Change over to Metric

[jwolfer]

This question is for you Canadians or Australians  who can remember the change over to metric.  Canada and Australia seem to have fully embraced the change as far as roads more than the UK.  When i was in early elementary school I remember learning the metric measurements and begin told we would be changing over by 1980... here we are 31 years later.  The biggest use of metric in the US are liquor bottles and 2L soda.  Science as well I have a bachelors degree in Biology and i think of freezing/boiling as 0/100.  But 30 does not sound hot to me.   Australian TV shows and documentaries or House Hunters International every one is comfortable using meters.

How long did it take to "think" in metric?  I can calculate km pretty easily.  Someone says 500km i think 250 miles.  1km is more of less 1/2mile and from pics on here it seems that advance guide signs were changed from 1 mile--1/2mile to 2km--1km.

[english si]

But 30 does not sound hot to me.

do what we (used to) do - 32 isn't cold, 32 isn't hot, 0 and 90 sound right, however, so you use Celsius in winter, and Fahrenheit in summer.

I can calculate km pretty easily.  Someone says 500km i think 250 miles. 1km is more of less 1/2mile

1 mile is 1609m. 1km is 1100yards, half a mile is 880yds. 1.6km in a mile, 0.6miles in a km. Doubling just leads to problems.

1-2-3-5-8-13-21... - the lower number of miles in km is approximately the next one up in the series. 20mph=30km/h, 30mph=50km/h, 50mph=80km/h, 80mph=130km/h is a pretty useful guide (though Canada, unlike Europe, doesn't do 130km/h).

500km is 300 miles - only 10 miles out, not 60!

[kkt]

This question is for you Canadians or Australians  who can remember the change over to metric.  Canada and Australia seem to have fully embraced the change as far as roads more than the UK.  When i was in early elementary school I remember learning the metric measurements and begin told we would be changing over by 1980... here we are 31 years later.  The biggest use of metric in the US are liquor bottles and 2L soda.  Science as well I have a bachelors degree in Biology and i think of freezing/boiling as 0/100.  But 30 does not sound hot to me.   Australian TV shows and documentaries or House Hunters International every one is comfortable using meters.

How long did it take to "think" in metric?  I can calculate km pretty easily.  Someone says 500km i think 250 miles.  1km is more of less 1/2mile and from pics on here it seems that advance guide signs were changed from 1 mile--1/2mile to 2km--1km.

Canada decided to just plunge in.  No period of posting in dual units.  The changeover date was announced years ahead of time, all the new signs positioned, so when the date arrived they were changed within a couple of weeks.

During my recent road trip to Canada, it took about a week.  I was just getting used to not having to convert in my head when it was time to come back.

[Brandon]

Canada may have plunged in signage-wise, but in the psyche, they are very mush dual units.  Their building trades completely rejected metric and only use imperial units (watch Holmes on Homes sometime - Canadian crew in Ontario, and they use imperial units for their construction work).

[realjd]

Medicine dosage is also always in mg, and increasingly liquid OTC meds dose in mL instead of tsp/tbsp. And colloquially you'll often hear people use mm for lengths under an inch instead of fractions. For repairing things, I rarely touch my non-metric wrenches anymore.

You forgot the other SI units we use regularly - Volts, Amps, Watts, seconds, Hertz, etc.

It's not just liquor and soda in liters. .5 L is a very standard bottled water size, and most liquid storage containers (Nalgene bottles, CamelBacks, and the like) are in L. I'd say that of all the standard metric measurements, liters are the ones that most Americans have a good understanding of since it's the one most often encountered.

[national highway 1]

Metrication took place in Australia between 1970 and 1988
Here is an example of a new metric sign with kilometre patch that was meant to be removed later.
It says:
          [135]
Heddon Greta       3
Gillieston Heights  8
Maitland              13


Here is an article on Metrication in Australia.

[silverback1065]

I don't think the US will ever not use imperial units for length and weight.  I'm an engineering student and we do use the metric system because obviously everyone else does, but everything project wise is imperial (very rarely metric), i personally like imperial since im used to it.  i think the balance we have is working fine, with the advent of smart phones unit converters make life a lot easier.

[silverback1065]

anyway i was surprised to know that in england they still use feet yards inches and miles on most of their roads

[NE2]

Miles are certainly easier to deal with when traveling in relatively flat PLSS areas.

[Duke87]

Canada has some even greater distances of nothingness than the US and they get along with km just fine. Yes, the numbers are about 60% larger. But with a little getting used to, that's meaningless.

Although, one point of perhaps minor inconvenience: Canada does not have any freeways longer than 1000 km. But the US does have a few (I-10 and I-20 in Texas, I-5 in California), bringing up the issue of 4-digit exit numbers.

[Brandon]

Canada has some even greater distances of nothingness than the US and they get along with km just fine. Yes, the numbers are about 60% larger. But with a little getting used to, that's meaningless.

