I Don't Like the Metric System

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act
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I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by act »

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 Metric system is a system that I personally don't enjoy. Base 10 is a flawed counting system that doesn't play well with factoring. With 10, you can only factor it by 10, 5, 2, and 1. Anything else will give you decimals. Compare that to 12, which can be factored by 12, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1. This can also be seen in 16, where it can be factored by 16, 8, 4, 2, and 1. And it just so happens the major alternative to Metric - that being US Customary, or "Imperial" (Not British Imperial because of the Gill throwing a wrench into this argument - uses base 12 and 16 for it's measurements.

Calling Imperial "illogical" because it doesn't use a recently adopted numeric system as it's base is quite ignorant. Factoring is very important for rationing different amounts of something quickly and easily. Sure, metric makes converting different units a complete breeze, but I've never had to convert milliliters into deciliters. But 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.
That's another thing, specific units for specific applications that make standardization of amount possible. Go to a grocery store and take a look at how much in in one product. If you're in a metric country, and they're selling for example dried pasta, you can get amounts that range from 534g to 851g, there's very little standardization. But if it's produced in a setting where it's Imperial-centric, you'd find perhaps 16oz of dried pasta, or 24oz. The Imperial encourages producers and retailers to focus on these nice, whole numbers that you can personally scale and easily compare without having to pull out a calculator.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by AZgl1800 »

I am an Okie not from Muskogee, and I have to agree with you totally.

I hate Metric, it is totally illogical, for exactly the reasons you presented.

Can I use metric? yes, do I like it? NO!!!

My bike is Piaggio MP3 scooter, the speedometer has nice fat Km readings in White on a Black face.

us pour slobs in the USA have to pay attention to 55 mph or 65 mph, and those readings are in a very faded out Red...... and I am color blind, red is something between Green and White, and invisible at night.

I have to use my Cellphone Speed App which reads in MPH to see how fast I am going, or just use my "seat of the pants" road feel for 45 MPH so I don't get trapped in the School Zone next to my house

the 5/8ths rule is a major PITA for converting speeds.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by Pjotr »

All obey Emperor Napoleon and his metric system! :twisted:

We have 10 fingers, so it even makes sense. :lol:
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by AndyMH »

We are mixed up, pretty much all is metric, petrol is sold by the litre but we still think of distance in miles and fuel consumption in mpg, beer in pints. I now think in celcius for temperature and am quite happy making stuff in either mm or inches. Don't miss the old coinage - pounds, shillings and pence, 1971 when we changed. 12 pence per shilling, 20 shillings per pound. Used to work in a shop and was quite adept at adding up to £20 in £SD mentally while serving, but decimal was easier. Reckon I dropped a couple of grades in a maths exam around 1969, nearly at the end and realised I had been using 32ft/s2 instead of 9.81M/s2, the paper was metric. On balance I prefer metric.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by slipstick »

All hail the "furlong per fortnight". :lol:

And of course you have the avoirdupois, troy, and apothecary measurements with different quantities being called by the same name.
16 avoirdupois oz. per pound, but only 12 troy oz. per troy pound. An avoirdupois oz. is 437.5 grains, but a troy oz. is 480 grains. So even though troy ounces are heavier than avoirdupois ounces, a troy pound is lighter than an avoirdupois pound. But a grain is a grain is a grain. 7000 grains per avoirdupois pound, which I remember from when I was into reloading my own firearms ammo about 25-30 years ago. All bullet and powder weights measured in grains in the USA (grams in Europe, I think).
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by absque fenestris »

I am a big proponent of the 1/254 inch unit of measure. Should be used everywhere as a matter of principle.

As an applied example: 254 dpi makes my life a lot easier - not that I have to calculate little, no I don't have to calculate at all ... :mrgreen:
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by Portreve »

Screw all of you folks. I measure everything in Points and Picas, and thickness in points and fractions thereof.

6p3 is the obvious length of six picas and three points. Not sure where all the inch-using heathens get off. Bunch of mindless Colonials, if you ask me.

:lol:
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by freshminted »

We measure distance and area in football fields, weigh things in elephants and volume in swimming pools. The unit of electrical power is "homes" (as in "enough to power 3000 homes").
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by Michael_Hathaway »

All plans I draw as an engineer are Metric. All parts I manufacture have to be converted to SAE. :|
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by absque fenestris »

Football fields - i.e. the one, not the others - are certainly an excellent basis for a reasonable measurement system, especially when you consider that the circumference of the ball size No. 5 fits exactly 169.014084507 times in length.
Food purchases also achieve a new quality of experience, for example, if you buy cheese in proboscis or at least fractions of it.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by act »

AndyMH wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 6:26 pm We are mixed up, pretty much all is metric, petrol is sold by the litre but we still think of distance in miles and fuel consumption in mpg, beer in pints. I now think in celcius for temperature and am quite happy making stuff in either mm or inches. Don't miss the old coinage - pounds, shillings and pence, 1971 when we changed. 12 pence per shilling, 20 shillings per pound. Used to work in a shop and was quite adept at adding up to £20 in £SD mentally while serving, but decimal was easier. Reckon I dropped a couple of grades in a maths exam around 1969, nearly at the end and realised I had been using 32ft/s2 instead of 9.81M/s2, the paper was metric. On balance I prefer metric.
Yeah. Temperature and Coinage are the two things I believe should be decimal. Coinage, for example, is affected not by the desires of one person engineering something for a purpose, but rather is a representation of various, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of different factors. Ergo, it is something so variable and delicate to change (heh) that it's most reasonable to make it align with the commonly used notation for recording numerals. Temperature is the same thing.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by Schultz »

