Why is the metric system associated with the '70s?

[hotdogPi]

What does Canada still use Imperial or customary measures for?

I was in Quebec in July 2019. Picture frame sizes were still in inches.

[kalvado]

What does Canada still use Imperial or customary measures for?

I was in Quebec in July 2019. Picture frame sizes were still in inches.

There was an interesting review at some point about penetration of metric system in different countries. Interestingly enough, there are leftovers of traditional units pretty much everywhere. Sometimes obscured, like 1524 mm rail gauge, sometimes converted to metric, like 200 mg carat.

[kphoger]

I still have problems with customary measurements and avoid them when at all possible. I have never managed to get a handle on how many quarts are in a pint or how many of those are in a gallon, or even which of them is bigger, because I never use those to measure anything. Gallons I know because milk comes in gallon jars. But nobody specifies smaller units of liquid smaller than a half gallon as, like, 0.4 of a gallon.

Same here.  Except I know a pint is the size of a carton of cream, so a quart must be bigger.  How many of each go into the other, though, I always have to ask someone else.  Even then, though, the recipe invariably calls for a certain number of cups, so I still have to convert, no matter what.  Most other ingredients are easier to figure out, but those are they ones I'm safe to just eyeball.  Go figure that the ingredients most crucial to measure exactly (liquids and baking ingredients) don't have units that line up between cookbook and product label.

Inches are the worst unit of measure anyone ever came up with; there is nothing more frustrating than having to stare at the ruler trying to count off sixteenths of an inch if you don't measure things often enough to just be able to know from looking at the ruler. ("Okay, 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, uh... what's that next one, a fourth?")

I think it's worse to measure millimeters on a ruler, when none of them are labeled between the centimeter marks, or only the 5mm mark if you're lucky.

That being said, I never really have to worry about converting between one or the other except when I'm talking to someone in another country and they, say, describe their height in cm or something. I tend to measure things in metric and leave them in metric, unless I'm working on something like a building which has already been measured in a different unit of measure.

It comes up for me every time I look at the weather forecast in Mexico.  Hmm, I wonder if tomorrow will be jacket weather or not....  OK, time to do mental math!

Some (a lot of?) things would simply never change, for practical reasons.  I mean, farmers are still going to "plow the northwest forty", rather than "plow the northwest 16.1874 hectares", no matter what.  And, if they sell a portion of their land, it's still going to be "a quarter-section" rather than "0.647497 square kilometers".  Chicago's street grid will still be "eight blocks to a mile", no matter if highways signs have kilometers on them or not.

"eight blocks to a mile" can easily become "five blocks to a km"...

However, that would not match up to where the major roads/streets are, which are on the section lines.

Does it match up with the dimensions as of today? I just went to Cook county's tax map and measured some distance in a well-defined grid area. Sure enough, it was 0.503 mile street center to street center - good enough for the estimate, but error is similar to rounding a mile to 1.6 km.
I really doubt you can do much better given the spherical shape of the planet and non-flat terrain.
Accuracy of odometer would be still limited by tire wear,  for tax purposes one needs to take street width into account...
So I doubt the change would be that problematic..

Precision is irrelevant in this context.  But, at any rate...  I can easily figure out how far it is in Wichita from, say, 45th/Oliver to Central/Rock, because each major road along the way north-south is one mile farther, and each major road along the way east-west is a half-mile farther:

45th/Oliver → 45th/Edgemoor = 0.5 mi.
45th/Edgemoor → 45th/Woodlawn = 0.5 mi., total 1 mi.
45th/Woodlawn → 37th/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 2 mi.
37th/Woodlawn → 29th/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 3 mi.
29th/Woodlawn → 21st/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 4 mi.
21st/Woodlawn → 13th/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 5 mi.
13th/Woodlawn → Central/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 6 mi.
Central/Woodlawn → Central/Armour = 0.5 mi., total 6.5 mi.
Central/Armour → Central/Rock = 0.5 mi., total 7 mi.

Oh, and hey, look, that's exactly how far it is!