Although, one point of perhaps minor inconvenience: Canada does not have any freeways longer than 1000 km. But the US does have a few (I-10 and I-20 in Texas, I-5 in California), bringing up the issue of 4-digit exit numbers.

Yet, Canada used a variation of PLSS when subdividing the Prairies based on mile and even two-mile lines, using sections and acres.  Kilometers and hectares just don't fit what's on the ground.

[1995hoo]

At most grocery stores I've visited in Canada, they have a paper conversion chart from kilograms to pounds taped next to the scales. The scales measure in kilograms, of course, but they keep the conversions handy because so many American tourists and Canadian old people persist in using the wrong units to the point where it's easier just to have a chart showing the kg equivalents of the old measurements.

One thing that irks me is that my car (a 2004 Acura TL) lets me change the sat-nav to metric to match the road signs, but it has no option to change the digital odometer to metric. So when it tells you to turn in 1 km (which it mispronounces as "kill-AH-metre" instead of "KILL-o-metre"), if you need to use the odometer to confirm the distance you have to make a mental note that it's around six-tenths of a mile. It seems dumb to me to have a digital odometer without a conversion button. Programming the algorithm seems like a basic thing.

[Alps]

I've trained myself to think in dual temperature units, and I can use distance when I go to Canada. I would say it took months of using both to really adjust. The USA is going to have a very tough time converting because too many older people resist change.

[vdeane]

Kill-o-meter sounds like you're petitioning someone named Meter to kill someone else while in a Shakespeare play.  Kill-ah-meter just sounds more normal IMO.

[kkt]

I don't think the US will ever not use imperial units for length and weight.  I'm an engineering student and we do use the metric system because obviously everyone else does, but everything project wise is imperial (very rarely metric), i personally like imperial since im used to it.  i think the balance we have is working fine, with the advent of smart phones unit converters make life a lot easier.

The system you are using the U.S. system.  Calling it Imperial will confuse everyone, especially if you use volume units.  1 U.S. gallon = 0.83 Imperial gallon. 

[kkt]

Miles are certainly easier to deal with when traveling in relatively flat PLSS areas.

I don't see why.  I just came back from a road trip from Seattle to Yellowknife.  800 km of very similar road on the Macenzie Highway doesn't seem any harder to deal with than 500 miles of very similar road in the states.

[silverback1065]

I know its officially the us customary system but for some reason everyone seems to call it imperial so thats why i said imperial

[jwolfer]

You forgot the other SI units we use regularly - Volts, Amps, Watts, seconds, Hertz, etc.

Oh and our money.   Its also interesting that the official US definition of pound etc are in SI units. 

[NE2]

Miles are certainly easier to deal with when traveling in relatively flat PLSS areas.

I don't see why.  I just came back from a road trip from Seattle to Yellowknife.  800 km of very similar road on the Macenzie Highway doesn't seem any harder to deal with than 500 miles of very similar road in the states.

http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html

[Brandon]

Miles are certainly easier to deal with when traveling in relatively flat PLSS areas.

I don't see why.  I just came back from a road trip from Seattle to Yellowknife.  800 km of very similar road on the Macenzie Highway doesn't seem any harder to deal with than 500 miles of very similar road in the states.

The mostly flat PLSS areas are in the Midwest and Great Plains where you have roads every mile, along the section lines.  1 kilometer just does not match up to the road system the same way 1 mile does.

[cpzilliacus]

This question is for you Canadians or Australians  who can remember the change over to metric.  Canada and Australia seem to have fully embraced the change as far as roads more than the UK.  When i was in early elementary school I remember learning the metric measurements and begin told we would be changing over by 1980... here we are 31 years later.  The biggest use of metric in the US are liquor bottles and 2L soda.  Science as well I have a bachelors degree in Biology and i think of freezing/boiling as 0/100.  But 30 does not sound hot to me.   Australian TV shows and documentaries or House Hunters International every one is comfortable using meters.

How long did it take to "think" in metric?  I can calculate km pretty easily.  Someone says 500km i think 250 miles.  1km is more of less 1/2mile and from pics on here it seems that advance guide signs were changed from 1 mile--1/2mile to 2km--1km.

I was born and raised in the United States and have always had a Maryland-issued license, but have driven enough in continental Europe (I've never dared to drive in Britain) to be comfortable in Metric when behind the wheel.  The speed limits are reasonably easy to "convert,"  30 k/h is about 20 MPH, 50 k/h is about 30 MPH, 70 k/h is about 45 MPH, 90 k/h is about 55 MPH, 110 k/h is about 70 MPH, 120 k/h is about 75 MPH and (best of all) 130 k/h is about 80 MPH.

Not at all that hard - the United States is stuck with its obsolete units of measure thanks to ... oh well, forget it - no reason to bash any particular segment of the population.

