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[Gully State]

I wish we'd make the switch to metric. It just makes way more sense to use.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Ignoring the metric/imperial pissing contest, I think the actual reason is because America is just a very conservative society (in the "I don't want things to change" way). That and the fact that it's become so entrenched that it's easier to just convert the people who need to use it instead of teaching it to everybody.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Can metric be used for daily life? Obviously. But it isn't as easily relatable to day to day situations.

I never said not relatable. I said as EASILY relatable. Please note the key word there.

You're wrong, though. The one you're most accustomed to is the one which is most relatable, it's not an objective thing. I lived in the US for two years and never found imperial measurements made sense, my wife who is American thinks metric is weird and confusing.

 

[Apath]

For anyone that deals with dates and multiple countries it is a problem. The fact that we couldn't agree on a system worldwide for something that doesn't include enough information to discern which system is being used is pretty bad.

These standards were established well before globalization. Why should hundreds of millions of Americans change the way they read and write the date for the sake of a very miniscule percentage? And it should be pretty easy to remember: America = MM/DD/YYYY, everywhere else = DD/MM/YYYY.

 

[Alx]

These standards were established well before globalization. Why should hundreds of millions of Americans change the way they read and write the date for the sake of a very miniscule percentage? And it should be pretty easy to remember: America = MM/DD/YYYY, everywhere else = DD/MM/YYYY.

Do you really consider the rest of the world "a minuscule percentage" ?

 

[Apath]

Do you really consider the rest of the world "a minuscule percentage" ?

Percentage of Americans, in response to him discussing the people who deal with multiple countries on a daily basis.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

These standards were established well before globalization. Why should hundreds of millions of Americans change the way they read and write the date for the sake of a very miniscule percentage? And it should be pretty easy to remember: America = MM/DD/YYYY, everywhere else = DD/MM/YYYY.

A better solution is to agree on a standard for communication between nations.

 

[Irminsul]

I never said not relatable. I said as EASILY relatable. Please note the key word there.

You also said "Fahrenheit is necessary for daily life." So essentially you're saying 6.7 billion people on Earth are barely coping with temperatures in daily life because they're using Celsius.

 

[Chariot]

Do you really consider the rest of the world "a minuscule percentage" ?

You know the US-americans do.
#NotAllUSAmericans, of course. But enough to have the States stuck in their past.

 

[Alx]

Percentage of Americans, in response to him discussing the people who deal with multiple countries on a daily basis.

Even then, I don't think it's that minuscule of a percentage, especially now that everybody has access to the internet (or will have, if it's not already the case). After all, you're dealing with people from multiple countries right now, and you're on an American forum.

 

[fritolay]

It goes much farther back than that. As its name indicates, the imperial system didn't appear in the US.
Using feet or arm length is indeed the easiest and most obvious way to measure things, I think we can find traces of such measurements in ancient Egypt, and probably even earlier than that. The issue was that it wasn't a common reference, since not everybody had the same foot/arm/finger length, and everybody was using his own system dedicated to his own activity, hence why you didn't have the same units to measure roads, horses, bottles, barrels, buildings,...

Interesting, thanks for the info.

 

[Inversive]

Europeans are just better.

 

[Leko04]

It is funny how these threads became a competition. Git gud. English was a mistake. It's nothing but trash.

Edit. Best way to measure is using length of stick. Sticks are easy to find and easy to handle. Alternately use length of about.

 

[JJDinomite]

Sorry OP, I take pride in not conforming.

 

[JoeMartin]

All dates in the military are usually done DDMMMYY(YY).

I would write today on logs, for example, 14JUN15. We use an odd mix and mash of metric/imperial for all the equipment on the boat - generally its handled by the manufacturer and the units they've used, or, as a rule of thumb, >1 = imperial, <1 = metric.

 

[Leko04]

How to: celsius
Less than 0: possibly snow and ice
More than 0: possibly wet, shitty weather.
Less than -10: chill nice weather.
More than 10: weather becomes bearable.
Less than -20: shit is cold.
More than 20: t-shirt weather. Nice warmth.
More than 25: ideal tanning temp.
Less than -30: shit is really cold.
More than 30: temp is needlessly hot.

The End.

 

[Ganzlinger]

I agree with OP. Imperial system is the worst.

