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It's obviously a great idea, and obviously (to Americans) unlikely to happen in the lifetime of anybody reading this forum. Does anybody else from America reme
by veidr 14y ago
It's obviously a great idea, and obviously (to Americans) unlikely to happen in the lifetime of anybody reading this forum.
Does anybody else from America remember being taught the metric system in public elementary school, and being told that we'd be switching to it over the next few years? I was taught this around second grade (1981), I think based on the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act), which was not just signed by some random interweb tubers -- it was signed into law by the president. But IIRC, it was a toothless and impotent piece of legislation that was effectively stymied by the US auto industry.
P.S.
Amusing visual evidence that the US system sucks:
http://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/metric-system-1024x450.png http://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/metric-...
- tych0 14y agoSorry, but how is that picture evidence that the US system sucks? I don't disagree that we have a poor system, but "everyone else is doing it" has never been a justification to do anything!
- tonyedgecombe 14y agoIf everyone else was using tcp/ip would it be sensible to continue using ipx/spx?
- AutoKorrect 14y agoyeah, if you wanted to keep the hackers out
- derleth 14y agoAsk Sony how well security through obscurity's been working out for them.
- danneu 14y agoEvery time one of the red countries does business with the grey countries, there's conversion deadweight.
- frogpelt 14y agoWe should all have one currency too, then?
- jzwinck 14y agoOf course not: sovereign currencies have well-known benefits. Multiple systems of measurement are only a hindrance, a friction.
- Thrymr 14y agoThe friction of unit conversion is much lower, though, because they are constant and don't have transaction fees. The number of centimeters per inch or pounds per kilogram is the same today as it will be next month or next year.
- userulluipeste 14y ago...actually NASA proved that kind of friction to be very severe: http://articles.cnn.com/1999-09-30/tech/9909_30_mars.metric_1_mars-orbiter-climate-orbiter-spacecraft-team http://articles.cnn.com/1999-09-30/tech/9909_30_mars.metric_... Just think that it also could have affected people...
- dhosek 14y agoActually, that's the reason that most international trade is done in dollars.
- sp332 14y agoCurrency is backed by different governments, and they have different risks, rates of inflation, etc. We're just talking about measuring things.
- asher_ 14y agoI'm guessing you're quite unfamiliar with the metric system. The different types of measurements are defined in relation to one another and are thus easy to figure out, unlike the imperial system where everything is odds and ends. A kilogram is (almost exactly, but slightly different) to the mass of one litre of water. The force required to accelerate this mass at one metre per second squared is one Newton. One Newton acting on one square metre is one Pascal of pressure. Applying a force of one Newton through a distance of one metre is one joule of energy. This is the same amount of energy in passing a one ampere current of electricity through a resistance of one ohm for one second. One joule per second is one Watt.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- codva 14y agoYep - I remember being told in 4th or 5th grade (which would be 1975ish) that we all had to learn the metric system because the country was converting. And here we are 35 years later...
- joezydeco 14y agoI'm about the same age and went through the same education, although it was probably a bit earlier. It did come in handy when taking science courses in high school. Everything we did was in metric, from chemistry to physics. I don't know if American high schools ever taught things like physics in English measurement in years prior, that must have been a nightmare.
- angdis 14y agoI actually remember when the metric system was introduced in elementary schools. Looking back, there was far too much emphasis on getting all prefixes and their relationships memorized: micro, milli, centi, deci, hecto, kilo, mega. And virtually no emphasis on developing an intuitive "metric" feel for the common quantities in everyday life.
- smackfu 14y agoAmusing visual evidence that speaking English sucks: http://cnrsociety.org/images/English-Official_Map-s.png http://cnrsociety.org/images/English-Official_Map-s.png
- 430gj9j 14y agoThis would be a great analogy if countries in grey shared a common language.
- rjtavares 14y agoThere's a difference between "A vs. B" and "A vs. Not A"
- bjustin 14y ago>1/6 is a rather sizable fraction of the world's population (India itself is ~1/6 or 1/7 at over a billion people). Are there any other languages that are official for so many people? The metric system graphic indicates <1/6 of the world's population highlighted as not using the metric system, making gp's point stronger.
- funkaster 14y ago> Are there any other languages that are official for so many people? Yes, Chinese for one. And Spanish closely follows English[1] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_numb...
- derleth 14y agoThe map's wrong to the extent it implies the USA has an official language. We have a de facto standard language, but we have no laws defining an official language.
- dubcanada 14y agoAnd that's even funnier because Canada (as well as "the African ones") English isn't the only standard language. Canada for example has French as well as English, and Africa, well that depends which one. But it certainly isn't 100% English.
- acangiano 14y agoMuch better visual evidence: http://signword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/423399_10150634087077254_744022253_11502541_52522348_n.jpg http://signword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/423399_101506340...
- Kylekramer 14y agoPretty weak argument for Celsius. Why should people care that the boiling and freezing points are simple? That is almost irrelevant for the most common uses of temperature reporting. People care about the ambient outside temperature (which Fahrenheit seems optimized for), not the effect it has on the state of one particular compound.
- pakmans 14y agoKelvin should be the logical choice for temperature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin
- pakmans 14y ago... or not: http://www.nature.com/news/quantum-gas-goes-below-absolute-zero-1.12146 http://www.nature.com/news/quantum-gas-goes-below-absolute-z...
- ajuc 14y agoPeople care for various temperatures: - weather (Celcius has the advantage that just from the temperature you know if there will be snow and ice/will snow melt, or no) And you won't know the difference of 1 C anyway, so no point in having so small degrees. - temperature of human body (are you sick or not - it's 36.6 C for healthy human, 40 C for dangerous temperature) - here Fahrenheit has slight advantage, because human body temperatures are near 100 F, IIUC. - temperature for cooking (water boils in 100 C, you make tea with 80 C, most cakes bake at 220 C, etc) I think Fahrenheit is worse there. - temperature for science/engineering (Kelvin rules here, but Celcius is just Kelvin - 273.15, so conversion is much easier than Fahrenheit, differences are same in K and C).
- pragmatic 14y ago"that was effectively stymied by the US auto industry." Do you have a source for that? Not implying its false. Ironically if you've worked on an auto built from the 90's (maybe even 80's (man I'm old)) onward, you'll find a confusing mix of standard and metric fasteners often within the same components - doors, etc.