In the short term it would be bad but what about economies of scale and interchangeable foreign parts and such?
I don't know enough about this so I might be/am talking about of my ass.
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Will the US ever switch to the metric system?
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
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In the short term it would be bad but what about economies of scale and interchangeable foreign parts and such?
I don't know enough about this so I might be/am talking about of my ass.
I learned metric in 7th grade back in 97. Arizona is also far from the best educational system around.
starchild excalibur
Member
I'll agree with the rest of the world that the US has it wrong with the imperial system and with the lack of logic that went into it.
But I will not agree that the rest of the world has it right when it comes to the date format. Yes, you can argue that the units are rising in a logical manner when you write 6/10/2012, but I'd much rather have a written system that better reflects how things are said in every day discourse. I don't fucking think of it as "It's the 6th of October, 2012." It's not a bad way to say it, just as it's not bad to say "It's 29 minutes past 4" but saying "It's 4:29" is more efficient.
And seeing as how the date format has a much limited use than systems of measurement which require mathematical patterns and consistency, I don't really get the huff about the way certain parts of the world write the date.
But I will not agree that the rest of the world has it right when it comes to the date format. Yes, you can argue that the units are rising in a logical manner when you write 6/10/2012, but I'd much rather have a written system that better reflects how things are said in every day discourse. I don't fucking think of it as "It's the 6th of October, 2012." It's not a bad way to say it, just as it's not bad to say "It's 29 minutes past 4" but saying "It's 4:29" is more efficient.
And seeing as how the date format has a much limited use than systems of measurement which require mathematical patterns and consistency, I don't really get the huff about the way certain parts of the world write the date.
ReConstructDead
Member
One thing I find really annoying about the American system is the opposite use of full stops and commas in maths 
It's so complicated having to write, for example, ten thousand dollars and fifty cents as
10,000.50 when it should be 10.000,50!
Especially when you're using a TI calculator with American settings.
Also, your numbers after a million don't make sense!
It's so complicated having to write, for example, ten thousand dollars and fifty cents as
10,000.50 when it should be 10.000,50!
Especially when you're using a TI calculator with American settings.
Also, your numbers after a million don't make sense!
You Are Viewtiful
Member
I've recently asked teachers what they prefer, British or American spellings... The typical answer is "whatever"
But actually the spelling issue is the opposite of the metric issue. Americans have it right here. Ditch the useless 'U's.
Colour is the official Canadian spelling you heathen.
Also, your numbers after a million don't make sense!
Ummm, can you explain to me how the European system makes more sense? The English system is a lot more logical from where I'm looking at: a new -illion for every (,000).
Jack Scofield
Member
.
A poor workaround for a poorly thought-out temperature scale.
It's well thought out, but it's more useful when you're dealing with temperature ranges beyond which humans could survive.
One thing I find really annoying about the American system is the opposite use of full stops and commas in maths
It's so complicated having to write, for example, ten thousand dollars and fifty cents as
10,000.50 when it should be 10.000,50!
Especially when you're using a TI calculator with American settings.
Also, your numbers after a million don't make sense!
Not when the decimal signifies that it is less than a full dollar just like 0.5m is half of a meter.
Celcius is far more useful for my oven, that's for sure.
ReConstructDead
Member
Erm, I would write that as 0,5m
Wouldn't you too?
Assuming you're German.
Canadian
Souldriver
Member
Too 50 posts. I'm disappointed in you gaf.
Expansion to one decimal space is a poor workaround? A system with "everyday" milestones set around the state changes of water (rather useful as seasonal weather goes) is poorly thought out? You don't even begin to make sense.
Because Math say so and Math is the thing that makes sense in the universe
Imperial sucks
SI rocks aside for Kelvin
Celsius is the superior way
yyyy/mm/dd is the superior way
dd/mm/yyyy is the lesser evil
mm/dd/yyyy is so fucked up that i can't even think about it
This is a terrible analogy.
When I say the date out loud I say "October 6th, 2012". Therefore why wouldn't I write it the same way?
It's really not hard to remember the temperature water freezes at in Fahrenheit. I don't get the stink people raise over F when you never have to convert it. The worst part about it is its name.
Also I'm pretty sure the post you're replying to was in jest.
The language is broken, well not the language but how people use it
use "six October" instead of "October sixth" otherwise you should even use 2012th (year since Christ is born)
AngmarsKing701
Member
I hope not. The metric system sucks.
It's actually the other way around in my language.
Directly translated we say "Six October 2012".
You Are Viewtiful
Member
Why would you think of things to the base million though? >_> Base thousand makes more sense because we (the Western world) think and write numbers in thousands (,000), so billion is basically the next thousandth after million.
so basically
1 - one
10 - ten
100 - hundren
1,000 - thousand
10,000 - ten thousand
100,000 - hundred thousand
1,000,000 - million
10,000,000 - ten million
100,000,000 - hundred million
1,000,000,000 - billion
etc.