 

[Kansoku]

Date should absolutely be YYYY/MM/DD HH:mm:ss, ordered based on rate of change. It "takes more time" to change a year than a month, it takes more time to change a month than a day and so on.

That way you can keep using the stupid "June 14". It's stupid because the most important information on a date, on the majority of situations for the majority of humans in the majority of their lives, is the day, not the month, and it should come first.

Metric and Celsius are are also objectively better. Paper sizes should change as well. American spelling is better, tho.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

Read my example of farmers below...you just want to think everything is nonsense because they do not conform to your own standards.


You absolutely do not know what you are talking about. Majority of the aviation industry uses feet, go do your research please.

I skydive as a hobby and I am infinitely more comfortable using an altimeter with feet scale and so are my pilots.
This is because for a height of 4.5km, the scale can go from 0 to around 14,500 when using feet but if I use an altimeter with meter scale the scale goes from 0 to only 4,500. Don't you see why it makes more sense here? The distance between every 100 units is far higher when you are using meters than when you are using feets...this is why for aviation feets is preferred.

When reading an altimeter a change of 100 meter is just one unit in the dial that reads in meters, you get a little over 3 units when the dial reads in feet.




That's why it's approximate and you don't need accuracy for regular day to day stuff. Can you come up with an approximate for cm and metres using your body parts ? Suppose there's an farmer or just some dude who wants to measure using a non marked tape or rope....how does he gain an approximate sense of the distance in metric? He will be able to get an approximate sense of distance if he just uses his body parts to measure the rope.

My paternal family members are farmers and I see them do this because it's easier for them.


Fahrenheit is not " arbitrary" it has a real scale and it is used for body temperature measurement. Someone explained it in the last page very well over why Fahrenheit works well for body temperature and not Celsius. And because it works well for body temperature it can get applied to the environment temperature in the sense that it's really hot for the body or really cold for the body.

Also why not use Kelvin? it's more scientific and if more scientific is what you want then you should absolutely be using that scaled instead.


Well this is where it comes down to choice, date standards vary everywhere despite what the usual norm for the country might be. I say June 14th but I'll say 21st of Jan for my birthday, it varies and this is not an important thing. The point I was trying to make there was that the OP said it's nonsense....when it isn't. Everything about imperial makes sense it's just that it isn't base 10 mathematics.

Hell I don't even use imperial and I frown upon British practice of mixing both imperial and metric but I won't say " lol dumb americans" or "this is nonsense".

see, the approximation argument is why I think they're useless. It's basically just a guess work of sizes which you're saying.

I never said Fahrenheit was arbitrary, I'm well aware of why it was created, I said your exampl of it being used as a "really hot day" is arbitrary as you can literally apply that to anything. 40 degrees Celsius signifies a really really hot day. 313 in Kelvin signifies that too.

 

[Dictator93]

U.S. popular culture nurses and cultivates these odd psuedosciences and ideas (inches, the dirty foreskin, right to bear arms covering war time weapons, etc...) so much so that even intelligent scientists/pundits complicit in the industries keeping these institutions alive, publish reports to their benefit.

 

[Apath]

Even then, I don't think it's that minuscule of a percentage, especially now that everybody has access to the internet (or will have, if it's not already the case). After all, you're dealing with people from multiple countries right now, and you're on an American forum.

That's true, but then I'm under the belief that everyone should adhere to the American standard on American message boards. If this were a British board, I wouldn't go around trying to convince people to use the American way of formatting dates. In fact, I'd probably list the date according to that standard. I guess that's skating around the point, but it still doesn't change that the issue of other countries arranging the date a different way doesn't affect people most of the time. At the very least, the argument that "it's what everyone else does so America should to it too" is much stronger than "it should be descending or ascending order," with no reasoning behind why that should be the case.

I'm not seeing many people bring up a good reason why Americans should change the way they read and write dates. What it seems to come down to is people not being used to the way Americans do it, and instead of just dealing with it, they try to rationalize why the American way is wrong.

 

[HyperCubed4]

How to: celsius
Less than 0: possibly snow and ice
More than 0: possibly wet, shitty weather.
Less than -10: chill nice weather.
More than 10: weather becomes bearable.
Less than -20: shit is cold.
More than 20: t-shirt weather. Nice warmth.
More than 25: ideal tanning temp.
Less than -30: shit is really cold.
More than 30: temp is needlessly hot.

