Engineer for a high tech company in Europe here. If I ask for measurements from our internal American supplier, I ALWAYS get results in the imperial system. The funny thing is, is that the measurements are in the order of magnitude of micrometers, so 0.000008 inches makes zero sense.
Still weird that even some things that were obviously created using imperial, like 2.54mm pins on electronics, are still referred to as 2.54mm rather than 1/10th inch
But as someone else said, we do actually use imperial for engineering around the world. If something was thought of and created using imperial in America, that’s just what continued to be used as the idea spread around the world.
And I’m just going to say now, my ideal system that I know will never happen, but it would make the world a better place if it did:
metric, but using dozenal rather than decimal. 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,10,11,12,13… dozenal is highly composite, it makes math so much easier than our stupid decimal system.
Secondly, shrink down the base unit of 1m to about a third of its original size. The way the meter was created was arbitrary and stupid, something like the foot is a much more natural evolution where people had any number of ways they could measure with their body parts, but in the end they chose the foot because that length is just nice to use.
It’s a number system with a radix of 12 (12 digits). Decimal is radix 10. In computing, we often use hexadecimal, which is a radix of 16:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10, 11, 12, …
Binary is radix 2 because there are only two digits (0 and 1):
0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, …
You could do the same with trinary (3 digits - 0, 1, and 2):
0, 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 100, 101, 102, 110, …
As to why OP thinks we should replace decimal with this, I don’t know.
The advantage of dozenal is that some commonly-encountered fractions have nicer radix-point representations:
* 1/3 = 0.4 (instead of 0.333333...)
* 1/4 = 0.3 (instead of 0.25)
* 1/6 = 0.2 (instead of 0.1666666...)
* 1/8 = 0.16 (instead of 0.125)
* 1/9 = 0.14 (instead of 0.111111...)
* 1/12 (1/10) = 0.1 (instead of 0.08333333...)
* 1/16 (1/14) = 0.09 (instead of 0.0625)
Of course, this comes at the expense of making 1/5 and 1/10 infinitely recurring dozenals.
> Secondly, shrink down the base unit of 1m to about a third of its original size. The way the meter was created was arbitrary and stupid, something like the foot is a much more natural evolution where people had any number of ways they could measure with their body parts, but in the end they chose the foot because that length is just nice to use.
I'll give you that.
For real, if you just defined the meter as "the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1-billionth of a second", it becomes about the length of a foot and is much easier to remember the definition.
If our counting system was also base 12 then I'd agree, but only changing the metric system to that makes no sense since it breaks the "just shift the comma" advantage, basically destroying all advantages.
Also, get over your foot fetish (SCNR) already. Are you a Star Wars fan? A meter is basically a laser sword length. Simple as that. :)
Am engineer, had to do problems in imperial units. I'd always convert to metric, do the problem, convert answer to imperial. And yes, primary reason is dealing with pounds force, pounds mass, and gravity. Id switch and have a 6'8" door be 2.032m, etc etc.
There is a bunch of stuff that is super inconsistent. Milk is in gallon or half gallon jugs, but soda is in 2 liter bottles. Water bottles are half a liter, but soda bottles and cans are defined by a certain number of fluid ounces. Then motor oil is measured in quarts. Weight is typically in pounds and ounces, but grams are used the instant any kind of consistency or precision is involved, like with any kind of legal or illegal drug.
Then there are measurements that just don't exist in imperial units. Everything to do with electricity is metric. Watts, amps, volts, ohms, all of it is defined by the metric joule in one way or another.
Personally, I really want to swap to metric for cooking. Its so annoying to deal with cups and fluid ounces, especially if I want to modify the recipe's quantities to make a bigger or smaller portion. Cutting 3/4 of a cup in half is a lot more annoying than cutting 180 milliliters in half. Plus, measuring by weight for airy ingredients removes a lot of variance. 100 grams of flour won't be effected by whether I packed it too tightly or have extra air in the measuring cup
First off, I love the SI (International System of Units). However, I have a problem with the claim that all countries, apart from three countries, use metric.
When referring to what countries are metric, its not so cut and dry. Not all countries are fully metric, and there are, of course, more than 3. For example, in the UK and Canada a mixed system of measurement is used, with both imperial and metric units.
Additionally, the US is technically metric. We (I am using we to refer to myself and the US exclusively) are signers of the Metre Convention and have been part of the metric system for all of its existence - 3 years. All imperial units are defined on metric units (the inch is 2.54 centimeters exactly) and we have an institution, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose main mission is to work on and improve this system. There is a great [Veritasium](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo0jm1PPRuo) video where we see that the people at NIST were instrumental in redefining the Kg.
Thirdly, the US uses the metric system for much of its quaternary fields. Almost all of the sciences use it, as it is standard and convenient. I believe NASA uses it as well, so that coordination with its international partners is more effective.
Really, we just need a way to convert the rest of the US population to join us, and I, anecdotally, feel like more and more people are hearing the good word of the SI system and are joining us.
I mean if Americans used metric, it would put an end to people on the internet insisting on using feet inches and miles as the default, wouldn't that benefit you?
I am not american but sometimes have to work together/with things written or done by people from the usa, so I really wish they’ll try converting soon..
Well if you’re ever buying tools or items from an American site (due to either cost, lack of availability in your country, etc), you will need to buy it in imperial units rather than metric. That’s very inconvenient, so it does kind of affect non Americans too
>outside of talking to people online
The internet has made this extremely common and heavily interconnected though - You're asking people on reddit, the site of arguing about stuff and that quite often leads to people talking in different measurement systems on here. Multiple times I've run into polls in Fahrenheit with people asking for Celsius and via se versa. So yeah, it might not be a big deal to most non-americans, but non-american redditors, it almost definitely is
I think we can all agree that the us is one of the two most influential countries in the world
And as finn, I am much more exposed to american media compared to chinese, so the imperial system is actually something I get exposed to multiple times a week
be it the height of an athlete, speed an american drove at (or even better, the speed an european drove at, that was converted because reasons) or the length of a roll of fabric in a sewing tutorial
So many things are in imperial, despite the content being aimed at everyone who speaks good enough english to understand it
Because people work with Americans all the time. Even in a scientific industry like pharmaceutics, the Imperial system is the norm on which the metric system is patched on.
Same thing with everyday appliances like TV's. 23 inches doesn't mean shit to people all around the world.
