I Don't Like the Metric System

[RollyShed]

Human dimensions, a fathom is an arm-spam, a hand is the width of a hand (horse measurement), a foot is obvious, and a yard is a pace length, 3 feet.

As for some measurements, there is a country in the world that "short changes" (steals) by making a ton 2000 lb instead of 2240 lb which is near enough to a tonne as well. The gallons and pints are smaller so again cheating. A gallon is equal to over 9-1/2 US pints.

Conversion number between teaspoon (imperial) and teaspoon (metric) is 1.1838776041667. This means, that teaspoon (imperial) is bigger unit than teaspoon (metric).

One teaspoon US in volume and capacity converted to teaspoons Canadian equals precisely to 1.04 tsp.

A US gill is 34ml smaller than a real one too.

As for dates, a complete mix up as it isn't year, month, day or day, month, year which are both logical but month, day, year which isn't logical.

Whether one likes metric or not, at least the measurements are standard world wide.
And we stand by that as we steam in knots in our ship.

[Schultz]

I remember when I was young, we took a trip to Canada to visit relatives. My dad saw a speed limit sign that said "Speed Limit 100 km." He didn't know what km meant, so he went 100 mph.

[Grayfox]

While factoring may be one of imperials strong suits.
Many people suck at fractions due to bad education.
Many people still think 1/4 is bigger than 1/3 because 4 is more than 3, when you have a measurement unit that is based off fractions and people suck at fractions, the unit itself becomes meaningless.

I grew up with metric, my country (Australia) uses metric.
I also taught myself imperial.

I can happily drive around in MPH and I still never speed as my brain instantly converts the speed limit into MPH.
This was mainly because my previous car had a button on the dash which allowed you to change the units from Km/h to MPH and back to Km/h
This button was factory, the car was built in the UK so this was their so owners who would go from the UK to France or where ever could change the units on the dash so they knew the speeds they were doing.

I cant do on the fly conversion from °F to °C or vice versa, I know Inches, Feet, Yards, Miles.
Dont care about Rods, Chains, Furlongs

Get confused between Gallons, Pint, Fluid Ounce as their are two versions of them.

Since temperature has been mentioned, I'll mention this, which I think I already have in these forums somewhere. There are 180 steps between the freezing and boiling points in Fahrenheit, but only 100 in Celsius. This makes Fahrenheit a more accurate measurement of temperature than Celsius. Of course, I mean this without going into decimals or fractions.

You cant tell the difference between 70°F and 71°F and such a tiny difference wont matter in everyday things like cooking, climate(weather or A/C).

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I wish Jimmy carter had succeeded in getting the SSA to convert to the metric system. So far, the "reasons" for not supporting the metric system I've seen here are just silly. One of the major advantages of the metric system is being base 10; instead of fooling around with fractions, use simpler decimals. So what if the Celsius scale has more space between divisions; just use decimals. Units of volume, mass, and distance are based on single units that then are expanded and reduced in multiples of ten.

See, that's the thing. I don't know how, but you just don't get it. Like why would you need to even use decimals in the first place when the units themselves can be easily divided into whole numbers? And even if we use fractions, I still believe that they're superior to decimals. Fractions permit an easier conceptualization of what you're exactly dealing with. If you see, for example, 1/16th of an inch, then you can imagine that by splitting an inch up into half multiple times until you get it split into 16 equal pieces, which from there you can imagine one of those pieces, and there you go; 1/6th of an inch. Compare this to 0.0625. What? It's a bit ridiculous if you take away the decade or so of education behind it...

I don't get it? So you think adding 1/16" and 1/5" is easier than adding .0625" and .2"? Converting from one measurement to another, like inches to feet to miles is easier? Why juggle ounces, cups, pints, quarts, gallons, etc. when all you need is the liter (litre for those on the right hand side of the pond) and just multiply or divide by ten for larger or smaller volumes, which is as easy as just moving a decimal point.

Your argument for visualization is absurd. Visualizing 1mm versus 1cm is no more difficult than 1/16" to 1".

The Imperial system is clumsy and inefficient. I was raised from the '40s on the Imperial system and still feel the metric system is easier, more efficient, and nowhere nearly as prone to conversion errors, such as the one I made in fl oz. to teaspoon, since there aren't any conversions other than dividing or multiplying by 10, 100, 1000, all of which can be done by, again, just moving a decimal point. I use both only because things available here in the SSA use both. It bites that I have to have two sets of tools, measuring devices, etc. just because people here in the SSA were too stubborn (or lazy) to adapt to the metric system like most of the rest of the world has done.

Mayhap you're just being resistant to change from what you are used to using.

[act]

Mayhap you're just being resistant to change from what you are used to using.