The End.

This fuckin' guy knows what's up. I bet you all prefer 100 point scales for your game reviews. Absolutely dishonourable.

 

[Calamari41]

What problem would be solved with a nationwide switch from the Imperial to the Metric system that is larger than the problems that the change itself would cause?

 

[Nesotenso]

Because America thinks it is cool to be different and every other country laughs at them. They're so far behind in the whole measurement thing as well as being adamant that their way of doing things is the correct way. There will be counterpoints in this very thread im sure to arguing AGAINST the metric system. Who the fuck argues against the metric system when it just makes much more sense!

I really don't get why outsiders have an issue with how we use both metric and English units. How fucking hard is that to get? And no, people are not converting English units for everyday use because there is no need to.

 

[neshcom]

What problem would be solved with a nationwide switch from the Imperial to the Metric system that is larger than the problems that the change itself would cause?

Minor annoyances on the internet. Think of all the bandwidth it'll save.

 

[Zukuu]

What problem would be solved with a nationwide switch from the Imperial to the Metric system that is larger than the problems that the change itself would cause?

ISO norms, efficiency, improved trade, cheaper imports / exports, less confusion, easier to handle, actually making sense and fucking uniting the entire world in something. With time, you can appreciate the convertibility and precision. Look at the UK, they are adapting slowly. It's not like you will stop using it at once, but in a few generations you are finally here.

 

[Ahasverus]

Imperial seems significantly simpler in construction than metric units seeing as they're more easily divisible by three, and triangles are common in construction.

What the fuck? Really, those mental gymnastics, what the fuck?

 

[Raistlin]

Why do we have so many different standards in America when the rest of the world seems to have it right? Here are some examples:

Metric vs Imperial.
The metric system is simply better. Feet, inches, miles, yards don't make any sense. They're all at factors of weird numbers like 12 or 3 or 5xxx. Metric system is always on a consistent factor. All factors that distinguish different measurements are powers of 10. It just makes sense and makes it much easier to convert measurements.

Same thing is true for weight. Onces and pounds make no sense. Neither does cups or pints or quarters or gallons. Millimeters is the most accurate and consistent measurement for fluids.

I don't think anyone disagrees that the metric system is simpler and better, but you're acting like in a vacuum the US decided to go with Imperial and everyone else choose metric. Obviously that's not what happened. We inherited it from England / Europe.

Certainly we should move over to metric, but clearly it's not that easy - we tried once, and failed spectacularly. The problem with a place like the US is the size and division of curriculum design across the numerous levels of governance. It's simply a much more difficult task than a place like England pulling it off.

I think certainly it will happen eventually though.

Celsius vs Farenheit.
Celcius centers itself around the freezing and boiling point of water. Makes sense considering how we use temperature on a daily basis. Farenheit is based on what? It just seems like a random scale to measure heat.

Similar to the above. That said, I personally prefer the granularity of Fahrenheit in normal everyday usage. While some of that comes from being used to it, it simply offers a clearer description of outside temperature due to the larger steps. Obviously it sucks for maths though.

Date.
Most of the world does a day/month/year method for the date. It is consistent. Days are smaller than months are smaller than years. But in America we do month/day/year. Why? Who knows?! Just cuz, apparently.

As a programmer, they all suck

Year/Month/Day 4ever. Simply easier to sort. Granted ticks is the best route since it's absolute, and can easily be converted to whatever.

Sports.
Why do we call it soccer and the rest of the world calls it football? The sport is entirely played with your feet. Instead we call a sport football that has 99% nothing to do with anything with your feet and ball being related together. We should have called soccer football and we should have called football "blitzball" or something like it.


What are some other people examples of our pointless American oddities?

Yes, it's dumb ... but I kind of get it.

American football became way bigger, way earlier here. So when there's a naming conflict, of course the newer, smaller entrant loses.

As to why American football was ever called football to begin with ... I have no good answer. That initial stupidity is where the problem lies.

 

[Hunter S.]

If you dissected most countries you would find they are all different and that the US is just being put in the spotlight all the time.