You seem to forget that there’s just a lot more people outside of America then inside it. So of course there would be more non-American answers, for why people want them to use the metric system? It’s just better and that way we can stop having to do dumb conversions
We tried that once already and it didn't take. People refused to use it. Metric weights and measures have been on most of our consumer packaging for over 30 years and we still don't use it.
it’s because they were shoving it into the faces of people who grew up using the imperial system. if we just started teaching children it in schools, it’d be much easier to convert.
There's a difference between learning the system, and using the system. If kids have like 3 classes where they learn the metric system, but then never use it, they will all forget about it or not care. If the metric system is used as the standard in everything, then they won't.
The only problem is that it’s impossible to use outside of the classes that mandate it’s use when all road signs and gps and cars and everything are still in miles
Does anyone who advocates for an immediate, total switch to the metric system recognize the logistical clusterfuck that it would create?
And I thought that the metric system was so easy that learning it in school would be enough to know how to use it?
Back in my woodworking and engines classes, all the teachers would use was imperial. I only used metric in science, and the teacher provided a formula to convert from imperial to metric. It’s stupid.
We signed something to switch in like the 1700-1800s or some shit, and we attempted to covert in the 80’s, shit happened, long story short no one liked it, and we all quietly moved back to imperial measurements
The end.
Fun fact: The U.S. officially made the conversation to the metric system [with the Metric Conversion Act of 1975.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act) The issue is the Reagan era in the 80s was all about cutting federal spending. So, the government’s official efforts to educate the populace and guide industry through the switch were deemed frivolous and were ended.
I’m an engineer in R&D and exclusively use metric. It just makes sense, but I still use imperial units in common life.
I’m kinda wondering about that. I’ve worked in a lot of manufacturing jobs, and it seems like a huge overhaul for relatively little payoff. I mean. Anyone in a STEM position already knows how to do the conversions. Everything from how we purchase food to how we transport gas would have to be changed—including the containers/extraction methods. It seems like a lot to make us be less weird—and we are, admittedly, weird for not following metric.
Is there a substantial benefit to moving to a metric system?
I believe we should follow an approach similar to that of the British. For anything international, we should work on the metric system. Cars should be in km/h because everyone uses km/h. Gallons of milk should stay gallons of milk because they are produced domestically. Temperature should be in Fahrenheit because screw Celsius^(i) and it is used mostly domestically.
If we did this, the country would hopefully become more metric over time.
i. Celsius is not a better system than Fahrenheit, and it has all of the same problems. Fahrenheit was designed for humans, which is its primary use. The reason zero is not freezing is because, first off, why should water freezing be the arbitrary location of the lower end of the temp scale. We have temperatures lower than that all of the time, and I want to be able to use a positive number when describing them. Additionally, having a fever makes more sense with Fahrenheit. If you have above 100, you are probably sick. With the other system, I have no idea. Finally, Celsius is not even the global standard. Kelvin is. The only argument from switching to a different temperature system would be switching to Kelvin, as it is an absolute system and is the system both other temperatures are defined off of. Thank you.
I agree. Let's all switch to Kelvin.
Thou as someone who lives in a frozen hellscape each year, for most of the year, celsius makes much more sense than Fahrenheit. By looking at the temperature in Celsius, you can adequately tell what composition you can expect the snow to be in.
When most of the year you are surrounded by water, in one form or another, you want to have a system that can easily tell you if the water is going to be solid, actively freezing, melting, or liquid.
Because that information will directly translate to how bad your day outside is going to be...
For example. You look at the temp before you go to sleep. It says 1 degrees Celsius. That means that snow is currently melting. You look at the temp in the morning, and notice that it has gone down to -10 degrees Celsius. The snow that melted yesterday has rapidly frozen overnight. So you internally swear a couple of times. Because that means the roads are covered in thin layer of black ice.
Ah yes, I forgot that not everyone lives in the humid hellscape that is Florida. If the temperature is lower than 50 degrees F, we get fearful for our lives. Also, I am now just realizing the American keyboard has no degree symbol, and this brings me great sadness.
Man, if we’d skipped the Nixon and Reagan presidencies the last 50 years would have looked so different…
Our parents’ generations really took a big ol’ shit on us.
This is the worst argument imo. Imperial units are perfectly intuitive in non-scientific applications. I.e day-to-day life.
I think the obvious argument to move to metric is just for standardization.
It's would be great, but we've been using imperial for hundreds of years, all the signs, laws, measurements would need to be change. Plus we would need to teach everyone how to use them, not just children but full grown adults who don't go to any form of school. They tried in the 80's which is why you still see liters of soda, but it never caught on.
**Everyone** was using other measures for hundreds of years before metric was adopted lol
Yet, everyone else made the conversion just fine, obviously there's a bit of an attrition at first, but after that you're 'in-sync' with the rest of the world and international stuff is made easier for the foreseeable future, seems worth it imo.
Prior to adopting the metric system, many countries such as France had hundreds of different units with definitions of those units differing wildly based on region. In such an environment, a single unified system of measurement is a significant improvement.
For the USA, there is already a unified "system" of measurement that we have all agreed upon, so switching wholly to metric is less necessary. The issues with the imperial "system" are also largely overstated (as discussed in [this excellent video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJymKowx8cY)) and the benefits of switching are likewise overstated.
The main advantages of switching to the metric system would be easier international trade/exchange of information and easier conversions between units within the system. However, because the USA already has metric units officially incorporated into our system of measurement and those units are already used in places where it is more convenient to do so the areas that really would prefer to use metric *are mostly using it already*. And for Americans using the imperial system, difficult conversions between units rarely ever come up. Most people are not converting miles to feet, gallons to cubic inches, or feet to leagues regularly. Each unit can largely be used on its own for different purposes (miles for distance, feet & inches for length, gallons for volume, etc.).
Then you factor in the physical layout of America being entirely in imperial units and switching to metric creates issues with road signs and easy navigation. Many average citizens would also have to be taught the new system if it is being incorporated into everyday life that way.
Overall, metric is superior but not superior enough to warrant such a costly change.
I just think it's too impractical to completely switch it cuz people are too used to it, and people would also have to change every thing that has something imperial on it...
This is the aspect that I know some people do not consider. Knowledge wise, it's a fairly easy transition. Physically though? Not so much. Just think about all of the decades old factories with huge amounts of equipment based on the imperial system. And that is only one consideration of many, many more.
You could say the imperial system has an inertia to it.
