Originally Posted By goodgirl <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Metric_system.png" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi kipedia/commons/1/17/Metric_system.png</a> Interesting. I'm curious to those LPers who live outside the US and visit us: Do you find "three and a half inches" to be confounding? What about 50 miles? Or 5' 4".
Originally Posted By DAR I57 it's a matter of comfort level. I and most Americans are comfortable with our current system. This is one thing that isn't broke, so there's no need to fix it.
Originally Posted By Mr X Wow. Even England switched? What is that Asian country near India? Dar, it IS "broke" in the sense that everyone in the world does it one way and we do it another. The metric system is far better, actually, plus think of the international trade costs when info needs to be converted all the time. Americans aren't "comfortable", they're lazy. I learned it. Anyone can (it'd take a whole 40 minutes of your life, probably).
Originally Posted By DAR If we do switch to the metric system, the government cannot teach us how to use it because they will surely screw it up. And I have a pretty basic overview of the system to begin with.
Originally Posted By SuperDry If anything else, adopting the metric system would help America compensate for our children's underperformance in mathematics as compared to many other countries. Surely, our schools could at least teach students how to move a decimal point. Here's a funny story for you: last month, I was asked by a Disney CM "How tall are you?" as he thought I might be taller than the maximum allowed for the attraction. I responded instinctively by saying "6 feet." He got a puzzled look on his face, and said "How many centimeters?" I had to admit that I didn't know. I know the metric system and how to convert, but I couldn't do the math in my head on the fly. And, it's a good thing that I didn't estimate by saying that meter is about the same as a yard and answering "2 meters" or "200 centimeters" as that would have made me too tall to ride (limit was 195cm). BTW, I was at TDS.
Originally Posted By Mr X Dar, why not just teach it in school like the rest of the world? And for companies that switch, they should just provide a simple tutorial session as part of employee orientation. Why does the government need to be involved at all? Hey, SD, what attraction was that?
Originally Posted By fkurucz FWIW, we have pretty much switched to the metric system. Most new mechanical engineering work is done in metric. Only low tech stuff, say residential construction, is still done in the old units. Even in everyday life we do use metric. Take the ubiquitous 2 liter soda pop bottle. Medication is measured in grams and milligrams. We buy electricity bt the kilowatt. The computer that you are typing your response on was engineered using metric units. Which means that we use an unwieldy hybrid system. Crazy, huh? <<The metric system is far better, actually, plus think of the international trade costs when info needs to be converted all the time.>> IIRC, we lost one of our Mars probes because of a units snafu.
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle Goodgirl, re your first question - I have a basic idea of inches (I eat subs!). I know what "six foot" roughly means, but although I know I'm 165cm, I have nooo idea what I am in feet! (Feet? Is that the right term?) Miles, on the other hand, I'm absolutely clueless.
Originally Posted By Mr X I learned that a quarter ounce equals 7 grams back in college. But not in any classroom.
Originally Posted By knightnfrees <<Miles, on the other hand, I'm absolutely clueless.>> 1 mile is equal to 1.6 kilometers Celsius to Fahrenheit: 1)Double the temperature given in celsius 2)Add 32 Fahrenheit to Celsius: 1)Subtract 32 2)Divide that number by 2 BTW Liberty Belle, 165.00000 Centimeters = 5.41339 Feet so you're 5'4". (five feet, four inches) Search engines are a wonderful tool
Originally Posted By tiki tiki tiki tiki If you think about it the metric system is very simple, it´s very logical and easy to understand. At first I had to sit down to study it and learned it quickly. The problems began when I had to constantly compare measurements to U.S. system to fully understand them. It´s one thing to say ok, this is 6 meters, but when someone tells you that you have to walk down the street about 500 meters to get where you´re going, you have to stop a moment to think, is that far?! After all these years using the metric system, I can now proudly say that I can convert one to the other quite easily. Now EUROS, that conversion continues to be mind-boggling for me at times.
Originally Posted By Mr X >>Now EUROS, that conversion continues to be mind-boggling for me at times.<< Not to mention the fact it changes every day. I used to think about yen vs. dollar like 100 yen to the dollar...thus if I saw something for 5,000 yen I just threw in a decimal point and said "fifty bucks". But, of course, that's an imperfect system at best. lol. Never knew pounds until recently when it was 2 dollars to the pound. Now I know what's going on when I watch British TV.
Originally Posted By bloona Its strange how we switch between the two in the Uk. Well I do! I ALWAYS say my height in feet and inches,(I'm 5'4")everyone I know does, I have no idea what I am in cms. In weights, I usually use lbs and oz when cooking. When babies are born the weight is put on their cards in grammes, but then the first thing parents ask is whats that in pounds and ounces? Similiarly when theyre weighed at the health clinic, it is recorded in grammes, but then a conversion is given, and thats the one people use when talking to other mums! At the gym, the treadmills are set to measure in miles, I had to alter it to see when Id got to 5km yesterday (the length of the race Im doing in less than a month...eeek) The scales at the gym measure in stones and pounds,(we tend to do that, rather than just in pounds as I notice you do in the USA, Im 9 stone 3 pounds) they have to be adjusted to tell you your weight in KG. So actually, we are rather suck in our ways...lol.
Originally Posted By DAR <<Why does the government need to be involved at all?>> Because they'll find a way to get their mitts in there, they always do.
Originally Posted By tiki tiki tiki tiki I definitely agree MrX. If it weren´t for the constant fluctuation of our currencies, it would all come down to one simple equation. Instead, everytime I have to convert, I end up with a blank look on my face for half a minute while I calculate and I end up asking myself "didn´t I study math for like at least 12 years or was it all a bad dream?"
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA 6 feet is 182.88 centimeters. 'How tall are you?' '182.88 centimeters'? 6 feet seems simpler in this one instance.
Originally Posted By mickeymeg 'I'm curious to those LPers who live outside the US and visit us: Do you find "three and a half inches" to be confounding? What about 50 miles? Or 5' 4".' In Canada, while we officially use Metric there is still a mishmash of units used. When I am thinking about weight of humans or height of humans I tend to think of lbs or feet. But when measuring the weight of food or the height of a building I would think of kilograms or meters. For distance, '3.5 inches' would certainly not confound me but I would have to think about it for a second. 50 miles I know is far, but I wouldn't readily know how far. Centimeters and Kilometers are much easier for me. When we drove to Disneyland and saw exit signs from the freeway saying 'this exit 1/4 Miles' we had no idea how far that was. 'exit 200 Meters' makes so much more sense. Temperature is mostly always spoken about in terms of Celsius. I can never seem to get my head around Fahrenheit without a lot of thinking, or better yet googling. The younger the generation the better they seem to do with Metric. My mum still understands a lot of imperial units better as that is what she learned in school. I learned a mixture of both and now they are teaching exclusively in metric.
