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From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system : “The SI has been adopted as the official system of weights and m
by NKosmatos 4y ago
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system :
“The SI has been adopted as the official system of weights and measures by all nations in the world except for Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States.”
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- thechao 4y agoWeird: > https://usma.org/laws-and-bills/metric-conversion-act-of-1975 https://usma.org/laws-and-bills/metric-conversion-act-of-197... > https://usma.org/laws-and-bills/executive-order-12770 https://usma.org/laws-and-bills/executive-order-12770 The US government hasn't been great in converting US industry to metric. But ... it's a bit disingenuous to say we didn't even try.
- anonporridge 4y agoI believe we have Ronald Reagan to thank for cancelling our efforts from the 70s.
- krallja 4y agoA ronna-Reagan is 10^27 Reagans.
- jerf 4y agoOne ronna-reagan is approximately 4% of the sun's mass: https://www.google.com/search?q=%28185+pounds%29+*+10%5E27+%2F+solar+mass&ei=9MB3Y-vUOuylptQPufCdiA0&ved=0ahUKEwjrnqfgoLj7AhXskokEHTl4B9EQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=%28185+pounds%29+*+10%5E27+%2F+solar+mass https://www.google.com/search?q=%28185+pounds%29+*+10%5E27+%... At least if I have that right. A single Reagan's mass is from: https://www.celebheights.com/s/Ronald-Reagan-1750.html https://www.celebheights.com/s/Ronald-Reagan-1750.html Or, if you prefer, our sun as about 25 ronna-Reagans.
- SuoDuanDao 4y agoweird question for anyone with the relevant knowledge, would 25 ronna-Reagans in one place behave differently than our sun? I know that mass would be mostly oxygen, but at that scale does it matter?
- smueller1234 4y agoYou should ask Randall Munroe! :) http://what-if.xkcd.com http://what-if.xkcd.com
- jerf 4y agoHe did something pretty close early on: https://what-if.xkcd.com/4/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/4/ Upping the mass to the sun size would cause some interesting additional wrinkles because now we're talking about being large enough to have "problems" with the pressures in the middle being sufficient to start causing atoms to squish together, but it would take an astronomer to be clear on what happens next. My gut and layman's understanding says you might get a pretty big boom in a couple hundred thousand years or so, because you'd basically be building a sun that would be fairly far along its fuel consumption cycle.
- nkrisc 4y agoAre you asking in terms of gravitation or as a star? By mass, the sun is 71% Hydrogen and 27.1% Helium, the last 1.9% or so being heavier elements (much of that being oxygen. I’m no expert, but I suspect a mass of 25 ronna-Reagans would not make a very good star. I imagine it might collapse into a dense Oxygen and Carbon rich sphere, and in that environment various chemical reactions might turn it into some other kind of material. But maybe I’m way off.
- saltcured 4y agoAnd 1 ronna-mcdonald's is over 9.9e37 served!
- horsawlarway 4y ago[flagged]
- coliveira 4y agoRaegan was a complete walking disgrace. But the media was very kind to him, if you don't investigate carefully what he was doing you'll believe that he was a great president. The only explanation I see is that he was fantastic for the war industry and gave everything the very rich were expecting in terms of fiscal policy.
- Normille 4y ago
- GordonS 4y ago> eleventy-billion-squillion-sixty-fourths of an inch Or, for short, the Freedom Inch!
- anonporridge 4y agoIndirectly false. Even though we don't use metric directly in most cases in the US, the US customary units have long been rebased to be defined by metric units. Inches and pounds are just centimeters and newtons walking around in a whacky outfit.
- kibwen 4y agoSpecifically, this happened in 1893: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendenhall_Order https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendenhall_Order
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoThe inch wasn't converted to a derived metric unit in the US until 1959. This creates an issue for precision machinery manufactured before the redefinition because the slight difference is enough to matter where allowed to accumulate.
- MiddleEndian 4y agoIf only some governing body had been aggressive enough to redefine NTSC 60Hz as actually 60 fps.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoIt was 60fps. Color required an adjustment to prevent stationary artifacts.
- MiddleEndian 4y agoRight, but they should've put in the work to redo things back then so we wouldn't have to deal with stupid refresh rates now lol
- unwind 4y agoWell, isn't that by definition true for any system of measurements? I mean, as long as we're talking about a simple straight-line distance in some real-dimensional space, it's going to be possible to measure that distance in meters (or yards, or whatever). Yes I know about fractal lengths, coastlines and so on. I think the point is that the US customary units are typically used in a very different way, with fractions being way more important than in metric. See the image in this [1] article that talks about drill sizes for DIY use, for instance. You guys go like "oh no the 5/16:ths hole is too small, I'll step up to 19/64ths that should do it". Over here in metric-world we go more like "oh no the 7.9 mm drill was too small, I'll step up to 8 mm". Again, the fact that it's easy to convert the 5/16:ths to 7.9375 mm is not the point, the point is how the decimal/metric units are used in practice.
- nwb99 4y agoI believe the US legally defines the US customary units by metric counterparts anyway. https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/si-units-length https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/si-units-length Still, I'm probably the 1% of 1% of Americans who uses Celsius in daily life, except where I cannot (my car won't let me do hybrid miles and Celsius, ugh).
- Symbiote 4y agoCelsius and miles would be the British localisation for a car, if that's available.
- kyawzazaw 4y agoWe use the Metric System quite frequently in Myanmar.
- Symbiote 4y agoIf you can find official and unofficial references, it would be helpful to allow the article to be updated.
- rootusrootus 4y agoAnd the UK, unless for some reason their official speed limits and such aren't actually, you know, official. As a practical matter, we use metric for many things in the US. The fact that we do not force everyone to change their customary units to metric really seems to irk some folks, but mostly outside the US.
- orf 4y agoUk is metric, but we do use a mix. Speed limits are still in mph, and we rarely if ever use kilometres for distances. Height is in ft and inches, and your own weight is in stones/pounds. All other weights are in grams and kg, except for some larger ones (industrial/shipping) which are in tonnes. Pints are used only for… pints, everything else is in ml. And, the best, is “football pitches” which is often used by the news to describe large (but not too large) lengths.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- MayeulC 4y agoBut do you use metric tonnes (1000 kg) and "metric" pints (½ litre, not actually metric, but in use for drinks in metric countries)?
- orf 4y agoProbably metric tonnes, not sure, it’s just “a lot” when it’s used colloquially. Pints are imperial for drinks, 568ml.
- nicoburns 4y agoWe use metric tonnes. For pints (only really used for beer and milk), we still use an imperial pint but it's officially specified in millilitres (568ml) and this will always be printed on packaging.
- DharmaPolice 4y agoMy favourite bit of nonsense is signs for distance for walkers. Distances are usually in miles or fractions of miles but for indicating things really close by (e.g. toilets round the corner) we switch to metres.
- wnevets 4y agoExcept the US uses the Metric system > U.S. customary units have been defined in terms of metric units since the 19th century, and the SI has been the "preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce" since 1975 according to United States law.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Stat...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- DiggyJohnson 4y agoThis seems offtopic and flame war bait, especially posted without additional commentary.