In my office we write "meeting at 16:30" but will always speak "meeting at 4.30". From what I gather our friends in the US would write "meeting at 4.30pm". So should we use the 24 hour clock or the 12 hour as that's how we speak?
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Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?
- Thread starter garirry
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Either or. But if I say we are having a meeting you’d hope most of the team would work out I’m not expecting it at 4:30 am!
Plus you book it via a shared calendar. Doesn’t really matter what I say. It’s how they have their outlook set.
Some of them would.. those of us in the US who have served in the military, or in law-enforcement, would still write and say “16:30”.
Don't forget that many (most? all?) of the US spelling variants are due to Webster, who tried to "fix" spellings in his dictionary.
He also tried to fix the bible, changing words like cherogryllus (rock hyrax) into rabbit.
However, whatever the unit system your car was made with, it is worth keeping both sets of sockets. This is because a worn nut in one system can often be gripped by a slightly smaller socket from the other system.
As for the English as she is spoken* in England, it is a mix of Old Britton and Celtic, Latin, old Norse, mixed assorted Germanic, and French. Pretty well everybody who invaded Britain.
Apply to that a set of grammar rules invented by scholars in the 17/18th centuries to try and make it more like 'pure' Latin.
On top of that is that everybody who lives more than 10 miles away from anybody in England speaks with a different accent. The BBC tried to set up a "Standard English" accent, but it seems they have given up on that.
*This is a shout out to a famous book on speaking English written by a non-native English speaker...
He also tried to fix the bible, changing words like cherogryllus (rock hyrax) into rabbit.
However, whatever the unit system your car was made with, it is worth keeping both sets of sockets. This is because a worn nut in one system can often be gripped by a slightly smaller socket from the other system.
As for the English as she is spoken* in England, it is a mix of Old Britton and Celtic, Latin, old Norse, mixed assorted Germanic, and French. Pretty well everybody who invaded Britain.
Apply to that a set of grammar rules invented by scholars in the 17/18th centuries to try and make it more like 'pure' Latin.
On top of that is that everybody who lives more than 10 miles away from anybody in England speaks with a different accent. The BBC tried to set up a "Standard English" accent, but it seems they have given up on that.
*This is a shout out to a famous book on speaking English written by a non-native English speaker...
We already tried that in the 1970s. But Congress made it optional and not mandatory. Aside from that though, take a look around.
Can you really miss the fact that your medicine comes in milligrams and milliliters? Do you buy a gallon of soda or a 2-liter bottle?
Metric tools for cars and equipment. The US Military went all metric in the 60s and American medicine and sciences long before that.
It's not like the metric system does not exist in the US at all. Pick up a ruler and you'll see!
Please someone explain why nautical miles and knots are still widely used on ships and aircraft
I think it has to do with nautical miles being defined as 1 minute of latitude and thus historically convenient for global navigation. Especially with paper maps and dead reckoning navigation, etc.
And feet for altitude - even if sometimes obscured by use of phrases such as "flight level".
And British Pipe Thread for taps/tap connectors even in, for example, France.
The cost of changing over, and the difficulty of achieving a clean changeover together with the consequences of a poorly managed, half-hearted changeover, mean it is pretty much impossible to change some things.
Imagine every single altimeter in every single aircraft being changed simultaneously - or at least, before it makes its next flight. With some instruments being positively ancient and possibly unable to be converted but needing replacement.
Because it was going to stop when the thread got to 20 feet long. But the rest of the world didn’t understand this Roman measurement so we carried on replying! 😀Why the heck does this thread never ends?
The USA will never change from feet to kilograms.
It would be mass confusion.
English remains 3 foreign languages in a trenchcoat!
Altitude in feet and in flight levels are two different things. Feet as read by altimeters set to local barometric pressure are used up to about 18,000’ in US airspace above which all altimeters are reset to the arbitrary standard of 29.92 inches of mercury. At that point and above, altitude is referred to as the flight level in hundreds of feet. FL430 = 43,000 feet as read on an altimeter set to 29.92” Hg and in radio transmissions pronounced as “flight level four three zero.”
Because the USA remains the outlier, until there is change this will continueWhy the heck does this thread never ends?
It will never change. New generations of Americans will continue using the existing measuring systems, including metrics, the way we do today. We use metrics where it is required. The same for the 24-hour clock, and so on. I took some time for me to be "assimilated" by the US measuring system (I grew up in the metric system until the age of 17 or so).
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It was just a joke! Massachusetts...It will never change. New generations of Americans will continue using the existing measuring systems, including metrics, the way we do today. We use metrics where it is required. The same for the 24-hour clock, and so on. I took some time for me to be "assimilated" by the US measuring system (I grew up in the metric system until the age of 17 or so).
It would help if measurements had to be printed in larger font for the metric measurement, and both be required, for consumables. Sure you can get a two litre of cola… but how big is the can? 12 oz. 355ml really, but that should be the larger print.
It can be done, but as long as Tucker Carlson calls the metric system woke, the MAGAs will spitefully yell WTF is a Kilometre like it's some sort of d*ck-measuring contest.
It can be done, but as long as Tucker Carlson calls the metric system woke, the MAGAs will spitefully yell WTF is a Kilometre like it's some sort of d*ck-measuring contest.
And US customary units have been officially defined in terms of metric units since the Mendenhall Order on 5th April 1893...... and apparently in practice for many years before.
A larger print is not needed, a standard can is 33 cl, just look at the can and you’ll know ( everybody knows), there are also skinner cans containing 25 cl.
I tried to (stop it) but failed.Why the heck does this thread never ends?
Hint: 1566
American cans are 355. Australian are usually still 375. New Zealand is 330, same as many in Europe.
Soda isn't the problem. It's *all* consumables. Soda is one of the most compliant metric options. Try a can of tomato sauce.
Something I never hear these proponents of the metric system, and proponents of the virtues of switching to measurement systems that are base-10 talk about is this: Why don’t we re-divide the day to be 10 hours, 10 minutes per hour, 10 seconds per minute? In for a penny in for a pound right?
I'm an American that grew up in Asia. When I moved back to the US, I had to learn the US systems. Metric is just easier. You don't have to remember arbitrary conversion numbers (i.e. inches in a foot, quarts in a gallon).
Days are based off of the earth rotating around its axis, so it has to be a factor of 360 degrees... Either way, even our hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a year are all off as we have to correct with leap years, then we have to correct the correction by dropping a leap year every 100 years that aren't divisible my 400. It is amazing how this was all figured out before we even had computers/electronic calculators/cars/airplanes/...