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.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by Pierre »

this country went to the Metric System,
some 50 years ago, I'm thinking.

yet some things are still done in Imperial measurements,
- you buy an block of land:
- the Title Deed is in Metres squared
- the Land Agent used Acres & the property was advertised in Acres.

you buy Fuel for your Car in Litres & it's speedometer is in Km/h . . .
:roll:
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by absque fenestris »

In particular, conversions from Farenheit to Celsius according to the explanations of Build a Fire and their practical testing have led to incredible learning effects.
A very important one: do not run barefoot downhill in the snow. Stupidly, this is not mentioned.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by RollyShed »

Michael_Hathaway wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:53 pm All parts I manufacture have to be converted to SAE. :|
Are you using AF, UNC, UNF, SAE, etc. etc...
Of course Metric is simple, except when you start introducing fine and course threads and....

As for temperature, what about zero as absolute minimum? Meaning boiling water is 372 degrees. Or the other measurement (Réaumur scale) boiling was 80 degrees or if centigrade, only 80 degrees at 20,000 feet altitude.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by rene »

act wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 5:37 pm Base 10 is a flawed counting system that doesn't play well with factoring.
That may be all fine and well but as long as you don't say 20 when you mean 24 or 32 it's utterly irrelevant. 10 may not be the best base there is numerically but it's what humanity uses; using a different base for measurements than for, say, having 12 eggs is ridiculous, period.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by cliffcoggin »

As a traditionalist I too prefer the Imperial system of measurement. A number system based on 12 is more practical than one based on 10 to my mind, but unfortunately we evolved with only 10 digits on our hands so our counting abilities have been hampered ever since. I would even revert to the old currency of 12 pence per shilling and 20 shillings per pound for the added reason than it forces one to learn mental arithmetic. There is nothing like the prospect of being short changed in a shop to ensure one knows how to add and subtract.

However as a scientist all my life I have worked mainly in metric measurements, consequently I am happy to use either system or even a mixture of both. For my purposes in daily life 40 thou equals 1 mm, 10 feet equals 3 metres, an ounce equals 28 grams are all conversions I use every day, though I must admit converting poundals to dynes is something I have not done for fifty years.

Ultimately it really does not matter what system we use as long as we become adept in its use. There is no more need for every nation to use the same system of measurement as there is to use the same language providing we can readily convert from one to another.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by rene »

cliffcoggin wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 8:39 am There is no more need for every nation to use the same system of measurement as there is to use the same language providing we can readily convert from one to another.
It certainly has it's advantages if every nation would though...

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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by cliffcoggin »

Schultz wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 9:28 pm 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.
Not quite. Having more divisions in the scale is only more accurate if one can see them. Imagine if there were a million divisions instead of 180, it would be impossible to read them. Technically it's the difference
between accuracy and resolution. A analogy can be made with a telescope where there is no point in simply increasing magnification in order to see smaller objects unless the resolution is also increased, otherwise a small blurred object simply becomes a large blurred object and no extra data can be extracted from the image.
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Re: I Don't Like the Metric System

Post by 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.

Having a cup that is 8 fl oz., a pint being two cups (16 fl oz.), a quart being two pints (32 fl oz.) but a gallon being four quarts? Fluid ounces are almost always shown as just oz., which is actually a unit of weight; no confusion there (said Jeannie sarcastically). Then there are other units of measure that are more complicated multiples. A teaspoon is 6 fl oz, a tablespoon is three teaspoons, and a cup is 0.0625 teaspoons. No confusion there (more sarcasm).

Then you have pecks, bushels, barrels, hogsheads, tuns, butt (yes, a butt load is actually a thing, not just an obscenity), etc. The volume of barrels will vary by the substance being stored in them. Some are defined by volume and some by weight.

Units of weight are just as bad. Ounce is oz., often confused with fl. oz. 16 oz. makes a pound but a ton is 2000 lb.

Then there are units of distance. Inches are divided into halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, thirty seconds, etc. but a foot is twelve inches and a mile is 5,280 feet, unless it's a nautical mile; that is 6076.1155 feet. Then there are rods, links, chains, furlongs, leagues, fathoms, etc. Again, no confusion there. :roll:

I'm getting a headache before I even get to how screw sizes are measured. Don't even get me started on pipe and conduit sizes and their thread standards (especially after two weekends ago when people I was having to deal with didn't know, but should have :!: , the differences between various pipe and screw thread types).

Metric is just so much simpler and easier to work with. There is one standard each for weight, distance, volume, and mass (not the same as weight, which is dependent on gravity, which changes with altitude, etc.). Divisions and multiples of each are decimally (yeah, I know that's not a word but you get the point) based, which are much simpler and easier to remember, and conversion is as easy as relocating the decimal. Even a mathematical, mental midget like me can do that in my head.

Most of the controversy between Imperial, etc. and metric is just based on what one grew up with and is used to using. Also, it does matter what standards a country uses with today's shrinking world and expanding global economy.
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