both. For example, trajectory measurements are done in metric, but construction a shelter or a house is done in feet and inches (or metric if you like). I was born in a country that uses the metric system, but am more comfortable with the US measuring system, so 60-degree F seems very simple versus 15.556 C.
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The US actually does use metric in a lot of things in parallel with the imperial system. In causal usage most people use the imperial system that they are used to. In scientific usage it’s pretty much all metric. Industry is mixed with some industries still using the old system and others mostly using metric. Most product sold list dimensions and weights in both systems. It makes it easer to calculate cost per unit in a grocery store if you understand metric, though most people probably only have a passing familiarity with it. The UK is similar, officially metric but on a day to day personal basis, they use a lot of imperial measurements.
I just wish we could go back to measuring everything in hogsheads, furlongs, and drams.
I’m sure some do but all the American companies I’ve done work with have been a pain in the backside asking for drawings and schematics in either imperial or dual dimensioning. They ask silly questions about what they perceive as old dimensions when everything is designed using metric. Not always fun and my least favourite market to deal with.
The UK changed so many years ago in construction, but we still have remnants.
Our plasterboard (drywall) changed from 8' by 4' to "metric" 8 by 4 - 1200 x 2400. But plywood is often 1220 x 2440. But not always!
However, 4" and 8" are very close to 100 mm. Which is easy to remember.
Obvious, things like rafter and joist spacing in many buildings is historic. Old properties frequently being towards random, middling age being Imperial-based, and more recent universally metric.
And there are oddities. Like copper pipe changing from internal to external diamter - meaning 15mm is close enough to 1/2" for many joints to be compatible. And C16 and C24 timber being finished dimensions rather than sawn size before finishing.
My house doesn’t have two joists spaced the same!
Why so?
When I was at school, not only were weights an measures imperial. Currency was too; £ / s / d (one pound was twenty shillings and one shilling was twelve pence). We have since transitioned to fully metric... While I remember the consternation of some, when it came down to it, we all adapted quite quickly, most within a week or two.
Probably because I think that way. Automatically. You tell me a wall is 12' and my mind says 3 sheets of drywall without even thinking it. It is just automatic.
And at this point, I don't want to change. For anyone who speaks multiple languages, you know you are fluent when you start to think in a language vs translate it your head. To switch to metric would have me translating it in my head vs being fluent.
Now with nuts, bolts, sockets it doesn't matter to me if it is a 7/16" or 10mm. I just start putting on sockets until I get the right one, same as I did with SAE.
In that case you have the choice to not provide what the customer asks for. It is as simple as that. Now, if I buy multi-supplements are the local stores, the amounts are shown in mg. I don't have any problems with that. The same for the outdoor thermometers at home, since they show both F. and the corresponding C temperatures. Dual-measure "tape measures" are also available at the local stores.
I don’t have that choice at all, that’s not how it works. A company doesn’t cease doing business on work that brings in millions because some European engineers find Americans difficult and old fashioned lol. You just get on with it and be professional.
I don’t have problems using equipment or buying consumer products with dual dimension interfaces either. That’s not even closely related to my comment about dual dimensioning within engineering resources.
I understand your point, but it is an awful lot simpler if all your sockets are metric, and all the nuts and bolts you come across are also metric.
(I have barely a handful of non-metric sockets - no idea how I acquired them. Against at least dozens of metric ones.)You can actually use the numbers on the sockets!
it's not just Metric/Imperial that can cause problems. Software versions can also cause problems. There is a famous case where one of the models of Airbus was being built in several different EU nations. France used the latest version of the CAD program, and another country used an older version. When the two parts of the fuselage were brought together for joining, they were different enough in dimensions that they couldn't join. The result was lawyers at 20 paces...
I understand your point, but it is an awful lot simpler if all your sockets are metric, and all the nuts and bolts you come across are also metric.
You can actually use the numbers on the sockets!
I have to have full sets of both. My Polaris SXS is all metric, as was my Can-Am. But some of the idiot aftermarket manufacturers use SAE. So depending on what I am doing, I may need both at basically the same time.
I will say on a related note, I am glad that flat-head screws are no longer the go-to screw. Been doing a lot of work at my mom's house, which was built in 1962. It seems every screw in that place is a flat-head and I friggin' hate them.
I wonder if a software redesign would allow for having more than one measuring system printed on the diagrams and blueprints? For example, one that if chosen would show the metric numbers, and right next to it-in a parenthesis-the corresponding number of another measuring system.
Now, I believe that most Americans have not problem with most items purchased at the local stores, regardless of being metric or not. For example, I look at the ink pens I have still in the package, and it shows, Medium/0.7mm. When I purchase ink pens, most times I choose them not because the metric number, but by "medium, or thin (0.5mm). But I prefer to use food measuring cups and weight scales (water boilers too) that are marked in pounds, ounces or cups/fractions of cups instead of litters, at least when cooking foods. By the way, I purchased a glass water boiler that is marked with litters/fractions, so it took a little time for my wife and I to get used to it. What we do it to ignore the metric numbers and pour-in water to one of the water-line marks on the glass. If I "pour in" a 16.9 FL OZ of water (the contents of a bottled water), the water level reaches the lowest mark on the boiler (500 mL).
The bottle water is marked on the label as follows: 16.9 FL OZ (500 mL) 1.5 PT. In the US most people look at the first number and ignore the rest.
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I can set my software to display dual dimensions automatically when putting drawings together. The main issue is those drawings become very cluttered and busy and are a nightmare to layout. We do it, but wish the companies we deal with could read metric. It’s evening more annoying in meetings when things are being discussed in imperial by one party and metric by the other and the meeting often has to be paused while we each convert discussed measurements.
