Without government intervention, would the U.S. be metric by now?

[eduardo89]

No you can't. That's idiotic. For instance, something may be five penises long when you measure it, but only one penis long when I measure it.

Thread winner.

 

[Tod]

As an engineer, I've worked with both metric and us, and both have pros and cons. In this day of computers, I don't think metric has the potential for savings that it had at one time; computers don't mind what units you use.

For everyday use, I find the us system to be remarkably more useful than metric because so many of the units work so well with natural phenomena, such as the fact that my foot is about a foot long, my thumb is about an inch across, 60 mph is a mile a minute, etc. I use those facts and others quite often, surprisingly enough.

 

[Icymudpuppy]

I prefer metric. I wish time was also measured in convenient units of Ten. I've actually invented a clock that uses a 10 hour day, with 100 minute hours, and 100 second minutes. A new hour is a little more than twice as long as an old hour. The new minutes however are only a little longer than an old minute, and the new seconds are almost the same as an old second. The biggest problem is that resetting the time measurements would throw all kinds of measurements out of whack as many chemist and physicist measurements even in the metric system are still based on a 24 hour time measurement system.

 

[eduardo89]

I prefer metric. I wish time was also measured in convenient units of Ten. I've actually invented a clock that uses a 10 hour day, with 100 minute hours, and 100 second minutes. A new hour is a little more than twice as long as an old hour. The new minutes however are only a little longer than an old minute, and the new seconds are almost the same as an old second. The biggest problem is that resetting the time measurements would throw all kinds of measurements out of whack as many chemist and physicist measurements even in the metric system are still based on a 24 hour time measurement system.

The second is actually based on something though:

the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.

 

[pcosmar]

Without government intervention, would the U.S. be metric by now?

Which government? World Government?

I had no interest at all till the Government started pushing it in school.

I was fine with American Standard, and even managed with British/American Standard.

And I would honestly like to punch out the guy that invented and promoted Torx.

 

[eduardo89]

And I would honestly like to punch out the guy that invented and promoted Torx.

Robertson, Phillips and Slot are all that's needed.

Torx is American invented btw, company from rhode island

 

[Anti Federalist]

I was fine with American Standard, and even managed with British/American Standard.

Ah, Whitworth fasteners, I see we meet again.

I like to pull my hair out the first time I started digging into that Trumpy of mine, wondering wtf are these sizes.

 

[Jingles]

Metric makes sense for science related things. I just don't think in metric so to speak. If someone tells me something is like 15kgs or 4kms away I can't exactly visual it in my head. If some tells me something is 20lbs or is like 3 miles away I can visualize what they are talking about.

 

[Icymudpuppy]

The second is actually based on something though:

It could just as easily be based on something else. Say a precise division of a fraction of 1:100,000 the time it takes the earth to complete 1 rotation.

 

[eduardo89]

Metric makes sense for science related things. I just don't think in metric so to speak. If someone tells me something is like 15kgs or 4kms away I can't exactly visual it in my head. If some tells me something is 20lbs or is like 3 miles away I can visualize what they are talking about.

1 mile = 1.6 km
1 km = 0.6 miles

1 kg = 2.2 lbs
1 lbs = 0.45 kg

 

[eduardo89]

It could just as easily be based on something else. Say a precise division of a fraction of 1:100,000 the time it takes the earth to complete 1 rotation.

I know I was just pointing out how arbitrary a second really is.

the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.

 

[Carson]

There were plans and a time table. I think what happened was someone pointed out that part of what makes our engineering so sound is that it was developed with practical size fasteners. Other aspects were developed for practicality as well.

The thing with the fasteners for me is that nuts bolts and screws where made for applications because they fit. Metric fasteners are made to scale. In other words they were developed by scaling from say 1mm to 2mm and on and on. When you go to building the things we've been building they just seems to fit oddly. Then you go to grab a metric drill to drill a hole for you metric fastener and all the soul in the size has been given over to making them to a scale.

I don't know if I'm getting things what I want to convey through.

Stuff just comes out odd in the application.

English on the other hand is not to any scale. When you make a screw you need to go by a chart for the dimensions. Drills were also developed in wire, letter and fractional sizes. It was done because of practical applications. Like I said before it approached the problem in a forward direction or the beginning and not re-engineered a concept from the end results back.

 

[LibertyRevolution]

Robertson, Phillips and Slot are all that's needed.

Torx is American invented btw, company from rhode island

Slot needs to go the way of the dinosaurs, they are horrible to work with. Why do they make these still?

I find that using Safety Torx screws is a great way of keeping my screwed down stuff not stolen.
I used these in my stereo competition car. You get bonus points for them under system security.

People looking to steal stereo equipment from cars don't tend to carry these bits.

 

[Anti Federalist]

AhHHHH HAHAHAHAHA!!!! classic!

You tiny brained wipers of other people's bottoms!!!

 

[Mark37snj]

The scientific community already uses the Metric system. The Metric system is based on science and is more useful in science then the Standard system America uses. Although I am not looking forward to having to shop for shoes in a Metric society.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

The scientific community already uses the Metric system. The Metric system is based on science and is more useful in science then the Standard system America uses. Although I am not looking forward to having to shop for shoes in a Metric society.

When you measure your body parts in centimeters it sounds more impressive. lolz

 

[idiom]

Interestingly, nautical kilometres are the same as land kilometres which are the same as imperial kilometres.

Also there a 1,000,000 millimetres in a kilometre. Exactly. Every time.

A Cubic metre contains 1000 metric litres, but also 1000 short litres and oddly enough 1000 imperial litres. If filled with pure water it will weigh about 1 tonne, which is also 1000 kg, or 1,000,000 grams.

So a cubic centimetre of water weighs 1 gram.

More or less.

On the other hand a Mile always has 63360 inches in it, except when it has 63360.125 or 72913.2 inches. Much simpler.

 

[Ireland4Liberty]

We use both in Ireland and its not a problem. I dont see what the big deal is here?!

 

[Icymudpuppy]

The scientific community already uses the Metric system. The Metric system is based on science and is more useful in science then the Standard system America uses. Although I am not looking forward to having to shop for shoes in a Metric society.

Why not? It would make more sense to use a linear measurement for shoe size than some random numbers. Now, if my size 8.5 E was 8 1/2 inches long by 5 inches wide, it might make sense. But my foot is 10 3/4 inches long by 4 inches wide. I don't see why I couldn't just use metric and order a shoe that was 27.5 centimeters long and 10.25 centimeters wide.

 

[Noob]

I hate the metric system...