The Metric System Discussion

[Alpine]

The measurement of a nautical mile is based on a minute (1/60 of a degree) of longitude at about 45 deg (well, not exactly, but I obtained my nautical license many years ago… be patient) while the statute mile is 1750 yard (again, more or less: it’s 3 AM here!) and a yard is (was) the distance between the king’s nose and his thumb. I love this thread LOL

pier

 

[deluxestogie]

"...in the second century BC, the Greek astronomer Hipparchos of Rhodes began applying geometry to Babylonian astronomy. He needed a method of measuring angles and naturally followed the Babylonian division of the ecliptic into 360 degrees, dividing the circle the same way."​

Why a Circle Has 360 Degrees | History Today

www.historytoday.com

Bob

 

[G&NEWS]

Of course there'd be a cost for changing from the Imperial system to Metric and I'd also agree that the US is highly unlikely to change, even though the latter is patently better.
The costing for just changing the road signs is no doubt correct but you wouldn't have to change them all at once - in fact it would be a great disadvantage to do it overnight because most every vehicle would still have an 'Imperial' speedometer/odometer.
I am old enough to easily recall when NZ made the change. It certainly wasn't done in one fell swoop. Our road signs pretty much only went metric as they came due for renewal.
Even for a small country the changeover took us about seven years (from 1969 to 1974). If you'd asked the person in the street at the time I'm pretty sure you'd have come up with a figure in favour of the change much different to your 21%. I can remember tradesmen (who worked with measurements, albeit in a fairly rudimentary way) every day avowing that 'they weren't going to have a bar the new system'. 'I'm going to buy-up a box of three-foot rules, enough to last them a lifetime'.
An, of course, it's not just road signs and carpenters' rules that have to be changed - it's every tool or thing that measures or calibrates. It's not simple but in our case I'm glad we did it.
The beauty of the system is the complete interrelationship of all the units. It allows one to do quite (seemingly) calculations by mental arithmetic - and unless you are some sort of savant you simply cannot do this in the Imperial system.

If you need to end up with whole numbers, it is far easier to mental math using the imperial system, a base 12 is divisible by 1,2,3,4,6, base 10 is divisible only by 1,2,5. What is 1/3 of a meter? 33.33333 cm repeating... What is 1/3 of a foot? 4 inches. Of a yard? 1 foot. It's sort of a tired discussion but they both have their purposes. Metric should be used where decimal accuracy and inter dimensional calculation (like mass to volume) is needed.

Now celsius is another story. It is simply a bad system for temperature. Kelvin is already used for scientific purposes and it's essentially the same system, except the range is limited compared to Fahrenheit. What is extreme cold in F? <0, what is extreme hot? >100 - simple, that's because it's based off of the temperature of saltwater (not regular water) freezing. What is hot in celsius? 35? cold? -20? It's just awkward. When expat americans come back to USA and talk about "oh its 30 out today a real scorcher, oh right i just got so used to celsius haha!" I always cringe a little. I grew up on metric system so I understand it all, and I would do that when talking to americans when I was child but it's just so funny that adult americans want to act sophisticated by shunning a more intuitive system like fahrenheight just because it's the thing europeans do.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

If you need to end up with whole numbers, it is far easier to mental math using the imperial system, a base 12 is divisible by 1,2,3,4,6, base 10 is divisible only by 1,2,5. What is 1/3 of a meter? 33.33333 cm repeating... What is 1/3 of a foot? 4 inches. Of a yard? 1 foot. It's sort of a tired discussion but they both have their purposes. Metric should be used where decimal accuracy and inter dimensional calculation (like mass to volume) is needed.

Now celsius is another story. It is simply a bad system for temperature. Kelvin is already used for scientific purposes and it's essentially the same system, except the range is limited compared to Fahrenheit. What is extreme cold in F? <0, what is extreme hot? >100 - simple, that's because it's based off of the temperature of saltwater (not regular water) freezing. What is hot in celsius? 35? cold? -20? It's just awkward. When expat americans come back to USA and talk about "oh its 30 out today a real scorcher, oh right i just got so used to celsius haha!" I always cringe a little. I grew up on metric system so I understand it all, and I would do that when talking to americans when I was child but it's just so funny that adult americans want to act sophisticated by shunning a more intuitive system like fahrenheight just because it's the thing europeans do.

I find your belief system fascinating. As a Canadian who's pretty good at both systems, I might observe that you assume that someone would call for a third of a meter. The metric system would be implemented at the engineering stage, and use whole numbers with cutoff as necessary, just like we do when working with any engineered product. I might buy a 2x4x8 and cut it into two pieces 32" in length, and then trim the last piece to length depending on how the board's true 96.25" length interacted with the width of my saw blade. Likewise, if I had a 1m long aluminum channel, I would design it for 33.0, 33.1, 33.2, or 33.3cm lengths, then trim, depending on the width of my saw blade and how much precision actually mattered.

Freezing point of 32 and boiling point of 212 isn't exactly intuitive. Seems totally random, actually. I like Fahrenheit for precision in tobacco stuff because each unit is smaller. I like it for cooking simply because that's what I'm used to. But what I want to know about the weather is how hard the ice on the road is and what is the likelihood that sun rays might make it either more slippery or more slushy.

I agree pretentious expats are annoying.

 

[deluxestogie]

Pretentious (ex)parrots can count up to 6.

 

[Knucklehead]

I wonder if I'm an expat? I drove across Kansas one time. I'll never do that again. It was in mph.

 

[GreenDragon]

I drove across Kansas one time. I'll never do that again.

Same!

Every time I do a DIY or woodworking project I wish the USA used the metric system. "Yeah, that board should be 4 foot, 3 & 17/32 inches..."