Might I divert you to the first sentence in the original post:

If you're wondering, no, I'm not American. I'm Canadian. 99% of all measurements I've dealt with in live were in metric, so this sentiment isn't coming from bias.

The fact that you assumed, despite evidence explicitly stating the contrary that is so easy to see, makes me wonder if what you say about Metric is actually founded on a stronger bias than what even you'd assume I have. For example statements like:

Your argument for visualization is absurd. Visualizing 1mm versus 1cm is no more difficult than 1/16" to 1".

Which is a statement that, if taking into account my already existing experiences and knowledge on how people think and how things are analyzed by our minds, is in most cases incorrect. I'd be willing to bet money that most people would be able to split a length in half way more accurately then splitting it into equal tenths, and as such, visualizing a 16th is easier than visualizing a 10th. Giving me the example of adding 1/5th of a unit to 1/16th of a unit, lets say inches, has already been addressed in the original post. It's very, very likely that any standards both of work and of manufacturing that would relate to there being something 1/5th of an inch would prevent that from even happening. Lengths of 1/5th or 1/9th or 1/7th of an inch are very uncommon for this reason. People usually just approximate using any combination of numbers made by multiplying 2. This is also why I'm a strong advocate for Celsius and $/¢ currency.
Also, you talk alot about how easy it is to convert units in Metric, but I've already addressed that asking people to actually wonder how many times in their life they had to convert a unit.

[rene]

So you think adding 1/16" and 1/5" is easier than adding .0625" and .2"? Converting from one measurement to another, like inches to feet to miles is easier? Why juggle ounces, cups, pints, quarts, gallons, etc. when all you need is the liter (litre for those on the right hand side of the pond) and just multiply or divide by ten for larger or smaller volumes, which is as easy as just moving a decimal point.

"Dilated to see" LadyF in fact gets it quite fundamentally, especially as to that last part. Your arguments really are quite absurd, act; no, it's not easier to visualize one sixteenth than one tenth for me --- and/but visualize schmisualize in any case: try calculating with the imperial units vs. the metric ones and then come back and tell us which system makes more sense. "But people don't need to do that (often) anyway" seems to be your reply to that. Yah, sure, imperial units make great sense as long as you don't in fact use them. Lovely argument that.

As in, just no. The fact that good often implies different does not mean that different often implies good. Imperial is that kind of different which does not.

[Grayfox]

I'd be willing to bet money that most people would be able to split a length in half way more accurately then splitting it into equal tenths, and as such, visualizing a 16th is easier than visualizing a 10th.

But not everyone needs to 1/2 the length of something.

What if they need to 1/5, that is easy

Imperial struggles with lengths below 1" because apart from fractioning it, because their are no units below 1" for a fair bit of distance.

With Metric you have millimeters below centimeters, micrometers below millimeters

But there is a unit below inch and it is called "Mils" or "Thou" which is 1/1000 of an inch.

In auto mechanics, clearances are measured in microns, some may use Mils/Thou

Metric length is more granular compared to Imperial Length and in a modern world this granularity is very important.

[rambo919]

I will just leave this here for why the imperial system is illogical and horribly confusing to use for anyone not initiated.

Anyone coming from a standardized metric system finds imperial utterly ridiculous from any kind of objective pov.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDUt-Kbxqsg

[jjp2145-oldtimer]

I don't get it? So you think adding 1/16" and 1/5" is easier than adding .0625" and .2"?

Ok, now try multiplication, division, and exponents.

1/16 * 1/5 is 1/80
1/16 / 1/5 is 5/16
(1/16)^3 is 1/4096

1/5 * 3 is 3/5
1/16 / 3 is 1/48

1/16 + 1/5 is 5/80 + 16/80 is 21/80

The imperial system is not responsible for anyone on this forums inability to perform basic mathematical calculations. I can cherry pick calculations that are easier using fractions if you want. This is not a valid argument either way.

Imperial struggles with lengths below 1" because apart from fractioning it, because their are no units below 1" for a fair bit of distance.

What's the problem? Is it that you cannot conceptualize 5 mm as 1/2 of a cm? Is it that you can't recognize 1/2 of an inch as a unit because it does not have a name? What if I call it 1/134 smoots? Or just name it the "half-inch?"

Arguments about the lack of uniformity in the imperial system are, however, meaningful. But would people stop arguing that other people should change the way that they do things because the person making the argument is too stupid to keep up? That is never going to work.

[rickNS]

I have had to split a quantity of milliliters into particularly quarters and eighths. Compare this to Imperial where that's extremely easy to do. If I have 3 gallons, and I wanted to split them equally amongst 8 people, I can easily do that. An eighth of a gallon is a pint, so it'd be 3 pints. Or, a quart and a pint.

Firstly, I'm thinking it's your thinking that's flawed, or maybe you're just trolling, no matter.