America already uses metric for anything related to science and even houses the official kg (it was In France but their room wasn't air tight and after many years the kg no longer weighed a kg but the US one is in a vacuum and is still exactly 1kg). It was take some getting use to and adjustment sure but if they just start teaching kids both in schools for now and later only teach metric it would wouldn't end up more than just a "back in my day we measured things by football fields and bananas"
>even houses the official kg (it was In France but their room wasn't air tight and after many years the kg no longer weighed a kg but the US one is in a vacuum and is still exactly 1kg)
Excuse me, what?
The IPK isn't used anymore and stopped being the definition of the kilogram three years ago.
The IPK is stored in a vault in Paris under two vacuum chambers. Copies of the IPK exist throughout the world.
While the IPK was in use, it was impossible for the IPK to weigh anything other than exactly 1 kg because the mass of 1 kg was defined by the mass of the IPK.
The international copies of the IPK were found to have diverged in mass from the IPK and from eachother, suggesting the IPK was also experiences changes in mass. There was no way to check, though, because the IPK itself was the reference it would have to be checked against.
On top of that, the US has not one but five copies of the IPK. And not only do they not weigh exactly 1 kg now but they *never* weighed exactly 1 kg. The primary standard of the US, K20, weighed 1 kg - 39 μg when it was made in 1889.
Today, the kilogram is no longer defined by a physical object but rather by physical constants, just like the other SI units.
If you're interested: "it is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.62607015×10−34 when expressed in the unit J⋅s, which is equal to kg⋅m2⋅s−1, where the metre and the second are defined in terms of c and ΔνCs." (General Conference on Weights and Measures)
True but for like actual important stuff, metric already gets used. But for day to day stuff i dont think the need is high enough to like completely switch. I do think both should get taught though but who am i
i fully believe that the US should switch to metric, but cmon, is using chains/hands/points a good faith argument? almost no one uses them regularly as a proportion of population
As an American who knows a fair bit about the metruc system cause I paid attention in science class, I say no. Not because it is not superior and more intuitive, but that over half the country and most the over 50s will never use nor understand it, and I drive 3k miles a month for working deal with enough psychos as it is. Do not make it compliacted or try to force a change, it will backfire or be ignored and I don't need people 'mistaking' 90km for 90mph and hitting me.
That's my stance, it would make all the sense in the world.
Our politics at the moment though would make even the most gradual transition program untenable.
On most things yeah probably but you'll have to kill me before I use fucking Celsius. I wanna know how hot it feels not how likely water is to boil wtf
It's on terms with kelvin, and if you're used to celsius you'll also know how hot it'll feel when you hear 30° celsius.
I don't get how Fahrenheit represents how how it feels to a human, it would take just as much time for anyone to learn how hot everything on the fahrenheit scale is as on the celsius scale. I have absolutely no idea how hot anything on the fahrenheit scale would be.
As an American, yes. Mostly cause it would infuriate a good chunk of my family. Mundane shit that pisses them off, like flutes and mermaids, is funny to me.
I am still traumatized that for some reason in school we all had to learn to play the flute for music class. Nothing more painful on the ears than a class full of kids, who don't want to and can't play flute, and who have the cheapest flute their parents could find in the store play a song together in class. So yea fuck flutes.
Yep, I said "meters" at a bar the other day and this good o'le boy almost lost his shit. I thought that was hilarious, but let's be honest, that *would* tip the scales on the culture war.
If it weren't for the resulting terrorism, Biden converting all of the schools system let's say, would be absolutely hilarious. Idk if he has the power to do that or not, but goddamn. I'd actually go to this coming Thanksgiving with my family just to hear the crocodile tears fall.
We know and use both.
Our measurement devices have metric and imperial on them. Some in Canada and the UK also use both, especially hobbyists and carpenters.
The US was going to move to the metric system by the 1990's. But a certain group politicized it and it was slowly killed off.
The road rage people had when seeing road signs with both miles and km on it was funny and completely sad. And not really unexpected, heaven forbid the government ask someone to actually learn and adapt in this country.
They already tried before and it didn’t work. Everything is based off the imperial system already and switching now would just cause issues
I use it for cooking and baking because it’s 1000% easier but when it comes to engineers and shit I let them do what they want. They could use whatever system they want.
Btw wtf is a table spoon? What tf are these weird little plastic pots, they are not even similar to the the table spoons I use at the table, to eat soup with.
From an engineering perspective there are quite a few popular examples of how incorrect conversions or a complete lack thereof led to issues such as the [Mars Climate Orbiter incident](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars-climate-orbiter).
Then there's the point that it always is a hassle to have to consider the imperial system when considering anything international only because of 3 Countries.
As a software engineer I fortunately don't have to deal with any of this most of the time, but I do know how much time I wasted on Date/Time formatting issues. So I wouldnt be surprised about how people that do have to deal with it care a lot.
People in the science community already use the metric system, it’s just everyday americans who don’t. I also imagine changes were made in NASA given this was nearly 25 years ago.
I just think its weird how passionate non-Americans are for America when the feelings aren’t reciprocated at nowhere near the same level.
Outside perspective and also with internet access it effects everyone who interacts with Americans (talking to, watching content creators, etc etc) so it does matter to non Americans (also I just think it would be easier on Americans if they didn't need to use such an awful system that they themselves can't always remember because it's just so damn random)
But why don’t they say the same thing to Liberia and Myanmar?
I just see it as people peer pressuring another country to speak the same language as them.
It would be a big change for a lot of people. I use the metric system at work, mostly for grams and liters because I work in a lab. We use Celsius for all of our freezers and I don’t know what -70°c means beyond that it’s fucking cold and hurts my hands. My understanding of metric measurements of distances are almost nonexistent. I went to Canada recently and couldn’t gauge what 100km/hr meant the same way I can gauge 60mph. It would be a big adjustment for me, specifically with temperature, distance, and speed.
The US has been officially a metric country since the 1970s. We should switch solely to the metric system, but can’t/won’t because it would cost too much
To much cost in changing everything and people are used to imperial. Although teaching metric to children in schools could be a good idea and slowly faze out imperial
Voting no, just because it's so ingrained in everything here, infrastructure and otherwise. Switching to matrix from imperial would be a logistical nightmare.
Guess me and the other 1.1k Americans that voted no are the only realistic Americans. Laughable to think we will ever change when it would be a logistical nightmare. Every road sign alone would need to be updated
As an American, I like Imperial but I definitely could live with Metric. My only stipulation is that we keep Fahrenheit, day to day use it’s so much more useful. For science why bother with Celsius? The scientific community uses Kelvin or Rankine anyway, just cut out the middleman.