I do this kind of adding in my head all the time to figure out how far away something is in town.  I remember my grandpa doing it out loud all the time for distances within Chicago, too.  How would you my Wichita example–just as easily and intuitively–using kilometers instead?

[Henry]

I-19 is still signed in metric, for both distances and exit numbers. I wonder if there was a plan to do the same thing for all the other Interstates at the time? (although I wouldn't be surprised if such plans existed)

[kalvado]

Precision is irrelevant in this context.  But, at any rate...  I can easily figure out how far it is in Wichita from, say, 45th/Oliver to Central/Rock, because each major road along the way north-south is one mile farther, and each major road along the way east-west is a half-mile farther:

45th/Oliver → 45th/Edgemoor = 0.5 mi.
45th/Edgemoor → 45th/Woodlawn = 0.5 mi., total 1 mi.
45th/Woodlawn → 37th/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 2 mi.
37th/Woodlawn → 29th/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 3 mi.
29th/Woodlawn → 21st/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 4 mi.
21st/Woodlawn → 13th/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 5 mi.
13th/Woodlawn → Central/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 6 mi.
Central/Woodlawn → Central/Armour = 0.5 mi., total 6.5 mi.
Central/Armour → Central/Rock = 0.5 mi., total 7 mi.

Oh, and hey, look, that's exactly how far it is!

I do this kind of adding in my head all the time to figure out how far away something is in town.  I remember my grandpa doing it out loud all the time for distances within Chicago, too.  How would you my Wichita example–just as easily and intuitively–using kilometers instead?

Not being familiar with Chicago area, I cannot go through street names; let me try to do just the numbered part:

45th/Woodlawn → 40th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 1 km.
40th/Woodlawn → 35th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 2 km.
35th/Woodlawn → 30th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 3 km.
30th/Woodlawn → 25th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 4 km.
25th/Woodlawn → 20th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 5 km.
20th/Woodlawn → 15th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 6 km.
15th/Woodlawn → 13th/Woodlawn = 0.4 km. total 6.4 km.

[Scott5114]

Inches are the worst unit of measure anyone ever came up with; there is nothing more frustrating than having to stare at the ruler trying to count off sixteenths of an inch if you don't measure things often enough to just be able to know from looking at the ruler. ("Okay, 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, uh... what's that next one, a fourth?")

I think it's worse to measure millimeters on a ruler, when none of them are labeled between the centimeter marks, or only the 5mm mark if you're lucky.

Every metric ruler I own has a longer line every 5 mm, which makes things considerably easier. Still, though, it's easier to count "51, 52, 53, 54..." than keeping track of four different line lengths and which denominator each of them represents. To me at least. I'm not a fraction kind of guy.

I wonder if they have rulers that measure by 0.1 inch rather than by fractions. Of course, that probably wouldn't be terribly useful, because if I'm measuring something that was designed in customary units they probably made it 7/16" instead of 0.4" just to piss me off.

[US 89]

Inches are the worst unit of measure anyone ever came up with; there is nothing more frustrating than having to stare at the ruler trying to count off sixteenths of an inch if you don't measure things often enough to just be able to know from looking at the ruler. ("Okay, 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, uh... what's that next one, a fourth?")

I think it's worse to measure millimeters on a ruler, when none of them are labeled between the centimeter marks, or only the 5mm mark if you're lucky.

What ruler are you using? Every ruler I've ever used has a mark for each mm.

The thing is that a millimeter is small enough that you have to squint and count each tick mark, and then count it again to make sure you counted right. Unlike the inch side where the different fractions are different lengths, all the mm tick marks are the same size except for maybe the 5 mm mark. And good luck drawing a line accurate to within a mm when the tip of your pencil is actually wider than that...

[kalvado]

Inches are the worst unit of measure anyone ever came up with; there is nothing more frustrating than having to stare at the ruler trying to count off sixteenths of an inch if you don't measure things often enough to just be able to know from looking at the ruler. ("Okay, 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, uh... what's that next one, a fourth?")

