I agree, and nothing beats English measurements for cooking period.
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Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?
- Thread starter garirry
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In aviation, you work with both too. I used to provide temps to passengers in both C and F. In the grocery store I’m seeing more packaging in metric, and the sky did not fall.
In aviation, you work with both too. I used to provide temps to passengers in both C and F. In the grocery store I’m seeing more packaging in metric, and the sky did not fall.
I am pretty good at metric for distances. I can convert miles to kilometers and back almost without thinking. And a meter is a yard for most purposes and a centimeter is almost half and inch.
But other than 0 and 100, I have no good comparison between F and C. Yeah I can do the conversion but it is not automatic. But I have to do the conversion. I can see a meter in my head, but have no idea what 10C is without converting it (50F).
I like the shows Highway thru Hell and Heavy Rescue: 401 on The Weather Channel. Both are Canadian based series, one in BC, the other in Ontario. On the BC one, they report snow in cm, but the Ontario one reports snowfall in inches. Both use miles to describe how far away they have to travel to a wreck.
In aviation, you work with both too. I used to provide temps to passengers in both C and F. In the grocery store I’m seeing more packaging in metric, and the sky did not fall.
You would have thought that 2L Coke bottles would have converted us a long time ago.
If you really want Americans to embrace the metric system, convert ammunition. That will get them modernised with the rest of the world.
Am very ignorant of guns in general, but thought that quite a significant proportion of handguns, machine guns and assault rifles are metric - such as 9mm, 19mm, 45mm and 51mm NATO weapons?
And hasn't the US military long used metric artillery?
I’ve no idea. I was being flippant. I have no need for guns or ammunition. I’m a pacifist.
Don't forget 5.56 and 7.62. Otherwise known as AR-15 and AK-47 ammo.
Yes, atillery shells are measured in mm. ie 75mm and 105 mm howitzers.
Well…
M1911 .45 ACP
.22 Long rifle
.38 Special.
.30-06 (Deer rifles), M1 Garand Carbine
.357 Magnum.
Shotguns are measured in gauge (10, 12, 16, etc) which is factored in nths of an inch:
But yeah, there's been a lot of European influence since the 80s I think.
And in Europe, gauge is still widely accepted measure.
Walk into a gun store and ask for 18.53mm shotgun, the clerk is probably gonna stare at you weirdly.
Since at least 1957! Though it took time to dominate and there are still some non-metric and "odd" units.
(And military measure distance in klicks since 1918!)
For a rough brain calibration reference, 10C=50F, 15C= 60F, 20C= 70F, and 30C= 5 short of 90F.
edit: typo corrected.
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No, this is not today (I don’t think) but in my WWII tank simulator I have to deal with a UK tank with a 17lb gun.
Also an easier way to use Celsius for temperature is to remember this little poemFor a rough reference, 10C=20F, 20C= 70F, and 30C= 5 short of 90F.
30s is hot
20s is nice
10s is cold
and 0 is ice.
+ Remember that the water boils @ 100 C and you are now an expert in using the Celsius scale.
We cheat in the UK.
If something's 5mm we say it's 5mm not 3/16ths of an inch.
If something's an inch long we say it's an inch long not 2.54 cm
As for dates....yeah...mm/dd/yy is crazy no matter how you look at it. Either pick increasing (dd/mm/yy) or decreasing (yy/mm/dd).
If something's 5mm we say it's 5mm not 3/16ths of an inch.
If something's an inch long we say it's an inch long not 2.54 cm
As for dates....yeah...mm/dd/yy is crazy no matter how you look at it. Either pick increasing (dd/mm/yy) or decreasing (yy/mm/dd).
Even as a child, when Fahrenheit was the usual standard in the UK, I found the issues around freezing point seemed odd. How can ten degrees below be 22F?
If you always hang around at minus 40, there is no problem at all with C and F.
Well, here is an "immigration" table one can use, if things as F. versus C. temperatures bother you
It makes no difference to me. If I travel through Canada, I just adapt to whichever measuring systems are used in Canada. As for temperatures, I prefer "F." from 86 to -65 degrees which is the usual temperature range in the interior of Alaska.
By the way, some of the hunting and military guns as well are "metric" sizes, starting somewhere near 5mm and ending with the military war guns. Some examples: 5mm, 6mm, 6mm-06, 6mm Remington, 6mm Greedmoor, and so on. There is a very long list of metric size guns used by Americans:
gunsmagazine.com
It makes no difference to me. If I travel through Canada, I just adapt to whichever measuring systems are used in Canada. As for temperatures, I prefer "F." from 86 to -65 degrees which is the usual temperature range in the interior of Alaska.