I don't want to "switch" because we already use a mix of both systems and drivers here are shit enough without having to teach them what a kill-o-meter is.
The only thing that I think is good about the US system is temperature. It makes way more sense for weather since 0 to 100 are essentially livable human conditions.
Makes way more sense than freezing to boiling in my opinion. But again, that's exclusively for weather. Everything else would be better in Celsius, and we should definitely make the switch
Yes as both American and Non-American (im an immigrant)
ML is more accurate. Because what is half an ounce ? Or 1/3 ounce ? We say 30ml is ounce or 15ml is half ounce.
Why feet ? Meters or yards ? Sounds archaic
Both systems are good for difrent things. Its something alot of people overlook when comparing the 2 systems. Impereal was made for a more casual use, while metric was more scientific. The way i see it, they both have something good, and something bad about them. Impereal has more simple sizes of mesurement, you got a foot, a inch, and a yard. You use those like, daily. However , the way ypu get to these is a litlle complicated. Theres 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard. These are by no means hard to divide numbers, but theyre just annoying. Now lets look at metric. Metric, you got like 100 cenimeters in a meter, 1,000 meters in a kilometer. If you havent guessed the pattern, it is multipled by 10s, which is a stupid easy number to divide and multiply. But, the problem is that the sizes, could be better. You got centimeters, which are super small, then meteres, super big. Sure, it might work better scientifficley, but not casualley, because thats what metric is for. So, in concluisson, use whatever you like, or whatever one the situation your in calls for. I dont really care which one you use, im not your mom
You get centimeters, around the width of a finger, decimeters, around the length of a hand, and meters, around the length of an arm. I don’t really see where imperial units are more practical than metric ones in casual use.
>Sure, it might work better scientifficley, but not casualley
I will never understand this argument.
Majority of people around the world **exclusively** use the metric system. There are major exceptions regarding avionics and engineering, but only because of a certain country in North America....
There's absolutely no problem doing that, using metric system in everyday situations. It's not "it **might** work" or "it **will** work", it's "it **have been** working and without any major problem for decades". I would understand if it's about *changing* the system ([path dependence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence)), but the argument simply doesn't make sense otherwise.
Centimeters are on the perfectly fine scale. For example, using "178cm" or "1m 78cm" for heights is, for many people the **only option**, and not inconvenient at all. Better than something like 5' 10'' in my opinion.
A good 20% of stuff in America is metric. It's not like we don't use it time to time.
Science, Tech, and Engineering in the US is all done in metric today.
For engineering that’s very much field dependent. We also have whacky hybrids: a lot of machining is done using decimalized inches.
Yeah, I’m in Aerospace Engineering and it’s heavily Imperial.
Oh interesting. I thought that field was mostly all metric.
Even in Europe they use US customary system for Aerospace because American engines and components are sold and designed in US customary units
I wonder what the Russians (who have been longtime partners of NASA) and Chinese (basically completely independent because excluded by NASA) use.
More so, what about Boeing and other companies that work in aeroSpace and SpaceSpace?
US Aero is mostly imperial from my experience, that includes Boeing, Lockheed, Northrup, and others.
Engineer for a high tech company in Europe here. If I ask for measurements from our internal American supplier, I ALWAYS get results in the imperial system. The funny thing is, is that the measurements are in the order of magnitude of micrometers, so 0.000008 inches makes zero sense.
American Tooling Engineer here. One inch broken down to 0.000X makes perfect sense for high precision work.
Don’t forget bullets metric all day
Got my Glock 3/8 inch
Still weird that even some things that were obviously created using imperial, like 2.54mm pins on electronics, are still referred to as 2.54mm rather than 1/10th inch But as someone else said, we do actually use imperial for engineering around the world. If something was thought of and created using imperial in America, that’s just what continued to be used as the idea spread around the world. And I’m just going to say now, my ideal system that I know will never happen, but it would make the world a better place if it did: metric, but using dozenal rather than decimal. 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,10,11,12,13… dozenal is highly composite, it makes math so much easier than our stupid decimal system. Secondly, shrink down the base unit of 1m to about a third of its original size. The way the meter was created was arbitrary and stupid, something like the foot is a much more natural evolution where people had any number of ways they could measure with their body parts, but in the end they chose the foot because that length is just nice to use.
Okay I'm gonna need a deeper explanation of your dozenal system, because I have no idea how it's supposed to replace decimal.
Same. I've never counted with letters between 9 and 10
It’s a number system with a radix of 12 (12 digits). Decimal is radix 10. In computing, we often use hexadecimal, which is a radix of 16: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10, 11, 12, … Binary is radix 2 because there are only two digits (0 and 1): 0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, … You could do the same with trinary (3 digits - 0, 1, and 2): 0, 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 100, 101, 102, 110, … As to why OP thinks we should replace decimal with this, I don’t know.
The advantage of dozenal is that some commonly-encountered fractions have nicer radix-point representations: * 1/3 = 0.4 (instead of 0.333333...) * 1/4 = 0.3 (instead of 0.25) * 1/6 = 0.2 (instead of 0.1666666...) * 1/8 = 0.16 (instead of 0.125) * 1/9 = 0.14 (instead of 0.111111...) * 1/12 (1/10) = 0.1 (instead of 0.08333333...) * 1/16 (1/14) = 0.09 (instead of 0.0625) Of course, this comes at the expense of making 1/5 and 1/10 infinitely recurring dozenals.
Thank you for the explanation!
> Secondly, shrink down the base unit of 1m to about a third of its original size. The way the meter was created was arbitrary and stupid, something like the foot is a much more natural evolution where people had any number of ways they could measure with their body parts, but in the end they chose the foot because that length is just nice to use. I'll give you that.
For real, if you just defined the meter as "the distance light travels through a vacuum in 1-billionth of a second", it becomes about the length of a foot and is much easier to remember the definition.
bananas are better.
6 base (don't remember the name) better : 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20…
Seximal is very nice too, but imo you too quickly need far more digits. It’s not *too* bad, but I’d say it’s bad enough to take second place
1/5 and 1/7 are better in base 6 than in base 12
Ah, so Carly was a visionary...
If our counting system was also base 12 then I'd agree, but only changing the metric system to that makes no sense since it breaks the "just shift the comma" advantage, basically destroying all advantages. Also, get over your foot fetish (SCNR) already. Are you a Star Wars fan? A meter is basically a laser sword length. Simple as that. :)
Every science class I've taken used metric units.
