8 ms·
Wait, Canada converted from Imperial to Metric? Wow that's amazing! I wish the US would do the same.
by sova 10y ago
Wait, Canada converted from Imperial to Metric? Wow that's amazing! I wish the US would do the same.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- auxym 10y agoOnly 3 countries in the entire world have not adopted SI units.
- techdragon 10y agoActually Liberia and Myanmar have been converting to Metric, so the USA is likely the last place where people are not being taught Metric. Unless it's improved and Metric is being taught in American schools?
- learc83 10y agoMetric has been taught in most American schools since the 70s. Nearly everyone here learned it at some point, but most people don't use it day to day, so they don't think in it.
- Shivetya 10y agoyeah but its not like its pushed much outside of chemistry. my niece and nephew have learned less about it than I did over thirty years ago. it simply is not a priority, it could be slowly slipped into prominence by emphasizing the measurements on everyday items instead of making those in small print
- learc83 10y ago>yeah but its not like its pushed much outside of chemistry Every science class I had in high school used metric. We also spent a fair amount of time going through it in elementary and middle school math classes. My younger sister (by 20 years) spent a good deal of time on the metric system in her math classes.
- khedoros1 10y agoMy science education, at least in secondary school, was all in metric. I graduated from high school in 2003. The issue is that it isn't used here in everyday life, so it becomes "that weird thing from science [which I already disliked because of the math]". I've done experiments switching to metric. It's not a good idea to rely on my GPS for speed limit information. My home thermostat apparently doesn't have a Celsius setting (and would confuse my wife if it did). It's difficult, but mostly possible to switch here...but what's the point? It's a lot of work for comparatively little benefit.
- knowaveragejoe 10y agoI was taught metric and its merits over other systems in public school, but I'm sure it varies across the country.
- rmc 10y agoIn theory the UK is fully metric. In practice isn't not.
- patall 10y agoIt is the same in Canada. F.e. Supermarkets advertise the price per pound (presumptively because it is smaller)
- Symbiote 10y agoAmerican influence on Canada means they have oven temperatures in Fahrenheit, recipes in cups, American paper sizes, furniture and buildings in inches etc. Britain has all of this in metric; the beer, road signs and casual (non-medical) body measurements are the only exceptions.
- jwalton 10y agoOntario build code is hilarious. For example, table 9.23.10.1 specified the size and spacing of studs in walls. For interior walls, the maximum stud spacing is 406mm on center, and minimum stud size is 38x38mm. If you didn't know this was 16" on center, and 2x2 framing, you'd think some mad drunk person had come up with these numbers. I also like to imagine building inspectors walking into a building and saying "Oh, these studs are 407mm apart. Tear the building down."
- tonyarkles 10y agoAnd in official government communication, it is nominally metric, but you'll see things in e.g. building codes like "hallways must have a width exceeding 914mm", which is really just 3 feet.
- stymaar 10y agoThey partially did since 1975[1]. [1] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States#20th_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Stat...
- DonaldFisk 10y agoThe US doesn't use imperial units. It uses customary units. An imperial pint is 25% larger than a customary one. Metric conversion in the UK isn't complete: on road signs, distances are in miles and speeds are in miles per hour. Pints are used to serve draught or keg beer. In aviation, height/altitude is measured in feet or flight levels (hundreds of feet), horizontal distance is measured in nautical miles, and speed is measured in knots.
- djsumdog 10y agoI found this really surprising about the UK. Most of the other common wealth nations (Canada, Australia, NZ) all have their signs in metric.
- palunon 10y ago>Pints are used to serve draught or keg beer. Even in France, we use pints to serve beer...
- MagnumOpus 10y agoSure, but it is a normal metric pint (0.5L) - and the demi is 250mL. In the UK and US they still have ye olde measures - 568.3mL and 473.2mL respectively.
- rmc 10y agoAFAIK US pints for aren't 568ml. Whoever said everything is bigger in America didn't include the beer.
- arnoooooo 10y agoExcept the french pint is metric (50 cl).
- snag 10y agoyes but only for beer in bars though.
- noir_lord 10y ago
- elchief 10y agoWe did. Except we still use feet for height and pounds for weight, commonly
- dorfsmay 10y agoHaven't most hospitals switchwd to kg and m? Construction on the other hand is still mainly in imperial/US units, which makes sense given that the use the same material providers as the US.
- ajdlinux 10y agoIn most English-speaking, metric-using countries, hospitals use the metric system for measuring weight and height, but it's common to still hear imperial units used in casual conversation. In Australia I definitely still hear people talking about height in terms of feet and inches. Weight tends to be in kilograms these days though.
