Metrication

[Poiponen13]

I think that Celsius would be based as: -30s, -20s, -10s, -0s, 0s, 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s.

[1995hoo]

An acre is simple-it's an area of 1 chain by 10 chains. A rod is 1/4 of a chain.

"The metric system is a tool of the devil! My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!"
–Abraham J. Simpson II

[Scott5114]

It helps Big Business but hurts the average person.

So no.

See, I'm of the opinion it's the other way around. I mostly use metric for my own purposes–I cook measuring things in grams and mL whenever convenient, when measuring things for my own purposes I use cm/mm, etc. The math is simpler, and I went to school in Oklahoma so I'm stupid. I have no real problem with this since I'm used to it.

The reason why the rest of the country isn't changing is because some pissbaby CEO, who can't bear the thought of spending any money ever, completely shitting his pants at the thought they might have to change something, because change costs money.

[Scott5114]

I think that Celsius would be based as: -30s, -20s, -10s, -0s, 0s, 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s.

The "40s" in Celsius cover everything from 104°F (a typical Oklahoma summer day) to 120°F (Death Valley temperatures). That's a ridiculous range of temperatures, covered in only a 9°C spread.

[kkt]

You can pry a 4' X 8' sheet of plywood from my cold dead hands.

But if you have a 2 x 4 that's actually 2" x 4" I'd like to see it

[SSOWorld]

There's U.S., there's Metric, then there's Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

[davewiecking]

You can pry a 4' X 8' sheet of plywood from my cold dead hands.

But if you have a 2 x 4 that's actually 2" x 4" I'd like to see it

Granted it's not standard, but allow me to show you the inside of some of the walls of my house (built in 1917)!

[bandit957]

This is about on par with putting the entire United States on the same time zone.

[kkt]

You can pry a 4' X 8' sheet of plywood from my cold dead hands.

But if you have a 2 x 4 that's actually 2" x 4" I'd like to see it

Granted it's not standard, but allow me to show you the inside of some of the walls of my house (built in 1917)!

Congratulations!  Sometime I should open up a wall or something and check mine, it was built in 1925.

[Konza]

Definitely in favor of going metric.

I was having trouble with Fahrenheit/Celsius conversions so I switched the readout on my dashboard to Celsius about 20 years ago.  I'm all over it now.  43.5 degrees C in Tucson today.

Why all of the 11's in the Imperial distance measurements?  5280=480 x 11.  43560= 11 x 11 x 360 or 66 x 66 x 10.  Again, why?

If we went metric, the need for an architect's scale would go away.  Instead of, say, 1/4" scale, which is actually 1:48, you'd draw plans at 1:50 and nobody would know the difference.

Building products might or might not change.  Would ceiling tiles be 2' x 4' or 600 x 1200 mm like they are in Europe?  Carpet tiles are 18" square if they're made in the USA but 50 cm x 50 cm if imported.

Plus, almost anything that is sold outside the USA has metric parts, anyway, because very few other countries have Imperial tools.

It would be defensible to use a different measuring system than the rest of the world if our system was better.  It isn't.

[Brandon]

Not much point in it.  We already use dual units anyway for a lot of things.  A 2 liter of pop, 1 mile down the road, 50 milligrams of medication, 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, etc.

As for the system being better, maybe it's just best to use what fits on the ground.  Our current land division system divides everything so we have roads at 1 mile intervals (section line roads), land divided into sections of 640 acres, further divided into quarter sections of 160 acres.  It's one reason why you'll still get distances in western Canada of miles instead of km.  What's also interesting is that a number of Canadian parking garages give maximum heights in feet and inches as well as meters.

[Rothman]

Not much point in it.  We already use dual units anyway for a lot of things.  A 2 liter of pop, 1 mile down the road, 50 milligrams of medication, 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, etc.

As for the system being better, maybe it's just best to use what fits on the ground.  Our current land division system divides everything so we have roads at 1 mile intervals (section line roads), land divided into sections of 640 acres, further divided into quarter sections of 160 acres.  It's one reason why you'll still get distances in western Canada of miles instead of km.  What's also interesting is that a number of Canadian parking garages give maximum heights in feet and inches as well as meters.

Canada's not a real country, anyway.

[Chris]

While the Netherlands is metric, there are still some other measurement systems in use, to varying degrees.

In weights, pound and ounce are still somewhat common along the older generations, especially for meat or cheese weight in supermarkets. I remember working in a supermarket at age 16 and older people wanted 2 ounces of sliced meat or a pound of cheese. I had no idea what they meant at first.

Inches are still fairly common for the diagonal size of computer monitors, but increasingly less so for TVs, where it has been replaced by centimeters.

In Canada, the area of wildfires is reported in the number of hectares. While hectares are a metric unit, most people don't have a good feeling for it. It's mostly used for agricultural purposes (the size of a farm) or in forest management. I suppose many people cannot really visualize how much 400 or 4,000 hectares is.

Some metric units are dumbed down in the media, instead of using area, volume or weight, they use 'football fields' or 'olympic swimming pools' as units. Or 'millions of kilos' instead of tonnes.