In science, base 10 is the most important base number, followed by the base 1000 (kilo, mega, giga, milli, micro, nano etc.), so it makes more sense to follow the base 1000 numbering.
I agree with everything else you say though lol. All my university, bank and government forms nowadays require yyyy/mm/dd in Canada, but that's because informally people are split between using the American and British system, so confusion happens very frequently.
Don't you guys have a holiday called Fourth of July? It almost seems like there is more than one way to say the date, much like writing it
LOL, never realised that one, nail in the coffin for the US date order.
even if it would be wrong to use the short system because a Billion is 10 to the power of 9 or 1000 to the power of 3 and the Bi=2 is nowhere to be found
It's Independence Day. "4th of July" is the slang term used for it.
You Are Viewtiful
Member
Well milli usually means 10 to the -3 so this goes both ways
Ignoring the "bi", billion masically means the next thousandth after a million.Slang ... sure *taps nose*
Well milli usually means 10 to the -3 so this goes both ways
actually it means 1000
deca is 10
Whatever it is, it is used and understood to mean the fourth day of July of that year. Now you just need to start using that order for the less culturally important dates.
entremet
Member
Perfect.
Too bad illogical nationalist can't absorb that. It offends their baseless pride.
EDIT: Does UK also use Imperial system to an extent?
Americunts? I'm referring to the image you quoted. What in the world lol
You Are Viewtiful
Member
I mean that milli means 10 to the power of -3, so million doesn't make much sense as a word itself.
Ciastek3214
Junior Member
"Remember, remember, November the 5th"
Temperature stuff is actually not that important but still Celcius is superior because it is connected with pure water. At below 0C temperature there are many changes to real life and 0C is very important in day to day life. Roads are dangerous, snow may fall and generally it's mayor change how people live.
Also 0 to 100C is wrong scale. It's something like -60 to 60 depending where you live. -30 really cold +30 very hot. That is the normal way of using C based temperature.
As for metric vs imperial system it's not even debatable. SI generally aside from C/F/K stuff is superior way. It's more logical and it's way easier. Using imperial system is like using roman numbers. It's understandable but in serious work it just don't work as good as SI.
Implementing system is another debate. Mainly cost.
And every body is wrong on date. It should be 2012/10/06 and there is no law that abide you to say in proper reading order
You have to post the picture dude.
Also 0 to 100C is wrong scale. It's something like -60 to 60 depending where you live. -30 really cold +30 very hot. That is the normal way of using C based temperature.
As for metric vs imperial system it's not even debatable. SI generally aside from C/F/K stuff is superior way. It's more logical and it's way easier. Using imperial system is like using roman numbers. It's understandable but in serious work it just don't work as good as SI.
Implementing system is another debate. Mainly cost.
And every body is wrong on date. It should be 2012/10/06 and there is no law that abide you to say in proper reading order
Exactly. Give us metric, but only if we can keep Fahrenheit (finer granulation over Celsius) and our dates in the best way :<
DiscoJer
Member
I can see a case for the freezing point being zero (though in practice you rarely do have pure water), but basing 100 for the boiling point is silly.
Fahrenheit was devised to be a practical system for everyday life.
Is it good for science? No, not really. But neither is Celsius, you have to convert to Kelvin. So you have an awkward scale adopted mostly due to peer pressure.
OldAsUrSock
Banned
I would like America to switch mostly to metric. Everything but temp should be metric since fahrenheit makes so much more sense then celsius. It makes no sense to me that 30° celsius is like 80° fahrenheit.
You Are Viewtiful
Member
If 100 wasn't the boiling point of water then what should it be? Surely not a number as random as 212F. The advantage of Celsius is that is scales linearly with Kelvin (just add 273), which still makes Celsius metric, even though it isn't SI, AND it's useful for daily life (-30C to +30C is the range of temperatures for where I live, and it's 0C to 50C in most deserts).
It's defined using the freezing/boiling point of water because it's easy to reproduce, just like a gram is defined as one cubic centimetre of water, and a kilogram is defined as 1000 cubic centimetres (or one litre) of water.
Celcius is not based on temperature of boiling water it's based on freezing temperature of water. Also no one scales 0 to 100 or -100 to 100. As i said it's mostly scaled to temperature achievable in area in which you use thermometer. So my has something like -50 to 50. In Russia it will be like -60 to 60.
edit:
which give you two extremes like F system and water freezing moment which is most important moment in day to day life.
I don't understand this sentiment. Any scale is fine once you know what it is. The only concern about a scale for everyday life is that each degree of difference should be meaningful.
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