I think it's worse to measure millimeters on a ruler, when none of them are labeled between the centimeter marks, or only the 5mm mark if you're lucky.

What ruler are you using? Every ruler I've ever used has a mark for each mm.

The thing is that a millimeter is small enough that you have to squint and count each tick mark, and then count it again to make sure you counted right. Unlike the inch side where the different fractions are different lengths, all the mm tick marks are the same size except for maybe the 5 mm mark. And good luck drawing a line accurate to within a mm when the tip of your pencil is actually wider than that...

Our local Staples surely has some mechanical pencils with 0.5 mm lead...

[kphoger]

Precision is irrelevant in this context.  But, at any rate...  I can easily figure out how far it is in Wichita from, say, 45th/Oliver to Central/Rock, because each major road along the way north-south is one mile farther, and each major road along the way east-west is a half-mile farther:

45th/Oliver → 45th/Edgemoor = 0.5 mi.
45th/Edgemoor → 45th/Woodlawn = 0.5 mi., total 1 mi.
45th/Woodlawn → 37th/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 2 mi.
37th/Woodlawn → 29th/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 3 mi.
29th/Woodlawn → 21st/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 4 mi.
21st/Woodlawn → 13th/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 5 mi.
13th/Woodlawn → Central/Woodlawn = 1 mi., total 6 mi.
Central/Woodlawn → Central/Armour = 0.5 mi., total 6.5 mi.
Central/Armour → Central/Rock = 0.5 mi., total 7 mi.

Oh, and hey, look, that's exactly how far it is!

I do this kind of adding in my head all the time to figure out how far away something is in town.  I remember my grandpa doing it out loud all the time for distances within Chicago, too.  How would you my Wichita example–just as easily and intuitively–using kilometers instead?

Not being familiar with Chicago area, I cannot go through street names; let me try to do just the numbered part:

45th/Woodlawn → 40th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 1 km.
40th/Woodlawn → 35th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 2 km.
35th/Woodlawn → 30th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 3 km.
30th/Woodlawn → 25th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 4 km.
25th/Woodlawn → 20th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 5 km.
20th/Woodlawn → 15th/Woodlawn = 1 km. total 6 km.
15th/Woodlawn → 13th/Woodlawn = 0.4 km. total 6.4 km.

Wichita, by the way.

Great, you can subtract with numbered streets.  That totally leaves out the rest of the exercise.  Being able to do it with or without numbered streets is the whole point.

To do an actual Chicago example:  Harlem/Division to Cicero/Kinzie.

Harlem/Division → Oak Park/Division = 0.5 mi.
Oak Park/Division → Ridgeland/Division = 0.5 mi.
Ridgeland/Division → Austin/Division = 0.5 mi.
Austin/Division → Central/Division = 0.5 mi.
Central/Division → Laramie/Division = 0.5 mi.
Laramie/Division → Cicero/Division = 0.5 mi.
Cicero/Division → Cicero/Chicago = 0.5 mi.
Cicero/Chicago → Cicero/Kinzie = 0.5 mi.
  Total = 4 miles.

That's only a tenth-mile off according to Google Maps, which is darned close enough for any real-world application.  And yes, those intermediate points are pretty easy for me, considering they correspond with station stops on the Green Line L.

[kphoger]

Inches are the worst unit of measure anyone ever came up with; there is nothing more frustrating than having to stare at the ruler trying to count off sixteenths of an inch if you don't measure things often enough to just be able to know from looking at the ruler. ("Okay, 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, uh... what's that next one, a fourth?")

I think it's worse to measure millimeters on a ruler, when none of them are labeled between the centimeter marks, or only the 5mm mark if you're lucky.

What ruler are you using? Every ruler I've ever used has a mark for each mm.

The thing is that a millimeter is small enough that you have to squint and count each tick mark, and then count it again to make sure you counted right. Unlike the inch side where the different fractions are different lengths, all the mm tick marks are the same size except for maybe the 5 mm mark. And good luck drawing a line accurate to within a mm when the tip of your pencil is actually wider than that...