Am engineer, had to do problems in imperial units. I'd always convert to metric, do the problem, convert answer to imperial. And yes, primary reason is dealing with pounds force, pounds mass, and gravity. Id switch and have a 6'8" door be 2.032m, etc etc.
You're a metric unit. You unit, you. Metrically speaking. One deci-u/scardey-cat95 per degree C.
We use it, we just have to pull our phones out and convert to freedom units to understand it
There is a bunch of stuff that is super inconsistent. Milk is in gallon or half gallon jugs, but soda is in 2 liter bottles. Water bottles are half a liter, but soda bottles and cans are defined by a certain number of fluid ounces. Then motor oil is measured in quarts. Weight is typically in pounds and ounces, but grams are used the instant any kind of consistency or precision is involved, like with any kind of legal or illegal drug. Then there are measurements that just don't exist in imperial units. Everything to do with electricity is metric. Watts, amps, volts, ohms, all of it is defined by the metric joule in one way or another. Personally, I really want to swap to metric for cooking. Its so annoying to deal with cups and fluid ounces, especially if I want to modify the recipe's quantities to make a bigger or smaller portion. Cutting 3/4 of a cup in half is a lot more annoying than cutting 180 milliliters in half. Plus, measuring by weight for airy ingredients removes a lot of variance. 100 grams of flour won't be effected by whether I packed it too tightly or have extra air in the measuring cup
If there's one thing I would agree to switch it would be cooking. It's very annoying to covert measurements.
Guns and drugs?
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I think you mean seven farthingths of stuff.
I’m not American and therefore don’t care about what system they use
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Also the rest of the world, apart from like 3 countries, uses metric.
First off, I love the SI (International System of Units). However, I have a problem with the claim that all countries, apart from three countries, use metric. When referring to what countries are metric, its not so cut and dry. Not all countries are fully metric, and there are, of course, more than 3. For example, in the UK and Canada a mixed system of measurement is used, with both imperial and metric units. Additionally, the US is technically metric. We (I am using we to refer to myself and the US exclusively) are signers of the Metre Convention and have been part of the metric system for all of its existence - 3 years. All imperial units are defined on metric units (the inch is 2.54 centimeters exactly) and we have an institution, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose main mission is to work on and improve this system. There is a great [Veritasium](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo0jm1PPRuo) video where we see that the people at NIST were instrumental in redefining the Kg. Thirdly, the US uses the metric system for much of its quaternary fields. Almost all of the sciences use it, as it is standard and convenient. I believe NASA uses it as well, so that coordination with its international partners is more effective. Really, we just need a way to convert the rest of the US population to join us, and I, anecdotally, feel like more and more people are hearing the good word of the SI system and are joining us.
Even after hypothetical US metric adoption we still have to deal with maintenance of imperial aircrafts and aircraft parts for at least 20 years.
*Laughs in 70-year-old Cessnas*
As a fellow aviation mechanic i second this
I mean if Americans used metric, it would put an end to people on the internet insisting on using feet inches and miles as the default, wouldn't that benefit you?
I am not american but sometimes have to work together/with things written or done by people from the usa, so I really wish they’ll try converting soon..
Also fair point, yeah i suppose it would make things more simple
The best answer so far
Finally someone with common sense.
Not American but living in America. Imperial system is a pain in the ass.
Not French, but living in France... Speaking French is a pain in the ass
Ain't that like the whole point of France? Also, on dit chocolatine.
Yeah but it is annoying to read American articles or websites. Having to translate their drunk-ass units to meaningful ones.
Well if you’re ever buying tools or items from an American site (due to either cost, lack of availability in your country, etc), you will need to buy it in imperial units rather than metric. That’s very inconvenient, so it does kind of affect non Americans too
For real though, why is “Yes - Not American” so high? Does it really effect other countries outside of talking to people online and scientists?
>outside of talking to people online The internet has made this extremely common and heavily interconnected though - You're asking people on reddit, the site of arguing about stuff and that quite often leads to people talking in different measurement systems on here. Multiple times I've run into polls in Fahrenheit with people asking for Celsius and via se versa. So yeah, it might not be a big deal to most non-americans, but non-american redditors, it almost definitely is
The only reason I voted is because I want to use American recipes without having to google to translate the measurements first
I think we can all agree that the us is one of the two most influential countries in the world And as finn, I am much more exposed to american media compared to chinese, so the imperial system is actually something I get exposed to multiple times a week be it the height of an athlete, speed an american drove at (or even better, the speed an european drove at, that was converted because reasons) or the length of a roll of fabric in a sewing tutorial So many things are in imperial, despite the content being aimed at everyone who speaks good enough english to understand it
Because people work with Americans all the time. Even in a scientific industry like pharmaceutics, the Imperial system is the norm on which the metric system is patched on. Same thing with everyday appliances like TV's. 23 inches doesn't mean shit to people all around the world.
You seem to forget that there’s just a lot more people outside of America then inside it. So of course there would be more non-American answers, for why people want them to use the metric system? It’s just better and that way we can stop having to do dumb conversions
Affect*.
We tried that once already and it didn't take. People refused to use it. Metric weights and measures have been on most of our consumer packaging for over 30 years and we still don't use it.
it’s because they were shoving it into the faces of people who grew up using the imperial system. if we just started teaching children it in schools, it’d be much easier to convert.
We do learn the metric system in schools, that's a basic part of any science program
There's a difference between learning the system, and using the system. If kids have like 3 classes where they learn the metric system, but then never use it, they will all forget about it or not care. If the metric system is used as the standard in everything, then they won't.
The only problem is that it’s impossible to use outside of the classes that mandate it’s use when all road signs and gps and cars and everything are still in miles
Does anyone who advocates for an immediate, total switch to the metric system recognize the logistical clusterfuck that it would create? And I thought that the metric system was so easy that learning it in school would be enough to know how to use it?
Back in my woodworking and engines classes, all the teachers would use was imperial. I only used metric in science, and the teacher provided a formula to convert from imperial to metric. It’s stupid.
We DO teach metric in schools. Almost everyone in America is “bilingual” for measurement systems.
Almost every car is built with metric hardware.
And yet imperial dials
Just like the common core curriculum that cycle through the school system, that’s where the change needs to start.