[kkt]

Some metric units are dumbed down in the media, instead of using area, volume or weight, they use 'football fields' or 'olympic swimming pools' as units. Or 'millions of kilos' instead of tonnes.

Which have their own sources of confusion.  People envision a football stadium including the stands, and aren't really sure which swimming pool is Olympic.

[michravera]

Should US metricate? I think that this should be done because most other countries use metric system and US shouldn't be outlier. Do you think that US will have been fully metricated by 2038?

I've always said that, if the US Government will simply use metric (and only metric) in ITS products and laws, the rest of the society will soon follow.

[LilianaUwU]

Not much point in it.  We already use dual units anyway for a lot of things.  A 2 liter of pop, 1 mile down the road, 50 milligrams of medication, 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, etc.

As for the system being better, maybe it's just best to use what fits on the ground.  Our current land division system divides everything so we have roads at 1 mile intervals (section line roads), land divided into sections of 640 acres, further divided into quarter sections of 160 acres.  It's one reason why you'll still get distances in western Canada of miles instead of km.  What's also interesting is that a number of Canadian parking garages give maximum heights in feet and inches as well as meters.

Canada's not a real country, anyway.

The only real country north of the USA is Québec.

[Scott5114]

Diagonal size of screens is something that needs to stop regardless of what unit is used in measuring it. It's a fundamentally useless measurement–will a Z-inch TV fit in a space that is X by Y? Should I really have to do trig to find out?

The "football fields"/"swimming pools" units of measure are universal. (These are often sarcastically labeled "Americans will use anything but the metric system to measure things".) I recently saw a humorous exchange in the comments on an article regarding an area of Ukraine quoted to be "the size of Florida". A British reader commented that was a useless comparison for them. So another Brit converted it to a number of Belgiums for them, which is apparently a common reference size in British media.

The only real country north of the USA is Québec.

Don't forget Alanland (the Great Brown North). Which is also south of the USA, of course.

[Brandon]

Should US metricate? I think that this should be done because most other countries use metric system and US shouldn't be outlier. Do you think that US will have been fully metricated by 2038?

I've always said that, if the US Government will simply use metric (and only metric) in ITS products and laws, the rest of the society will soon follow.

Tell that to the Canadians.

[mgk920]

I'm kindof wondering when Quebec will start using the 'red circle' on their speed limit signs.

Mike

[davewiecking]

https://twitter.com/dronkoff/status/1680245004772560904

[algorerhythms]

Diagonal size of screens is something that needs to stop regardless of what unit is used in measuring it. It's a fundamentally useless measurement–will a Z-inch TV fit in a space that is X by Y? Should I really have to do trig to find out?

The "football fields"/"swimming pools" units of measure are universal. (These are often sarcastically labeled "Americans will use anything but the metric system to measure things".) I recently saw a humorous exchange in the comments on an article regarding an area of Ukraine quoted to be "the size of Florida". A British reader commented that was a useless comparison for them. So another Brit converted it to a number of Belgiums for them, which is apparently a common reference size in British media.

I had a bizarre cognitive dissonance recently when I saw a severe thunderstorm warning that mentioned hail "to toonie size".

[kkt]

It is a mistake to describe what the United States uses as the Imperial system.  The United States common measures are based on measures used in the 1700s in England and colonies.  The Imperial system was created in the UK about the 1820s after the Houses of Parliament burned down destroying the primary reference standards, and they simplified them somewhat at the same time thus creating two similar but different units with the same name.  In particular, the Imperial gallon is about 20% larger than the U.S. gallon, so that's enough to screw you over if you forget to allow for it.

[algorerhythms]

It is a mistake to describe what the United States uses as the Imperial system.  The United States common measures are based on measures used in the 1700s in England and colonies.  The Imperial system was created in the UK about the 1820s after the Houses of Parliament burned down destroying the primary reference standards, and they simplified them somewhat at the same time thus creating two similar but different units with the same name.  In particular, the Imperial gallon is about 20% larger than the U.S. gallon, so that's enough to screw you over if you forget to allow for it.

It's actually more complicated than that. The reference standards that the U.S. used through the 1800s were no longer in usable condition by the end of the 1800s, which resulted in the U.S. redefining its units in terms of metric units, which is why an inch is exactly 25.4 mm, for example. And the Imperial gallon being larger than a U.S. gallon isn't because of any standards changes in the 1800s, but because they're based on different units to begin with: the U.S. gallon is based on the wine gallon (originally used, obviously, for measuring wine), while the Imperial gallon is based on the corn gallon (originally used for measuring dry goods like grain).

A big part of the invention of the metric system in the first place is that the medieval unit systems were so disorganized that they were practically useless. In Isaac Newton's works, he had to specify that he was using one particular version of the Parisian foot for distances, because otherwise nobody would be able to verify and reproduce his work.

[Roadgeekteen]

objectively yes, I honestly don't care though. It's not important enough for the people in charge to really bother with.

[Poiponen13]

I think that temperatures would be better based on Celsius, because it would be uniform.