I didn't say they weren't marked.  I said they weren't labeled (with a longer line).  Even with half-centimeter lines being longer/labeled, that still leaves four tiny lines in between.  At least fractions of an inch often have various line lengths.  Therefore, we're actually in agreement.

[webny99]

I can easily figure out how far it is in Wichita from, say, 45th/Oliver to Central/Rock, because each major road along the way north-south is one mile farther, and each major road along the way east-west is a half-mile farther:

That's all well and fine in a city with a grid, but there are many cities where that doesn't work. Boston, for example.

[kphoger]

I can easily figure out how far it is in Wichita from, say, 45th/Oliver to Central/Rock, because each major road along the way north-south is one mile farther, and each major road along the way east-west is a half-mile farther:

That's all well and fine in a city with a grid, but there are many cities where that doesn't work. Boston, for example.

Yeah, I totally get that.  In Boston, it probably wouldn't make any difference either way.  But in places like Chicago and Wichita, figuring distances would be more difficult in metric.

[Scott5114]

I can easily figure out how far it is in Wichita from, say, 45th/Oliver to Central/Rock, because each major road along the way north-south is one mile farther, and each major road along the way east-west is a half-mile farther:

That's all well and fine in a city with a grid, but there are many cities where that doesn't work. Boston, for example.

Yeah, I totally get that.  In Boston, it probably wouldn't make any difference either way.  But in places like Chicago and Wichita, figuring distances would be more difficult in metric.

I mean, that's part of the problem, when something is built to one measure but you want to use another one. US cities were built using miles so using km to measure them doesn't work very well.

Similar problem with a building I'm renovating: we need to replace some blocks in a concrete-block wall. I'd be perfectly happy to measure the block cuts in cm, but the blocks and mortar thickness are all a standardized number of inches so I'd end up with a bunch of squirrelly decimals.

[TXtoNJ]

What does Canada still use Imperial or customary measures for?

Anything associated with personal info (height, weight) or construction.

But in places like Chicago and Wichita, figuring distances would be more difficult in metric.

15 minutes away is still 15 minutes away, even in the metric system

I mean, that's part of the problem, when something is built to one measure but you want to use another one. US cities were built using miles so using km to measure them doesn't work very well.

Just means you see a lot of 400 m, 600 m, 800 m, 1200 m, 1600 m, and 3 km road signs (at least in BC) instead of 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, and 2 km signs like you do in Europe.

[kphoger]

15 minutes away is still 15 minutes away, even in the metric system

But I don't know something is 15 minutes away if I don't know how far it is.

Say I'm walking home, and my wife calls to ask how long till I get back.  ??

[webny99]

15 minutes away is still 15 minutes away, even in the metric system

But I don't know something is 15 minutes away if I don't know how far it is.

Say I'm walking home, and my wife calls to ask how long till I get back.  ??

Well, if you're walking home, you should know approximately how many minutes away you are, even if you don't know anything about the metric or imperial systems of measurement.

[kphoger]

Well, if you're walking home, you should know approximately how many minutes away you are, even if you don't know anything about the metric or imperial systems of measurement.

Nope.  I rarely walk farther than a few blocks anymore, so I don't have a good feel for how many minutes away different places are.

But if our car is in the shop or my wife needs it, and I need to catch a bus, how many minutes should I allow to get from home to the bus stop?  I can easily calculate that based on how many minutes it takes me to cover a mile, because major roads are either a half-mile or a mile apart.

Or the time a few years ago that I had to renew my tags, drove to the tag office, locked my keys in the car, and had to walk 3.5 miles home to grab my wife's set of keys.  I didn't even have to measure that distance on Google Maps just now:  I could figure it in my head based on the mile-grid system.  I also did so on my way home from the tag office, when I called her on my cell phone and told her I'd be there in about 50 to 55 minutes, based on my typical walking speed of 4 mph.

[renegade]

But I don't know something is 15 minutes away if I don't know how far it is.