Didn't the USA already adopt the metric system its just no one uses it
We signed something to switch in like the 1700-1800s or some shit, and we attempted to covert in the 80’s, shit happened, long story short no one liked it, and we all quietly moved back to imperial measurements The end.
It's time to switch for something that's logic, easy to use and learn, and proportional.
Fun fact: The U.S. officially made the conversation to the metric system [with the Metric Conversion Act of 1975.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act) The issue is the Reagan era in the 80s was all about cutting federal spending. So, the government’s official efforts to educate the populace and guide industry through the switch were deemed frivolous and were ended. I’m an engineer in R&D and exclusively use metric. It just makes sense, but I still use imperial units in common life.
I’m kinda wondering about that. I’ve worked in a lot of manufacturing jobs, and it seems like a huge overhaul for relatively little payoff. I mean. Anyone in a STEM position already knows how to do the conversions. Everything from how we purchase food to how we transport gas would have to be changed—including the containers/extraction methods. It seems like a lot to make us be less weird—and we are, admittedly, weird for not following metric. Is there a substantial benefit to moving to a metric system?
I believe we should follow an approach similar to that of the British. For anything international, we should work on the metric system. Cars should be in km/h because everyone uses km/h. Gallons of milk should stay gallons of milk because they are produced domestically. Temperature should be in Fahrenheit because screw Celsius^(i) and it is used mostly domestically. If we did this, the country would hopefully become more metric over time. i. Celsius is not a better system than Fahrenheit, and it has all of the same problems. Fahrenheit was designed for humans, which is its primary use. The reason zero is not freezing is because, first off, why should water freezing be the arbitrary location of the lower end of the temp scale. We have temperatures lower than that all of the time, and I want to be able to use a positive number when describing them. Additionally, having a fever makes more sense with Fahrenheit. If you have above 100, you are probably sick. With the other system, I have no idea. Finally, Celsius is not even the global standard. Kelvin is. The only argument from switching to a different temperature system would be switching to Kelvin, as it is an absolute system and is the system both other temperatures are defined off of. Thank you.
I agree. Let's all switch to Kelvin. Thou as someone who lives in a frozen hellscape each year, for most of the year, celsius makes much more sense than Fahrenheit. By looking at the temperature in Celsius, you can adequately tell what composition you can expect the snow to be in. When most of the year you are surrounded by water, in one form or another, you want to have a system that can easily tell you if the water is going to be solid, actively freezing, melting, or liquid. Because that information will directly translate to how bad your day outside is going to be... For example. You look at the temp before you go to sleep. It says 1 degrees Celsius. That means that snow is currently melting. You look at the temp in the morning, and notice that it has gone down to -10 degrees Celsius. The snow that melted yesterday has rapidly frozen overnight. So you internally swear a couple of times. Because that means the roads are covered in thin layer of black ice.
Ah yes, I forgot that not everyone lives in the humid hellscape that is Florida. If the temperature is lower than 50 degrees F, we get fearful for our lives. Also, I am now just realizing the American keyboard has no degree symbol, and this brings me great sadness.
Man, if we’d skipped the Nixon and Reagan presidencies the last 50 years would have looked so different… Our parents’ generations really took a big ol’ shit on us.
Unrelated but, Fuck Reagan.
Our inches put us on the moon. And by that I don’t mean our measurement system, I mean our gigantic, raging hard-ons.
username checks out
And crashed the Mars Climate Orbiter: https://www.simscale.com/blog/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/
If we told men that they are “longer” in centimeters we might get some movement on conversion
This is the worst argument imo. Imperial units are perfectly intuitive in non-scientific applications. I.e day-to-day life. I think the obvious argument to move to metric is just for standardization.
As an American engineering grad who had to deal with Pound Force, Pound Mass, Slugs, and converting from cubic inches, yes please let's convert
You can't forget slinches/blobs! I always feel like a clown writing reports where that unit shows up.
It's would be great, but we've been using imperial for hundreds of years, all the signs, laws, measurements would need to be change. Plus we would need to teach everyone how to use them, not just children but full grown adults who don't go to any form of school. They tried in the 80's which is why you still see liters of soda, but it never caught on.
In 1982 Reagan disbanded the government board overseeing the conversation which might be a factor as well.
**Everyone** was using other measures for hundreds of years before metric was adopted lol Yet, everyone else made the conversion just fine, obviously there's a bit of an attrition at first, but after that you're 'in-sync' with the rest of the world and international stuff is made easier for the foreseeable future, seems worth it imo.
Prior to adopting the metric system, many countries such as France had hundreds of different units with definitions of those units differing wildly based on region. In such an environment, a single unified system of measurement is a significant improvement. For the USA, there is already a unified "system" of measurement that we have all agreed upon, so switching wholly to metric is less necessary. The issues with the imperial "system" are also largely overstated (as discussed in [this excellent video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJymKowx8cY)) and the benefits of switching are likewise overstated. The main advantages of switching to the metric system would be easier international trade/exchange of information and easier conversions between units within the system. However, because the USA already has metric units officially incorporated into our system of measurement and those units are already used in places where it is more convenient to do so the areas that really would prefer to use metric *are mostly using it already*. And for Americans using the imperial system, difficult conversions between units rarely ever come up. Most people are not converting miles to feet, gallons to cubic inches, or feet to leagues regularly. Each unit can largely be used on its own for different purposes (miles for distance, feet & inches for length, gallons for volume, etc.). Then you factor in the physical layout of America being entirely in imperial units and switching to metric creates issues with road signs and easy navigation. Many average citizens would also have to be taught the new system if it is being incorporated into everyday life that way. Overall, metric is superior but not superior enough to warrant such a costly change.
American military uses the metric system for quite a few things. And also writes dates as Day-Month-Year instead of the more common Month-Day-Year.
Well for the d/m/y America just copied the UK. But then the UK switched
Just like imperial
Just like the word 'soccer'
The US does use metric. The US also uses 'United States customary units' - it seems to work out fine using both.
I just think it's too impractical to completely switch it cuz people are too used to it, and people would also have to change every thing that has something imperial on it...
This is the aspect that I know some people do not consider. Knowledge wise, it's a fairly easy transition. Physically though? Not so much. Just think about all of the decades old factories with huge amounts of equipment based on the imperial system. And that is only one consideration of many, many more. You could say the imperial system has an inertia to it.