Celsius To Fahrenheit Tables - Temperature Conversions
These Celsius to Fahrenheit tables,°C to °F, show a wide range of temperature conversions & include absolute zero, freezing and boiling points.
www.srhartley.com
By the way, some of the hunting and military guns as well are "metric" sizes, starting somewhere near 5mm and ending with the military war guns. Some examples: 5mm, 6mm, 6mm-06, 6mm Remington, 6mm Greedmoor, and so on. There is a very long list of metric size guns used by Americans:
Metric Mayhem
The metric system (or “SI” for those who wear a man bun) may be the standard throughout most of the world but it hasn’t made much inroad in the U.S.
gunsmagazine.com
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I quoted military because it was so easy to get a good list - and the commonality with the rest of NATO made it so obvious.
That article was an excellent example of the oddity that decimal dominates. No-one nowadays measures weights as A tons, B hundredweight, C pounds, D ounces, E drams, F grains. They switch from the main unit to decimals. It's obvious why! But it establishes the pattern which applies almost everywhere. And metric units mean you don't end up with odd multiplications/divisions. Yes - we still see pounds and ounces, pints and fluid ounces, but rarely more than two units.
As here:
In this 1723 proposal to make a cistern, it is stated that 'To make the Cistern will take in Lead Besides Lapps and Flashes at 10lb to the Foot 2 Ton 16 Hund. 1 Quartr 14 lb'.
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manusc...earchguidance/weightsandmeasures/weights.aspx
Yes - I did cover some of these in school, in maths and many practical areas. But I hit full metric (mainly MKS) for all science.
PS In science, it is often necessary to switch between Kelvin and another temperature scale. The commonality of the units (Kelvin and Celsius) makes that trivial. Having Fahrenheit in there just complicates.
We already did for years because of NATO! We with the introduction of the M-16 the Army went to the original m-16 to 556 round NATO wanted to standardize ammunition across countries sense the old round sense WW2 was 30/6 round!
Ammunition reloading is very simple for me and any US reloader as well, since all the instruction manuals and charts for powder and bullets weights is shown in grains. One has to be extremely careful not to mix grams with grains when reloading. "Grains" is used because some power charges are extremely light if done in fractions of grams. However, some of the weighing for large amounts of powder is done in grams.I quoted military because it was so easy to get a good list - and the commonality with the rest of NATO made it so obvious.
That article was an excellent example of the oddity that decimal dominates. No-one nowadays measures weights as A tons, B hundredweight, C pounds, D ounces, E drams, F grains. They switch from the main unit to decimals. It's obvious why! But it establishes the pattern which applies almost everywhere. And metric units mean you don't end up with odd multiplications/divisions. Yes - we still see pounds and ounces, pints and fluid ounces, but rarely more than two units.
As here:
In this 1723 proposal to make a cistern, it is stated that 'To make the Cistern will take in Lead Besides Lapps and Flashes at 10lb to the Foot 2 Ton 16 Hund. 1 Quartr 14 lb'.
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manusc...earchguidance/weightsandmeasures/weights.aspx
Yes - I did cover some of these in school, in maths and many practical areas. But I hit full metric (mainly MKS) for all science.
PS In science, it is often necessary to switch between Kelvin and another temperature scale. The commonality of the units (Kelvin and Celsius) makes that trivial. Having Fahrenheit in there just complicates.
An example: .5 grains of powder = 0.32399455 grams. So "trickling" .5 grains of powder to complete a charge is much easier to do (fewer marks on the scale) when the powder "trickler" is set to grains.
It is the same for me when I am in the kitchen where I prefer to measure in pounds and ounces, or cups and fractions of cups (1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 3/4 and one cup). The metric measurement system was used where I was born, but my mother never used it in the kitchen.
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Good point. Though the US military has been using metric for decades in most everything else. Distances are always in kilometers ("clicks") and meters. As mentioned, coordination with NATO countries is the driving factor.
But I attribute the lack of change in civil society to isolation and attachment to traditional values, though Canada didn't seem to have a problem in converting long ago (1975).
Also when Canada and the U.K. converted everything had to be worked out in your head. These days everyone has a calculator in their pocket and conversion apps and websites.
It really wouldn’t be that difficult. But I guess there are bigger problems in America to sort than if you use inched or centimetres.
Well, your words are true. But in general, there always are more important things than arguing about metrics or inches in every nation around the world.
Hmmm...I wonder if the US measuring system is the reason why we write, "centimeter" instead of "centimetre"?
~Just kidding kidding with you
Much bigger problems. Although I could deal with switching to it, I already see metric volumes at the grocery, and I think I would miss miles and English volume measuring for recipes mostly.
we actually use, or at least label, a lot of things in both systems. I suspect it has to do with international trade, otherwise there'd be no reason for a can of soup to be labeled with both.