[english si]

(I've never dared to drive in Britain)

Why not - we have nearly the safest roads in the world (I think a couple of other Western European countries have overtaken us recently on those stakes).

OK, I know why, but just because you drive on the wrong side of the road, doesn't mean that switching to the correct side of the road is such a horrific thing.

Not at all that hard - the United States is stuck with its obsolete units of measure thanks to ... oh well, forget it - no reason to bash any particular segment of the population.

No more obsolete than metric. Ironically (give where your bash was going) customary units evolved, whereas metric was created ex nihilo. They exist for different purposes - metric is for 'enlightened' transcendence from the mundane everyday tasks (by being completely and utterly arbitrary - and deliberately so) and doing sums, whereas customary has evolved for estimation and specific tasks.

There's a reason why metrication has only happened by banning other units (the classic Napoleonic ploy), rather than because it's better, the alternatives are obsolete, etc...

[cpzilliacus]

(I've never dared to drive in Britain)

Why not - we have nearly the safest roads in the world (I think a couple of other Western European countries have overtaken us recently on those stakes).

My decision to not drive in the UK is in part because of having spent nearly my entire life on the right [hand] side of the road (except for some visits to Sweden prior to 1967).

Regarding safety - Sweden, perhaps?  Full disclosure - I am 1/4 Swedish (and 3/4 Finnish).

OK, I know why, but just because you drive on the wrong side of the road, doesn't mean that switching to the correct side of the road is such a horrific thing.

Were I to spend some significant time in the UK walking and using transit, I might take on the highway network on my own.

Not at all that hard - the United States is stuck with its obsolete units of measure thanks to ... oh well, forget it - no reason to bash any particular segment of the population.

No more obsolete than metric. Ironically (give where your bash was going) customary units evolved, whereas metric was created ex nihilo. They exist for different purposes - metric is for 'enlightened' transcendence from the mundane everyday tasks (by being completely and utterly arbitrary - and deliberately so) and doing sums, whereas customary has evolved for estimation and specific tasks.

There's a reason why metrication has only happened by banning other units (the classic Napoleonic ploy), rather than because it's better, the alternatives are obsolete, etc...

In spite of what many anti-Metric types in the U.S. claim, it's not about conforming to a French system of measurement. I believe Tom Jefferson was a proponent of something that might have became known as the Metric system (see Wikipedia article here).

Of course, all spirits sold in the U.S. are marketed in Metric bottles, all prescription drugs are dispensed in Metric units and all (or very nearly all) automotive parts are now Metric, even for so-called "American" vehicles, though the anti-Metric folks are probably not aware of that (a 750 cl bottle of liquor is still called a "fifth" [of a gallon]).

[ghYHZ]

I'm a Civil Tech and graduated just as metric was being introduced in the late "˜70s. Took a bit to get used to but would I go back.....no way....just so much easier! All our road and municipal servicing designs are metric but a lot of buildings are still done in Imperial......a 4X8 sheet of plywood is still a 4x8 sheet of plywood!

I used to do a lot of speed, distance and temperature conversions in my head but really no need to now.  I know when the weatherman says it going to be in the low 30s today.....its hot.  Or sunny and -3, it's a great ski day! 

[Michael in Philly]

This question is for you Canadians or Australians  who can remember the change over to metric.  Canada and Australia seem to have fully embraced the change as far as roads more than the UK.  When i was in early elementary school I remember learning the metric measurements and begin told we would be changing over by 1980... here we are 31 years later.  The biggest use of metric in the US are liquor bottles and 2L soda.  Science as well I have a bachelors degree in Biology and i think of freezing/boiling as 0/100.  But 30 does not sound hot to me.   Australian TV shows and documentaries or House Hunters International every one is comfortable using meters.

How long did it take to "think" in metric?  I can calculate km pretty easily.  Someone says 500km i think 250 miles.  1km is more of less 1/2mile and from pics on here it seems that advance guide signs were changed from 1 mile--1/2mile to 2km--1km.

I was born and raised in the United States and have always had a Maryland-issued license, but have driven enough in continental Europe (I've never dared to drive in Britain) to be comfortable in Metric when behind the wheel.  The speed limits are reasonably easy to "convert,"  30 k/h is about 20 MPH, 50 k/h is about 30 MPH, 70 k/h is about 45 MPH, 90 k/h is about 55 MPH, 110 k/h is about 70 MPH, 120 k/h is about 75 MPH and (best of all) 130 k/h is about 80 MPH.

Not at all that hard - the United States is stuck with its obsolete units of measure thanks to ... oh well, forget it - no reason to bash any particular segment of the population.

(1) What's obsolete about it?
(2) I've yet to hear a good reason to convert.  And conformity with "the rest of the world [sic]" is not, to my mind, a good reason.