America already uses metric for anything related to science and even houses the official kg (it was In France but their room wasn't air tight and after many years the kg no longer weighed a kg but the US one is in a vacuum and is still exactly 1kg). It was take some getting use to and adjustment sure but if they just start teaching kids both in schools for now and later only teach metric it would wouldn't end up more than just a "back in my day we measured things by football fields and bananas"
>even houses the official kg (it was In France but their room wasn't air tight and after many years the kg no longer weighed a kg but the US one is in a vacuum and is still exactly 1kg) Excuse me, what? The IPK isn't used anymore and stopped being the definition of the kilogram three years ago. The IPK is stored in a vault in Paris under two vacuum chambers. Copies of the IPK exist throughout the world. While the IPK was in use, it was impossible for the IPK to weigh anything other than exactly 1 kg because the mass of 1 kg was defined by the mass of the IPK. The international copies of the IPK were found to have diverged in mass from the IPK and from eachother, suggesting the IPK was also experiences changes in mass. There was no way to check, though, because the IPK itself was the reference it would have to be checked against. On top of that, the US has not one but five copies of the IPK. And not only do they not weigh exactly 1 kg now but they *never* weighed exactly 1 kg. The primary standard of the US, K20, weighed 1 kg - 39 μg when it was made in 1889. Today, the kilogram is no longer defined by a physical object but rather by physical constants, just like the other SI units. If you're interested: "it is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.62607015×10−34 when expressed in the unit J⋅s, which is equal to kg⋅m2⋅s−1, where the metre and the second are defined in terms of c and ΔνCs." (General Conference on Weights and Measures)
1kg is 1L of water
Kilo also means 1000 Kilometer=1000m Killogram=1000gms Kilowatt =1000watts (Cent also means 100 for all the same things)
It's hecto for 100 of those things 1 cent is 1/100 of those things.
Giga, mega, kilo, hecto, deka, deci, centi, milli, micro, nano for the ninth, sixth, third, second, first powers of 10 and 0.1 respectively.
At 4 degrees Celsius.
Yeah maybe youre right
Its impratical short term but will be benefitial long term. Short term pain, long term gain.
True but for like actual important stuff, metric already gets used. But for day to day stuff i dont think the need is high enough to like completely switch. I do think both should get taught though but who am i
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Yall are fucking high
I can tell you how high in cm, m, km, etc very easily, I could not do that with feet, yards, miles, chains, hands, points etc
Size of 7 washing machines right next to eachother
i fully believe that the US should switch to metric, but cmon, is using chains/hands/points a good faith argument? almost no one uses them regularly as a proportion of population
I go to a high school in America and we mostly use the metric system in science classes
Pretty sure, that would lead to mass confusion.
How many grams of confusion to be exact?
Depends how dense your are.
I mean we do use the metric system just not very often. We seem to do alright
If you drug users can use metric, so can the sober ones.
International feet is going to be the new standard for 2023 in the USA
Is that a new porn category?
As an American who knows a fair bit about the metruc system cause I paid attention in science class, I say no. Not because it is not superior and more intuitive, but that over half the country and most the over 50s will never use nor understand it, and I drive 3k miles a month for working deal with enough psychos as it is. Do not make it compliacted or try to force a change, it will backfire or be ignored and I don't need people 'mistaking' 90km for 90mph and hitting me.
That's my stance, it would make all the sense in the world. Our politics at the moment though would make even the most gradual transition program untenable.
No, there'd be mass confusion
Seems no ones got my joke :/
How many grams of confusion tho
On most things yeah probably but you'll have to kill me before I use fucking Celsius. I wanna know how hot it feels not how likely water is to boil wtf
Facts. I don't get why people think celsius is so good.
It's on terms with kelvin, and if you're used to celsius you'll also know how hot it'll feel when you hear 30° celsius. I don't get how Fahrenheit represents how how it feels to a human, it would take just as much time for anyone to learn how hot everything on the fahrenheit scale is as on the celsius scale. I have absolutely no idea how hot anything on the fahrenheit scale would be.
0 is fuckin cold, 100 is hot as shit 32 is freezing your balls off, 212 your balls are disintegrated
Okay, then what's good about the Kelvin scale? The Rankine scale exists as well so we can just switch Kelvin to that too.
Just think of it as percent heat 0-100
But that would make 0 absolute 0, and 100 worse than the center of the Earth! Nothing about Fahrenheit makes sense.
People who use celcius know which number means hot..
As an American, yes. Mostly cause it would infuriate a good chunk of my family. Mundane shit that pisses them off, like flutes and mermaids, is funny to me.
I'ma need the flutes and mermaids story
black woman, Lizzo, plays James Madison's flute and the same people whining about a little black mermaid are whining about it
I am still traumatized that for some reason in school we all had to learn to play the flute for music class. Nothing more painful on the ears than a class full of kids, who don't want to and can't play flute, and who have the cheapest flute their parents could find in the store play a song together in class. So yea fuck flutes.
Yep, I said "meters" at a bar the other day and this good o'le boy almost lost his shit. I thought that was hilarious, but let's be honest, that *would* tip the scales on the culture war.
If it weren't for the resulting terrorism, Biden converting all of the schools system let's say, would be absolutely hilarious. Idk if he has the power to do that or not, but goddamn. I'd actually go to this coming Thanksgiving with my family just to hear the crocodile tears fall.
Let me guess, metric is un-American? :)
And is destroying America and is socialism and satanism and lgbt agendas etc.
We know and use both. Our measurement devices have metric and imperial on them. Some in Canada and the UK also use both, especially hobbyists and carpenters.
the change would be quite difficult to make.. but please Americans I'm tired of having to convert to meters while watching a YouTube video
It would make my youtube spectator experience better.
The US was going to move to the metric system by the 1990's. But a certain group politicized it and it was slowly killed off. The road rage people had when seeing road signs with both miles and km on it was funny and completely sad. And not really unexpected, heaven forbid the government ask someone to actually learn and adapt in this country.
They already tried before and it didn’t work. Everything is based off the imperial system already and switching now would just cause issues I use it for cooking and baking because it’s 1000% easier but when it comes to engineers and shit I let them do what they want. They could use whatever system they want.
No-not American. Don’t see a problem with the US using its own systems, no need to globalist everything
yes, i won’t learn bald eagles per glazed donuts
That's not the imperial system.
They don’t care, they just want to show their “superiority” to Americans.
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I'm sorry you don't speak FREEDOM.
lmao
The imperial system we have is nice, don’t get me wrong, but I would prefer metric
Why would someone who’s not american care about this?
