6 ms·

The metric system has already been adopted worldwide.

1ris 11y ago
The metric system is a "worse is better" approach. Why is Kg, a base unit, even if it has prefix? Time in the SI is based on seconds, that relate very odd to the duration of a day. The same horrible base60 system is used for angles. Don't use SI. Use a system that fits for your Problem (e.g. the cgs system) Use Units that make sense (like Angstroms or barns) for the problem you are solving. Often SI fits. But SI shouldn't be a dogma.
- pasiaj 11y ago
  Don't go fooling yourself into thinking all systems are equally complex just because all systems have sone complexities. I've read a at least half a dozen studies linking the US standards system to worse learning outcomes. Nobody's saying SI is perfect. It's just a lot, lot less worse.
  - 1ris 11y ago
    Of course the US or the Imperial System are a way worse, I never meant to imply otherwise. But SI is not particular good and it's not a non-brainer to choose SI. Units should be used because they are elegant to use. Like Angstrom and not because they are in the SI system. And there are other Systems that are just as valid. Instead of SI-Prefixes one could use Japanese numbers. (They have names for the numbers 10^n for n from -24 to 68 in steps of 4.)
- vardump 11y ago
  Strictly speaking, Kg is a "kelvin gram". Kilogram (kg) is especially handy, because it's practically same as 1 liter of water, which is 10 cm^3. It's indeed rather difficult to calculate duration of time. Quick, how many minutes between 6h:37m and 19h:12m? Angles are simple if you just use radians.
shmerl 11y ago
US is very much behind with it. You barely can see road signs with km/h, and temperatures in Celsius. I'd also prefer time to be in HH:MM:SS instead of AM/PM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Stat... With this rate it will take forever. There isn't enough political will do finish the job.
- panglott 11y ago
  Metrification is fine for engineers, but what problem does it solve for people driving cars? Miles are miles everywhere in the United States, and it causes noone confusion. Again, what problem would switching from Fahrenheit to Celsius solve for most people? Rough estimates of outside temperature ranges would have a lower resolution? 100 degrees would be the boiling point of water instead of roughly the temperature of the human body? It would be easier to record measurements when dividing things by 10, but more difficult when dividing by 4 or 8, when in day-to-day life people more commonly divide things into 4 or 8? Imperial units have the advantage of being human-scale, and consequently they are very useful for when humans want to estimate a quantity. And this is something people want to do all the time. Europe had the problem of a thousand-plus years of poorly-defined standards that varied from country to country and even within countries. Metrification solved a real commercial problem, and there were so many competing standards that another one didn't really create a problem. This is not a problem the United States has, and metrification proponents always seem to imagine that metrification would be costless.
  - shmerl 11y ago
    It is a problem in US. Simply too much inertia and lack of political will to move this forward. Uniformity with other countries helps too. Why do you think military gets it better than others? 0-100 for freezing and boiling points is way simpler to use, especially when 0 is a border for significant change in environmental conditions when temperature goes in either direction from it. Most common temperatures will be two digits.
    - mejari 11y ago

1ris 11y ago

The metric system is a "worse is better" approach. Why is Kg, a base unit, even if it has prefix? Time in the SI is based on seconds, that relate very odd to the duration of a day. The same horrible base60 system is used for angles. Don't use SI. Use a system that fits for your Problem (e.g. the cgs system) Use Units that make sense (like Angstroms or barns) for the problem you are solving. Often SI fits. But SI shouldn't be a dogma.

pasiaj 11y ago
Don't go fooling yourself into thinking all systems are equally complex just because all systems have sone complexities. I've read a at least half a dozen studies linking the US standards system to worse learning outcomes. Nobody's saying SI is perfect. It's just a lot, lot less worse.
- 1ris 11y ago
  Of course the US or the Imperial System are a way worse, I never meant to imply otherwise. But SI is not particular good and it's not a non-brainer to choose SI. Units should be used because they are elegant to use. Like Angstrom and not because they are in the SI system. And there are other Systems that are just as valid. Instead of SI-Prefixes one could use Japanese numbers. (They have names for the numbers 10^n for n from -24 to 68 in steps of 4.)
vardump 11y ago
Strictly speaking, Kg is a "kelvin gram". Kilogram (kg) is especially handy, because it's practically same as 1 liter of water, which is 10 cm^3. It's indeed rather difficult to calculate duration of time. Quick, how many minutes between 6h:37m and 19h:12m? Angles are simple if you just use radians.

shmerl 11y ago

US is very much behind with it. You barely can see road signs with km/h, and temperatures in Celsius. I'd also prefer time to be in HH:MM:SS instead of AM/PM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Stat... With this rate it will take forever. There isn't enough political will do finish the job.

panglott 11y ago
Metrification is fine for engineers, but what problem does it solve for people driving cars? Miles are miles everywhere in the United States, and it causes noone confusion. Again, what problem would switching from Fahrenheit to Celsius solve for most people? Rough estimates of outside temperature ranges would have a lower resolution? 100 degrees would be the boiling point of water instead of roughly the temperature of the human body? It would be easier to record measurements when dividing things by 10, but more difficult when dividing by 4 or 8, when in day-to-day life people more commonly divide things into 4 or 8? Imperial units have the advantage of being human-scale, and consequently they are very useful for when humans want to estimate a quantity. And this is something people want to do all the time. Europe had the problem of a thousand-plus years of poorly-defined standards that varied from country to country and even within countries. Metrification solved a real commercial problem, and there were so many competing standards that another one didn't really create a problem. This is not a problem the United States has, and metrification proponents always seem to imagine that metrification would be costless.
- shmerl 11y ago
  It is a problem in US. Simply too much inertia and lack of political will to move this forward. Uniformity with other countries helps too. Why do you think military gets it better than others? 0-100 for freezing and boiling points is way simpler to use, especially when 0 is a border for significant change in environmental conditions when temperature goes in either direction from it. Most common temperatures will be two digits.
  - mejari 11y ago