 

[Calamari41]

ISO norms, efficiency, improved trade, cheaper imports / exports, less confusion, easier to handle, actually making sense and fucking uniting the entire world in something. With time, you can appreciate the convertibility and precision. Look at the UK, they are adapting slowly. It's not like you will stop using it at once, but in a few generations you are finally here.

Can you quantify any of this?

 

[Raistlin]

What the fuck? Really, those mental gymnastics, what the fuck?

Actually that may in fact be a good point.

If anyone here does regular construction, they could chime in. If division by 3 is a common function though, then there's some merit ... but that's only true for some parts of the Imperial system - number of inches in a foot, feet in a yard, etc. When you move to other parts though, it still ends up seemingly random.

I mean sure the number of feet in a mile is divisible by 3, but how did we arrive at such a seemingly random multiple? Then there's weights, which are actually more base 16 than anything, etc.

This rationale only seems to work for length and area, and even then, only for some measurements

 

[genjiZERO]

As I understand it, our version of English is older so at least in the way the UK pronounces words, it is a deviation from English.

I wouldn't say American English is older. First, standardizations for both variants of the language is extremely recent. Also, Americans largely used British spellings until simplified spelling reforms in the early 1900s (the T. Roosevelt administration was a big proponent of this).

Also, if you are talking about accents there is a misconception that American accents are older than British ones. This misconception comes from notion that since British accents were rhotic at the time of English exploration, and since American accents are rhotic in modern times, then American accents must be older. However, this is untrue for a variety of reasons. First, some British accents where non-rhotic at that time - particularly south-eastern ones.

Also, and while it's true that non-rhoticity has spread in Britain over the centuries, not all are non-rhotic to this day. Also, and what's most important to dispelling this myth, is that American accents were originally non-rhotic too. They have just been becoming rhotic over time. As examples, think of a Bostonian saying "I pahked my cah" or a Georgian saying "I do declaiuh!". The rhotic accent most of us speak with today is a Midwestern accent that has spread through the use of television only in the last 60 years. I also imagine that the influx of Irish and continental Europeans (most of whom speak rhotically) have contributed to this change as well.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

ISO norms, efficiency, improved trade, cheaper imports / exports, less confusion, easier to handle, actually making sense and fucking uniting the entire world in something. With time, you can appreciate the convertibility and precision. Look at the UK, they are adapting slowly. It's not like you will stop using it at once, but in a few generations you are finally here.

Americans tried it in the 70's...hated it. Scrapped it. Moved on with our lives.

Not to mention, thinking the metric system is going to "unite the world" in anything is just silly. We use the metric system all the time...when we shoot our 5.56mm bullets at the other guys who shoot back at us with 7.62mm bullets.

 

[GYODX]

Sports.
Why do we call it soccer and the rest of the world calls it football?

The Japanese call it soccer.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Sports.
Why do we call it soccer and the rest of the world calls it football? The sport is entirely played with your feet. Instead we call a sport football that has 99% nothing to do with anything with your feet and ball being related together. We should have called soccer football and we should have called football "blitzball" or something like it.

NFL CAREER SCORING LEADERS

Rank Player Career Points

1 Morten Andersen 1982-2007 2,544
2 Gary Anderson 1982-2004 2,434
3 Jason Hanson 1992-2012 2,150
4 Adam Vinatieri (42) 1996- 2,146
5 John Carney 1988-2010 2,062
6 Matt Stover 1991-2009 2,004
7 George Blanda 1949-1975 2,002
8 Jason Elam 1993-2009 1,983
9 John Kasay 1991-2011 1,970
10 Norm Johnson 1982-1999 1,736
11 David Akers 1998-2013 1,721
12 Nick Lowery 1978-1996 1,711
13 Jan Stenerud 1967-1985 1,699
14 Ryan Longwell 1997-2011 1,687
15 Lou Groza 1946-1967 1,608
16 Eddie Murray 1980-2000 1,594
17 Al Del Greco 1984-2000 1,584
18 S. Janikowski (36) 2000- 1,574
19 Olindo Mare 1997-2012 1,555
20 Phil Dawson (40) 1999- 1,519
21 Steve Christie 1990-2004 1,476
22 Pat Leahy 1974-1991 1,470
23 Jay Feely (38) 2001- 1,451
24 Jim Turner 1964-1979 1,439
25 Matt Bahr 1979-1995 1,422
​

Those are the top 25 scorers in the game of pro football. What do all these guys have in common?

