4 ms·

Tell HN: Happy Birthday, Celsius - Canada marks 50 years of metric

12 points by cf100clunk 2y ago

cf100clunk 2y ago
On January 1, 1975, Canada converted its measurement system from the Imperial (as used throughout the British Empire) to the SI (a.k.a. ''metric''). Commerce is conducted strictly with SI, while Imperial is still used on occasion in informal situations or on shop signs to give helpful equivalents for older generations. The voluminous trade between the U.S.A. and Canada nevertheless still remains based upon a mix of SI and U.S. standards. On the Canadian side of the border leading into Canada, signs often remind U.S. drivers of the equivalent road speeds since speedometers in modern U.S. market cars have the miles-per-hour figure predominant unless updated by the driver when crossing. SI is, of course, used throughout U.S. science-based industries and services, but rarely given by popular U.S. news sources, in U.S. recipes, or in U.S. weather reports. In Canada, SI is predominant in all of the above. Canadians chuckle when the Celsius temperatures given by U.S. weather reporters are given as ''Centigrade''.
- retrac 2y ago
  The popular use of feet, inches, pounds, and a few of the other old units does persist in parallel to SI. As the joke goes, only in Canada can a river be 200 km long and 2 ft wide.
  - cf100clunk 2y ago
    Indeed, especially in building materials. Even though common retail softwood lumber wall studs have not been based on a 2" parameter in many decades (they're actually 1.5 by 3.5") and despite the change to the metric system, they are still commonly called two-by-fours, two-by-sixes, etc. Liquid measurements are a very different story. Given the changeover to litres at the gas pump that affected millions of consumers across generations, and given the closeness of 1 litre to 1 Imperial quart, the use of SI with liquids is pretty well complete other than in cooking recipes that usually still use teaspoons and tablespoons instead of millilitres, or grams for solids. As someone who travels in both countries, I don't need to look at a retail grocery item's fine print to tell in which of the 2 countries I'd bought it when a quick look at the labeled mass/weight or volume informs me instantly.
snvzz 2y ago
The question being what's preventing the USA from achieving the same.
- cf100clunk 2y ago
  A chronically underfunded public education system? Not-invented-here syndrome? I've often wondered the same thing.
HappySweeney 2y ago
The deep economic integration with the US has lead us to use this [0] insane flowchart to determine which units to use in which situation. It appears to be a joke at first, but it's accurate. [0] https://images.app.goo.gl/kUpkGubsWXe9ShP19 https://images.app.goo.gl/kUpkGubsWXe9ShP19
- BrainInAJar 2y ago
  it's both the economic relationship but also because the Conservative government defunded metrication in the 80's about halfway through it's timeline.
rufus_foreman 2y ago
For those of you more familiar with metric units, 50 years is approximately 1.58 gigaseconds.

12 points by cf100clunk 2y ago

On January 1, 1975, Canada converted its measurement system from the Imperial (as used throughout the British Empire) to the SI (a.k.a. ''metric''). Commerce is conducted strictly with SI, while Imperial is still used on occasion in informal situations or on shop signs to give helpful equivalents for older generations. The voluminous trade between the U.S.A. and Canada nevertheless still remains based upon a mix of SI and U.S. standards. On the Canadian side of the border leading into Canada, signs often remind U.S. drivers of the equivalent road speeds since speedometers in modern U.S. market cars have the miles-per-hour figure predominant unless updated by the driver when crossing. SI is, of course, used throughout U.S. science-based industries and services, but rarely given by popular U.S. news sources, in U.S. recipes, or in U.S. weather reports. In Canada, SI is predominant in all of the above. Canadians chuckle when the Celsius temperatures given by U.S. weather reporters are given as ''Centigrade''.

retrac 2y ago
The popular use of feet, inches, pounds, and a few of the other old units does persist in parallel to SI. As the joke goes, only in Canada can a river be 200 km long and 2 ft wide.
- cf100clunk 2y ago
  Indeed, especially in building materials. Even though common retail softwood lumber wall studs have not been based on a 2" parameter in many decades (they're actually 1.5 by 3.5") and despite the change to the metric system, they are still commonly called two-by-fours, two-by-sixes, etc. Liquid measurements are a very different story. Given the changeover to litres at the gas pump that affected millions of consumers across generations, and given the closeness of 1 litre to 1 Imperial quart, the use of SI with liquids is pretty well complete other than in cooking recipes that usually still use teaspoons and tablespoons instead of millilitres, or grams for solids. As someone who travels in both countries, I don't need to look at a retail grocery item's fine print to tell in which of the 2 countries I'd bought it when a quick look at the labeled mass/weight or volume informs me instantly.

snvzz 2y ago

The question being what's preventing the USA from achieving the same.

cf100clunk 2y ago
A chronically underfunded public education system? Not-invented-here syndrome? I've often wondered the same thing.

HappySweeney 2y ago

The deep economic integration with the US has lead us to use this [0] insane flowchart to determine which units to use in which situation. It appears to be a joke at first, but it's accurate. [0] https://images.app.goo.gl/kUpkGubsWXe9ShP19 https://images.app.goo.gl/kUpkGubsWXe9ShP19

BrainInAJar 2y ago
it's both the economic relationship but also because the Conservative government defunded metrication in the 80's about halfway through it's timeline.

rufus_foreman 2y ago

For those of you more familiar with metric units, 50 years is approximately 1.58 gigaseconds.