6 ms·
Why does everyone still have to use imperial/US measurements. Metric please or I have to break out the calculator.
by meaty 14y ago
Why does everyone still have to use imperial/US measurements. Metric please or I have to break out the calculator.
- loeg 14y agoAtwood's an American. Writers will write what they know… they're hardly obligated to use an unfamiliar measurement system for your convenience.
- mooism2 14y agoWell, it depends. If Atwood's aiming at an international audience, then he should use both measurement systems. If he's happy with an American audience then there's no reason for him to bother. I note that the date of his blog post is the international-friendly “November 19, 2012” rather than the American numeric “11/19/2012”. But internationalising dates like this is easier than providing measurements in dual units.
- bjcy 14y agoUs Americans do use "Month DD, YYYY" quite frequently, so I don't think that his usage of it is done purposefully.
- sliverstorm 14y agoIndeed. MM/DD/YY is used informally and for datapoints (e.g. the Date field when you sign a form), but any time you are writing formally (e.g. a letter) you use Month DD, YYYY. It's almost like MM/DD/YY is the abbreviation of "Month DD, YYYY"
- moe 14y agoXX/XX/YY is a terrible format and I wish people would stop using it. 01/02/03 can be January 2nd or February 1st, and often there's not enough context to determine which was meant.
- TeMPOraL 14y ago> If Atwood's aiming at an international audience, then he should use both measurement systems. That, and also Atwood's popularity among American readers gives him a great opportunity to encourage them to use metric. In the meantime, use http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4751410 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4751410 :).
- jiggy2011 14y agoTry being British, you basically have to understand both intuitively.
- meaty 14y agoI am British! I haven't used imperial for at least 15 years apart from for speed limits, which I ignore anyway.
- smiler 14y agoExcept you subconsciously have. All display sizes are sold in inches. The trip computer on your car will tell you miles per gallon. Even if you ignore speed limits, your speedometer gives you your speed in MPH :). If you've ever flown on a plane, altitude has been given as feet and distance in miles. So you do use both.
- nfg 14y ago> If you've ever flown on a plane, altitude has been given as feet and distance in miles. I've been on plenty of flights where displays and cockpit announcements were in metres (altitude) and kilometres (distance + velocity) - as well as Celsius for outside temperature.
- meaty 14y agoTrue with display sizes although I'm interested more in resolution than size. My trip computer does litres per 100km. I drive a Citroen C5 and it has kph on it as well as mph. My satnav usually reminds me if I'm driving too fast (in kmh which is handy) and that results only in me watching out for speed cameras and the fuzz :) I don't fly - I drive if needs be. I frequently drive around Europe as it's easier than dealing with flights and a damn sight more comfortable, reliable and cheaper than flying. I can drive to Leipzig from London in about 10-12 hours.
- lloeki 14y ago> If you've ever flown on a plane, altitude has been given as feet and distance in miles. If you fly a plane (not just on a plane), those are nautical miles, not land miles. And speed in knots. And rate of climb in ft/min.
- cmelbye 14y agoPeople from the US use US measurements, surprisingly.
- meaty 14y agoYes and look where that got you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter
- InclinedPlane 14y agoYes and also 4 rovers on Mars, and 12 astronauts on the Moon. The problem with the MCO disaster wasn't mixing up units, it was a sub-contractor failing to follow a specification properly, which can happen for any number of reasons. Also, it's not the only way that such missions can fail. Let us remember that since the mid-90s there have been 2 failed US Mars missions as well as a failed European mission (the Beagle 2 lander), a failed Japanese mission, and 2 failed Russian missions. As well as one and only one successful European mission and 8 successful US missions.
- yread 14y agoThe real pain starts when you use derived units. How many pascals are there in a pound per square inch? And what is the ratio between DPI and pixel per mm^2