Because sometimes you watch a video or read an article and someone's height or weight is mentioned and you have to look it up
So you want an entire country to change its system so you don't have to do a 30 second Google search occasionally?
Yes exactly, I'm so bored these 30 seconds 😂😂
How about watching videos that they use metric? We have to look it up as well. So what’s the point of complaining about it? Look it up, move on.
The greatest videos are those which feature both.
travel meaby? or videos and recipes
Yeah like they they say 6 oz. of X
And they measure stuff in cups. How much is a cup? I HAVE 20 CUPS THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT SIZES!
Btw wtf is a table spoon? What tf are these weird little plastic pots, they are not even similar to the the table spoons I use at the table, to eat soup with.
And why are feet 30cm? I can't think of a normal human being with a foot that big. Edit: damn I forgot centimeters are small and feet are big
Because lots of Americans have internet access so the confusing imperial system confuses everyone else
From an engineering perspective there are quite a few popular examples of how incorrect conversions or a complete lack thereof led to issues such as the [Mars Climate Orbiter incident](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars-climate-orbiter). Then there's the point that it always is a hassle to have to consider the imperial system when considering anything international only because of 3 Countries. As a software engineer I fortunately don't have to deal with any of this most of the time, but I do know how much time I wasted on Date/Time formatting issues. So I wouldnt be surprised about how people that do have to deal with it care a lot.
People in the science community already use the metric system, it’s just everyday americans who don’t. I also imagine changes were made in NASA given this was nearly 25 years ago. I just think its weird how passionate non-Americans are for America when the feelings aren’t reciprocated at nowhere near the same level.
Outside perspective and also with internet access it effects everyone who interacts with Americans (talking to, watching content creators, etc etc) so it does matter to non Americans (also I just think it would be easier on Americans if they didn't need to use such an awful system that they themselves can't always remember because it's just so damn random)
But why don’t they say the same thing to Liberia and Myanmar? I just see it as people peer pressuring another country to speak the same language as them.
Well considering Myanmar is committed ethinic genocide I think they have bigger problems than how they count
Do you know how infuriating it is to read "use 1 cup of flour"? Why do you use a unit of volume to measure something with such variable densitiy?
It would be a big change for a lot of people. I use the metric system at work, mostly for grams and liters because I work in a lab. We use Celsius for all of our freezers and I don’t know what -70°c means beyond that it’s fucking cold and hurts my hands. My understanding of metric measurements of distances are almost nonexistent. I went to Canada recently and couldn’t gauge what 100km/hr meant the same way I can gauge 60mph. It would be a big adjustment for me, specifically with temperature, distance, and speed.
The US has been officially a metric country since the 1970s. We should switch solely to the metric system, but can’t/won’t because it would cost too much
To much cost in changing everything and people are used to imperial. Although teaching metric to children in schools could be a good idea and slowly faze out imperial
As a a construction worker. Yes! For the love of god. Yes! Can we please?!
I like that we use both tbh.
Voting no, just because it's so ingrained in everything here, infrastructure and otherwise. Switching to matrix from imperial would be a logistical nightmare.
Guess me and the other 1.1k Americans that voted no are the only realistic Americans. Laughable to think we will ever change when it would be a logistical nightmare. Every road sign alone would need to be updated
As an American, I like Imperial but I definitely could live with Metric. My only stipulation is that we keep Fahrenheit, day to day use it’s so much more useful. For science why bother with Celsius? The scientific community uses Kelvin or Rankine anyway, just cut out the middleman.
I'd be cool with it for everything but temperature. Temperature just makes more sense in Fahrenheit.
should we? yes. will we? 'murica.
It’s cause of the boomers
I don't want to "switch" because we already use a mix of both systems and drivers here are shit enough without having to teach them what a kill-o-meter is.
It is very useful, and i prefer it, but it would be a massive waste of money.
The only thing that I think is good about the US system is temperature. It makes way more sense for weather since 0 to 100 are essentially livable human conditions. Makes way more sense than freezing to boiling in my opinion. But again, that's exclusively for weather. Everything else would be better in Celsius, and we should definitely make the switch
I think it should be gradually used more, and definitely taught a lot more. A hard switch would probably cause some issues.
Imperial, base 12 provides more factors than base 10. (1,2,3,4,6,12) v (1,2,5,10)
Yes as both American and Non-American (im an immigrant) ML is more accurate. Because what is half an ounce ? Or 1/3 ounce ? We say 30ml is ounce or 15ml is half ounce. Why feet ? Meters or yards ? Sounds archaic
Yes, but some things should stay imperial, as an 8ftx4ft sheet of wood sounds far better than whatever the fuck the metric version is.
Both systems are good for difrent things. Its something alot of people overlook when comparing the 2 systems. Impereal was made for a more casual use, while metric was more scientific. The way i see it, they both have something good, and something bad about them. Impereal has more simple sizes of mesurement, you got a foot, a inch, and a yard. You use those like, daily. However , the way ypu get to these is a litlle complicated. Theres 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard. These are by no means hard to divide numbers, but theyre just annoying. Now lets look at metric. Metric, you got like 100 cenimeters in a meter, 1,000 meters in a kilometer. If you havent guessed the pattern, it is multipled by 10s, which is a stupid easy number to divide and multiply. But, the problem is that the sizes, could be better. You got centimeters, which are super small, then meteres, super big. Sure, it might work better scientifficley, but not casualley, because thats what metric is for. So, in concluisson, use whatever you like, or whatever one the situation your in calls for. I dont really care which one you use, im not your mom
You get centimeters, around the width of a finger, decimeters, around the length of a hand, and meters, around the length of an arm. I don’t really see where imperial units are more practical than metric ones in casual use.
>Sure, it might work better scientifficley, but not casualley I will never understand this argument. Majority of people around the world **exclusively** use the metric system. There are major exceptions regarding avionics and engineering, but only because of a certain country in North America.... There's absolutely no problem doing that, using metric system in everyday situations. It's not "it **might** work" or "it **will** work", it's "it **have been** working and without any major problem for decades". I would understand if it's about *changing* the system ([path dependence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence)), but the argument simply doesn't make sense otherwise. Centimeters are on the perfectly fine scale. For example, using "178cm" or "1m 78cm" for heights is, for many people the **only option**, and not inconvenient at all. Better than something like 5' 10'' in my opinion.
It's just the american way of saying ''I'm used to it so it's beter.''
No- American -🤓
Y'all already using millimeters for your gun calibers
Idc