Say I'm walking home, and my wife calls to ask how long till I get back.  ??

Same answer I give:  "I'll be there when I get there!"

[kalvado]

Well, if you're walking home, you should know approximately how many minutes away you are, even if you don't know anything about the metric or imperial systems of measurement.

Nope.  I rarely walk farther than a few blocks anymore, so I don't have a good feel for how many minutes away different places are.

But if our car is in the shop or my wife needs it, and I need to catch a bus, how many minutes should I allow to get from home to the bus stop?  I can easily calculate that based on how many minutes it takes me to cover a mile, because major roads are either a half-mile or a mile apart.

Or the time a few years ago that I had to renew my tags, drove to the tag office, locked my keys in the car, and had to walk 3.5 miles home to grab my wife's set of keys.  I didn't even have to measure that distance on Google Maps just now:  I could figure it in my head based on the mile-grid system.  I also did so on my way home from the tag office, when I called her on my cell phone and told her I'd be there in about 50 to 55 minutes, based on my typical walking speed of 4 mph.

Folks, do you think we should tell him what "taxi" is before trying to explain different systems of measurements?

[GaryV]

But I don't know something is 15 minutes away if I don't know how far it is.

Say I'm walking home, and my wife calls to ask how long till I get back.  ??

Same answer I give:  "I'll be there when I get there!"

Ah, you didn't pass the Marriage 101 course.

[hotdogPi]

Well, if you're walking home, you should know approximately how many minutes away you are, even if you don't know anything about the metric or imperial systems of measurement.

Nope.  I rarely walk farther than a few blocks anymore, so I don't have a good feel for how many minutes away different places are.

But if our car is in the shop or my wife needs it, and I need to catch a bus, how many minutes should I allow to get from home to the bus stop?  I can easily calculate that based on how many minutes it takes me to cover a mile, because major roads are either a half-mile or a mile apart.

Or the time a few years ago that I had to renew my tags, drove to the tag office, locked my keys in the car, and had to walk 3.5 miles home to grab my wife's set of keys.  I didn't even have to measure that distance on Google Maps just now:  I could figure it in my head based on the mile-grid system.  I also did so on my way home from the tag office, when I called her on my cell phone and told her I'd be there in about 50 to 55 minutes, based on my typical walking speed of 4 mph.

Folks, do you think we should tell him what "taxi" is before trying to explain different systems of measurements?

Taxis (and Ubers) are expensive compared to walking. Buses are pretty cheap, but not every route has one.

[1995hoo]

The notion kphoger mentions of knowing the distance based on a "mile-grid system" is utterly alien to me because we have no grid system of that sort here. To be clear, I'm not saying that as criticism of kphoger; rather, it's more an observation on how where you live can clearly influence your opinions on this sort of issue in ways that may not even remotely occur to someone living elsewhere.

[kphoger]

But I don't know something is 15 minutes away if I don't know how far it is.

Say I'm walking home, and my wife calls to ask how long till I get back.  ??

Same answer I give:  "I'll be there when I get there!"

But if the question is "Should I start setting the table for dinner?" do you become less irritated?   

Folks, do you think we should tell him what "taxi" is before trying to explain different systems of measurements?

Should we tell you what "money" is?

Taxis (and Ubers) are expensive compared to walking. Buses are pretty cheap, but not every route has one.

Yep.  The Wichita bus system operates on a hub-and-spoke model, which means all the routes converge downtown.  Even though it was almost a straight shot from the tag office to my house, there's no bus line directly between the two, and I had no idea how long I'd have to wait for the next bus anyway.  After getting my wife's car keys, I did take the bus back up to the tag office–which took about an hour and a half including the transfer.

[hbelkins]

Am I the only person who grew up calling the metric temperature scale "centigrade" instead of "Celsius?"

[bandit957]

Am I the only person who grew up calling the metric temperature scale "centigrade" instead of "Celsius?"

I remember it was always called "centigrade" until about 1980 (in the rare case it was mentioned at all).