- dorfsmay 10y agoThis is fairly new in Canada. 10 years ago (long after the conversion to metric), hospitals and doctors used to speak in feet/pounds. As they have switched to metric fairly recently, I expect people to slowly get used to it and soon starting using metric for height and weight as well.
- Symbiote 10y agoBritain has switched entirely to metric in healthcare, removing the last "friendly" bit of communicating to patients in Imperial. The risk of confusion was too high, and there was at least one case of a severe overdose when a weight was accidentally given in pounds rather than kilogrammes. If an American child was hurt outside the USA, and the parent overheard the nurse saying their weight was 55kg, would they know whether that's accurate? That's why it's important that the same units are used at home and in science.
- smoyer 10y ago
- WildUtah 10y agoThat's why I voted for Lincoln Chafee in the primary. [0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI4n5OdqWfw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI4n5OdqWfw
- djsumdog 10y agoIt's boggling that the US hasn't moved over yet. At a minimal, all Interstate speed limit signs should be required to have both mph and kph (there are a few highway signs like this, but they're rare). Mandate in 8 years, they'll be kph only.
- rtkwe 10y agoThe US is a huge country. Just to replace the road related signs alone means replacing or modifying hundreds of thousands of signs. There's mile markers (at least 48,000 alone given the 46,876 miles of interstates in the US), exit signs, distance to destination signs, and speed limit signs. These signs are rarely replaced unless they're damaged so 8 years would still require a lot of unexpected maintenance.
- Moru 10y agoYes, and if you had started in the 1970's it would have been done by now. But since the press thought it was "dictatorial", there wasn't much interest at the time. So now you have 40 years of new signs to replace :-)
- davewasthere 10y agoI think the US could gradually move to metric, but as with the UK, there's no need to replace miles as a distance measurement. In some ways, I think it'd be nice to always keep mph/miles... but otherwise, for weights and measures, metric would be superior. And hey, if it's good enough for NASA, it's good enough for the rest of the states. ;) Worst hit, would probable be the automobile industry. But I'd say there'd be advantages to metrification there too.
- 10y ago
- zeveb 10y ago> I wish the US would do the same. Why? The French system has exactly two benefits: it's popular, and it's easier to perform abstract conversions (i.e., conversions between units on paper). OTOH, it is worse at performing concrete manipulations (i.e., dividing one physical quantity into another): accurately cutting or dividing quantities into tenths without the aid of a guide of some sort (e.g. a ruler or measuring cup) is so difficult as to be basically impossible, while cutting or dividing into halves is so easy that a child can do it, and thirds are not much harder at all. Yes, it happens that it's easier to 'do science' currently using French units, but that is because all of the standard constants happen to be based in those terms: there's no fundamental reason one couldn't use Rankine instead of Kelvin and so forth. I won't claim that the standard system of units is perfect (the partial decimalisation the Brits attempted in the 19th century was misguided): indeed, it could get a lot better: nautical miles are probably better than statue miles; a reset in the length of the yard so that there are 1,728 yards in a mile would probably be a decent idea; a cup ought to be 16 cubic inches; and so forth. But throwing away 12 (with its divisors of 6, 4, 2 & 3) for 10 (with half as many: 5 & 2) was a foolish, foolish decision by the French. If they'd really wanted to be revolutionary, they'd have adopted base-12 numbering instead of trying to fit the world to base 10. (I will grant the the French system of paper sizes is elegant, and I wouldn't mind us adopting a similar system based, of course, on the yard)
- Symbiote 10y agoThe times when the measurement can be divided by 2 are either so rare as to be irrelevant (the room isn't an even number of inches long anyway, and adding feet makes the calculation worse) or arrive by design (my dishwasher is 900mm wide, check the factors in that). The paper sizes are German, and adopted by the ISO.
- zeveb 10y agoIn physical trades like carpentry, brewing, farming & so forth, being able to easily halve, double or treble quantities is quite convenient. The customary units, being based on powers of 2 (with a few 3s thrown in …) tend to be really good at this, as anyone who's ever brewed or handled produce in standard units knows. Dealing with French units is a pain. (as an aside, the reason I call them 'French units' is because the name 'metric' privileges them: our standard units are no less a system of measures than are they; this too is my problem with 'SI,' since our system is (or was) likewise international)
- headcanon 10y agoThere are countries that use the metric system, and countries that land on the moon :)
- sova 10y agoRather Dude-like wisdom, my chapeau off to you, sir