They are all kickers.

So you might want to reconsider your perspective on that.

In fact, to get to the highest-scoring non-kicker in the history of the NFL, you have to scroll down to #32 on the list. Jerry Rice. WR. 1256 pts.

So let's cut out this nonsense that football has nothing to do with kicking a ball like soccer does. It's how every half of every game starts. It's responsible for at least 1/3 of all the pts. scored in an average game. Often, it's more. Sometimes, it's the only pts. scored. Many, many games in a season are won or lost with the kicking game, often in the last seconds of a game.

And don't even get me started on the value of punting.

 

[Natetan]

Don't forget US paper sizes. A4 for lyfe.

 

[MoG EclipsE]

You mean milliliters for fluids and not millimeters?

 

[EdwardTeach]

In Britain we use a happy mixture of both imperial and metric. I can't imagine ordering anything other than a pint of beer, and using feet for height and inches for waist measurement help keep the figures small and simple. Can't get my head around Fahrenheit though, makes no sense to me.

 

[Mailbox]

A few weeks ago I was getting the mail after a shopping trip. I stop by the mailboxes we have in our complexes, and someone stops behind me.

Less than 10cm behind, while on a incline. I was scared to take my car out of park in case my car goes even a little bit backwards.

I tell this driver this, and they getting a bit miffed and said that they were a few feet away from my car.


This is in Canada mind you, but we do learn about the Imperial systems, so we aren't ignorant about this stuff.

But I really wouldn't say that "feet " and "inches" are really that much easier to distinguish by eye compared to meter an cm.


:/

 

[JJDinomite]

NFL CAREER SCORING LEADERS

Rank Player Career Points

1 Morten Andersen 1982-2007 2,544
2 Gary Anderson 1982-2004 2,434
3 Jason Hanson 1992-2012 2,150
4 Adam Vinatieri (42) 1996- 2,146
5 John Carney 1988-2010 2,062
6 Matt Stover 1991-2009 2,004
7 George Blanda 1949-1975 2,002
8 Jason Elam 1993-2009 1,983
9 John Kasay 1991-2011 1,970
10 Norm Johnson 1982-1999 1,736
11 David Akers 1998-2013 1,721
12 Nick Lowery 1978-1996 1,711
13 Jan Stenerud 1967-1985 1,699
14 Ryan Longwell 1997-2011 1,687
15 Lou Groza 1946-1967 1,608
16 Eddie Murray 1980-2000 1,594
17 Al Del Greco 1984-2000 1,584
18 S. Janikowski (36) 2000- 1,574
19 Olindo Mare 1997-2012 1,555
20 Phil Dawson (40) 1999- 1,519
21 Steve Christie 1990-2004 1,476
22 Pat Leahy 1974-1991 1,470
23 Jay Feely (38) 2001- 1,451
24 Jim Turner 1964-1979 1,439
25 Matt Bahr 1979-1995 1,422
​

Those are the top 25 scorers in the game of pro football. What do all these guys have in common?

They are all kickers.

So you might want to reconsider your perspective on that.

In fact, to get to the highest-scoring non-kicker in the history of the NFL, you have to scroll down to #32 on the list. Jerry Rice. WR. 1256 pts.

So let's cut out this nonsense that football has nothing to do with kicking a ball like soccer does. It's how every half of every game starts. It's responsible for at least 1/3 of all the pts. scored in an average game. Often, it's more. Sometimes, it's the only pts. scored. Many, many games in a season are won or lost with the kicking game, often in the last seconds of a game.

And don't even get me started on the value of punting.

Damn fucking straight.

 

[USC-fan]

Why do we have so many different standards in America when the rest of the world seems to have it right? Here are some examples:

Metric vs Imperial.
The metric system is simply better. Feet, inches, miles, yards don't make any sense. They're all at factors of weird numbers like 12 or 3 or 5xxx. Metric system is always on a consistent factor. All factors that distinguish different measurements are powers of 10. It just makes sense and makes it much easier to convert measurements.

Same thing is true for weight. Onces and pounds make no sense. Neither does cups or pints or quarters or gallons. Millimeters is the most accurate and consistent measurement for fluids.