Your liquid example is a poor one to get your point across, and also flawed. Why ? Because it needs NO calculation at all. It does not matter if it is gallons, or liters, or "containers", the answer is exactly the same.
BTW, you can't have it both ways, using trickery as it were. To be fair, to compare some random number of ml, you'd also have to use some random number of oz, NOT whole gallons, so you're going to have to use whole liters also, or use 375 OZs. in your comparison, which doesn't work so neatly either.

Your example; 3 gallons, (or any unit) / (dived by) 8 people = 3/8ths units each, REGARDLESS. 3/8 gallons, or 3/8 liters No math required, as a bonus no need remembering how many qarts in a galoon. And I don't recall seeing a measuring cup without both measuring units on it.

Canada has had "official" Metric measurement since '71, a half a century now, HA. It's funny because if you ask someone for directions on the street to town X, they will most likely tell you it is XX miles away.

If you go to the building supply store you get 2X4 Lumber (inch), and 4X8 plywood (feet). Car wheels are still in inches, even Japanese motorcycles. My pants are size 32 (inch), as is my monitor.

To me it does not matter much, I'm quite comfortable using either system. Having worked in a machine shop for 20+ years, even way back then many bearings were metric, but you could still measure them with an imperial micrometer.

Having said that I don't mind the imperial system, having started out with it. It does seem best when sticking to within the same measurement type IE. length, feet to inches etc.. but when it comes to working with multiple measurement types IE. volume AND weight and their interrelationships especially is where metric really shines.

EXAMPLE. specific gravity without metric ?
Water = 62.4 lb/ft³....oh yeah you don't like decimals, damn. compared to Water = 1 kg/liter (or 1 gm/cc)

Maybe all the scientists are "flawed" ?

[MurphCID]

All obey Emperor Napoleon and his metric system!

We have 10 fingers, so it even makes sense.

ROTFLMAO!

[Portreve]

Maybe all the scientists are "flawed" ?

Science? Who believes in any of that nonsense? Bah, humbug!

Given the international nature of aeronautics, one would think aviation measurements would all be Metric, but they're not. Speed and altitude are still measured in Imperial- or Imperial-derived units, in particular feet, miles, and knots. Now, had the U.S. metricated waaaaaaay back when at like the turn of the century, then we would not now see JAXA, ESA, NASA, or anybody else using non-Metric measurements, particularly when you consider that for literally everything else those agencies do, it's all in Metric.

Es ist was es ist. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Michael_Hathaway]

I wish Jimmy carter had succeeded in getting the SSA to convert to the metric system. The Imperial system is clumsy and inefficient.

Agreed.

I don't use fractions at work. Technically a 3/4" fractional hole is the same as a 0.750" decimal hole. But we never drill a 0.750" hole, we would drill a 0.788" or 20mm hole. For example; one of the tools I make has a square broached hole for socket attachment, but it is 0.788" and we have +/- tolerances.

( I want a 3/4 inch-ish hole, +/- 1/1000") lol.

[farkas]

For cooking purposes I prefer the metric system. It is much easier to scale up or down the amount of necessary ingredients.
I'm in the process of converting my recipees to metric.
I have a digital kitchen scale accurate to one gram. It can display metric or US imperial.
I use "King Arthur's Ingredient Weight Chart" to convert all ingredients by weight.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/ ... ight-chart
As always it's not an absolute and I adjust them as necessary for my taste.

[act]

I remember when I was young, we took a trip to Canada to visit relatives. My dad saw a speed limit sign that said "Speed Limit 100 km." He didn't know what km meant, so he went 100 mph.

This is very funny. I had a similar situation with my uncle, but we were on a motorcycle.

Same with my mom. She asked me to get and subsequently carry home a "10 pound bag of flour." Turns out, it was 10 kilograms.
Still carried it home.

[rene]

Mom wanted to make you stronger.

... and/or instil a lifelong instinctive dislike of the metric system.

[Moem]

Mom wanted to make you stronger.

... and/or instil a lifelong instinctive dislike of the metric system.

... and/or baked goods.

[Mintmann]

Metric system all the way!

[MikeNovember]

Sorry, not for English speakers...

A "standard" describing the French "pifometric system". I am sure that there are in english some equivalents to quantity units such as "chiée" or "fifrelin"...

The link https://www.emse.fr/~zimmermann/RAFT/RA ... unites.pdf

The "units" mentioned in this pdf are very often used in usual conversation, in French.

MN

[majpooper]

To be truthful I just find the entire topic ridiculous. I have been using imperial and metric measurements pretty much my entire life and have no problems with either . . . . but then I mastered basic arithmetic at an early age. Now binary vs hexadecimal . . . . . just kidding.