I Don't Like the Metric System

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Lady Fitzgerald
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

majpooper wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:22 pm 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.
In a way, I disagree that the "entire" topic is ridiculous. I do disagree that the Imperial is superior to metric but the discussion that has followed the initial post has been quite interesting, especially due to another discussion here that I won't name to avoid unnecessarily insulting anyone.

While I've used, and I'm comfortable with both, the Imperial and metric systems for much of my life (not my entire life due to being old as dirt), I much prefer the simplicity of the metric system even though I cut my eyeteeth on the Imperial system and used it exclusively for the first third of my life.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by farkas »

A little of topic
majpooper wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:22 pm 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.
Binary is the most basic computer language. Hexadecimal just makes binary easier to read.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal
Converting hex to decimal or decimal to hex is another story.
That's why HDD/SSD drive manufactures add this disclaimer

Disclaimers

1GB=1,000,000,000 Bytes. In OS system, it would be displayed as 1,000,000,000 Bytes/1024/1024/1024=0.93GB
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by slipstick »

farkas wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:50 am A little of topic
majpooper wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:22 pm 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.
Binary is the most basic computer language. Hexadecimal just makes binary easier to read.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal
Converting hex to decimal or decimal to hex is another story.
That's why HDD/SSD drive manufactures add this disclaimer

Disclaimers

1GB=1,000,000,000 Bytes. In OS system, it would be displayed as 1,000,000,000 Bytes/1024/1024/1024=0.93GB

A little more off topic:
1,000,000,000 in balanced ternary is +0--+-0+-00+-+0+000+
(Sorry, I just couldn't resist converting that - I've been playing around with B.T. lately on the abacus)
Maybe we should establish a system of measurement based on balanced ternary. :lol:
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by Grayfox »

farkas wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:50 am 1GB=1,000,000,000 Bytes. In OS system, it would be displayed as 1,000,000,000 Bytes/1024/1024/1024=0.93GB
That is only Windows because Windows still thinks kB, MB, GB, TB are proper terms to denote 1,024

Microsoft could've patched this long ago.
Either by using kiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, etc and lets face it most people wont not notice the i.
Or they could've kept the units the same, but made it based off 1,000s

People will notice this change.
As their 931GB HDD becomes 1TB and their 160MB video becomes 163.8MB.
You wont believe how many people still asked me(when I was working as a PC Tech 10 years ago) why their laptop they just bought that is advertised as 1TB is showing 90GB less.
I did explain how the laptops had recovery partitions and they accepted this and understood it fine, but they struggled to understand how their HDDs were really 1TB but windows didn't report it correctly.

RAM Manufacturers are in the same boat in some way as well, while they could use GiB as lets face it RAM is more often sold as GB than MB, but you do see some sticks still mention their sizes in MB.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by rambo919 »

majpooper wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:22 pm 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.
There's a third "let them fight" option..... long vs short large number scales..... confuses the f-k out of everyone.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by mediclaser »

I like the imperial system except for the use of fractions for less than an inch of measurements. I always had to compute to see which fraction has a higher value, and what fraction value to look for next when trying to find the tool that fits perfectly. I never had these unnecessary cause of delays when working with tools in metric.

And my pet peeve....I hate it when people mention temperature measurements and do not specify Fahrenheit or Celsius when they go to another country that uses a different unit of measurement. Imagine a country where Celsius is the unit for temperature, and here comes a guy from Florida telling a kid of that country how temperatures in Florida reach more than a 100 degrees on summer times. I was that kid and incorrectly thought people in Florida were stupid for trying to live in a place where outdoor temperatures can reach the boiling point of water.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by Portreve »

MikeNovember wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 1:57 pm 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 :mrgreen:

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

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So, that PDF is a scan of a 13 page document, which really sucks. I really dislike PDFs made like that, instead of from the original content (which would mean you'd have text you could do searches of, or copy-n-pastes of it.

Nevertheless, the thought's run through my head to manually re-typeset it, not in French (again) but to use Google Translate to translate it into English. Naturally, I'd use Scribus to do the typesetting (a.k.a. "desktop publishing") work, and output it as a PDF. However, I have no idea how to go about publicly posting said PDF (if I decide to do this) so that the thing would be available to users here.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by antikythera »

I don't like necro-posts
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by rene »

antikythera wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 4:17 am I don't like necro-posts
Necro-posts are really only an issue in technical posts where the underlying system, software or assumptions may and generally will have changed; which may as such waste time of responders who don't notice a thread being old. As to metric it seems that the UK and especially US are however still struggling in the very same way now as they were a year ago ;-)
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by antikythera »

The UK adopted the metric system in the 70s, only people over 50 struggle with it these days. The rest of us were brought up and schooled with it.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by AndyMH »

Nearly 70 and don't have an issue with metric, now think Celsius and when doing DIY use both metric and imperial. Did cost me an exam grade though, further maths exam, 1969, merrily using 32 ft/sec2 for gravity, towards the end realised it was all metric and had to redo all my sums with 9.81 M/sec2, ran out of time.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by rene »

antikythera wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 4:39 am The UK adopted the metric system in the 70s, only people over 50 struggle with it these days.
If you say so. I follow a few "repair" channels on YouTube also from England and the times that I've had to mentally translate (or, well, "ignore" more, but...) imperial measures for nuts, bolts, tools, parts, ...

But yes, definitely the US is the worst here ;)
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by cliffcoggin »

popinin wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 4:15 am Well, the metric system makes our lives a little bit easier. The metric system has been adopted by most countries because it is an easy system to use.
Very true, and that ease is also a problem to my mind. By making calculation easier we lose the ability to perform mental arithmetic, just as predictive text on phones spoiled the ability of many people to spell.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by iliketrains »

antikythera wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 4:39 am The UK adopted the metric system in the 70s, only people over 50 struggle with it these days. The rest of us were brought up and schooled with it.
Same timeline in Canada. I use imperial measure only if forced and 50th birthday was long ago. However metric isn't used everywhere locally, for example it's not spoken at the lumber store unless purchasing imported plywood. Being so closely tied to America adds more curve balls when measuring volume.

1ml water = 1cc = 1gram
1000ml water = 1000cc = 1 litre = 1 Kg
punched into online calculator
1 fl oz water = 1.805ci = weighs ~1oz but varies American to Imperial
153.722 fl oz water = 277.42 ci = 1 Imperial gallon = 10.02 lbs (here the calculator seemed to insist on a US ounce)
quarts, pints, tablespoons, teaspoons, not for me thanks.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by RollyShed »

As pointed out by liketrains, there are 3 systems, Metric, Imperial and American.

Cooking is where it is necessary to know whether Imperial or American as it can make a big difference.
Metric is a World Wide standard.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by AndyMH »

Probably the most confusing change was when the UK changed its monetary system from £sd (pounds, shillings, pence where 20 shillings to the pound and 12 pence in a shilling) to decimal (100 pence to the pound, now shown as 1p, not 1d). This was in 1971 and a lot of older people could not get their heads round it. It did make mental arithmetic easier.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by Pierre »

in Australia .. that was when it changed its monetary system from £sd (pounds, shillings, pence),
to Decimal Currency on 14 February 1966 . . . and confused lots of folks,
- for many years to come.
:)
the Metric System .. came Five years later.

NB: this is an Older Topic .. that should be allowed to Rest.
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