Celsius vs Farenheit.
Celcius centers itself around the freezing and boiling point of water. Makes sense considering how we use temperature on a daily basis. Farenheit is based on what? It just seems like a random scale to measure heat.

Date.
Most of the world does a day/month/year method for the date. It is consistent. Days are smaller than months are smaller than years. But in America we do month/day/year. Why? Who knows?! Just cuz, apparently.

Sports.
Why do we call it soccer and the rest of the world calls it football? The sport is entirely played with your feet. Instead we call a sport football that has 99% nothing to do with anything with your feet and ball being related together. We should have called soccer football and we should have called football "blitzball" or something like it.


What are some other people examples of our pointless American oddities?

1. Agree on this point.

2. I like F over C just because the scale is bigger so you can a more accurate measurement with only using 2 numbers.

3. You are just wrong on the date. EVERYONE say June 14th 2015. Make sense for it to read month, day, year.

4. no one in america care about soccer.

 

[Hypron]

The metric system question:

Everywhere where it matters to use the metric system in the US the metric system is already used. We only use imperial measurements for things that don't actually matter, driving distance. The reason you don't see it changed is because America is fucking gigantic and it would prohibitively expensive to switch to the metric system for practically no real gain.

Same for temperature. Everywhere where it actually matters they already use C or even K.

No it's not. Lots of companies still use imperial units.

 

[Mister Negative]

Farenheit is better for the measurement of the weather. 0 is freezing cold, 100 is sweltering hot.

Celsius is better for science, sure. But we don't live in water. 0 is rain turning to snow and 100 means you're dead. It's a stupid scale in relation to air temperature.

 

[neshcom]

Temperature is such a weird talking point in these sorts of threads since it doesn't get converted much outside of science, so it comes down to what important numbers you remember and not wanting to remember the other guys' numbers.

 

[Hypron]

Temperature is such a weird talking point in these sorts of threads since it doesn't get converted much outside of science, so it comes down to what important numbers you remember and not wanting to remember the other guys' numbers.

Yeah this is true. Both systems are fine for everyday use.

Using Celsius makes more sense when you are already using other metric units though (because of the relationships between them).

It's not like distances where having a single unit with prefixes (metre) is simply better than having 4 different ones (inch, feet, yard, miles) which are completely arbitrarily related. The imperial system would be pretty similar if the only unit used was the yard with prefixes. You could have centiyards, deciyards, kiloyards, etc.

 

[gutter_trash]

Every fucking one has it wrong.

yyyy-MM-dd

This this this

I label my picture folders by YYYY-MM-DD because it makes filing order chronologically correct

 

[NoblesseOblige]

What the fuck? Really, those mental gymnastics, what the fuck?

Just because you can't comprehend something doesn't make it 'mental gymnastics'. And if you had bothered to read future posts I mention I have no trouble switching between systems. They're not hard and having prejudice towards one is just self-crippling. However when I do small/home construction projects I default to imperial units because they're more easily divisible in my head.

 

[Kurt Angle]

when you break our undefeated streak in world wars

come and tell us to change our ways then &#127482;&#127480;

 

[mokeyjoe]

Don't forget US paper sizes. A4 for lyfe.

Agh, this. When you get some paperwork from the US and it sticks out of the edge of the folders and goes all curly. There's your first world fucking problem right there!

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

Minor annoyances on the internet. Think of all the bandwidth it'll save.

Yeah, that NASA fuckup with "who the fuck used the US system in a calculation?" is really a minor annoyance in terms of being preventable, giving the organization a bad name and possibly even more cuts, and all the while being the fault of lazy politics. The entire WORLD uses metric. It's not a fucking debate what system 7 BILLION other people have already agreed on is the superior (and scalable) system.

Also, in and piece of entertainment with flight ever:
"oh no, we're only a 100 feet from the ground!"

worldwide audiences don't even flinch, because nobody can understand wtf that means. And then there's gallon. "oh no, we've only got a gallon left!"
Again, audiences don't respond to this dramatic information, because nobody knows wtf that means.
I suspect a good deal of profits were lost over something as simple as not trying to communicate wtf is meant.

edit: oh wow, paper sizes too? Why?