Metric 4 US!!

[LucyDuke]

Liberia, Myammar and USA are the only three countries on the planet that stick uses the Imperial. MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR ME AND SWITCH ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate watching a documentary on tv then they tell me this is x feet and i am like how long is that?

Because really, all we want to do is make life harder for you.

It's about x/3 meters.

 

[GinandTonic]

So, when France rationalised all the units how come they did't rationalise the numbers they use to count them?

quatre-vingt-dix

4x20+10

Thats a sum not a number. Not even properly metric itself.

 

[Masquerouge]

So, when France rationalised all the units how come they did't rationalise the numbers they use to count them?

quatre-vingt-dix

4x20+10

Thats a sum not a number. Not even properly metric itself.

I know, man. That sucks At least Belgians do it the proper way, "nonante"...

 

[Yuri2356]

You're missing the point. I'm not arguing efficiency. I'm arguing awesomeness. What could be more awesome than having lots of cool names for your units?

And being able to spice up any measurement with "Kilo" "Mega" or "Giga" is somehow not awesome to you?

 

[Will9]

Say someone has a wall 9 (not 3) feet long. He wants to put some shelves along that wall and he wants to fill up the wall. With English units, 3 shelves that are 3 feet wide would fit that, but what if we switched to to Metric units! Everything he could would be in Metric units now. There would be no exact match.

The arguement used by Europeans that the metric system is used by Scientists is stupid. Numbers used by most European countries (thousand, million, millard, billion) is not the system used by Americans and scientists (thousand, million, billion, trillion)

 

[Mirc]

Say someone has a wall 3 feet long. He wants to put some shelves along that wall and he wants to fill up the wall. With English units, 3 shelves that are 3 feet wide would fit that, but what if we switched to to Metric units! Everything he could would be in Metric units now. There would be no exact match.

Say someone has a well 10 meters long. He wants to put some shelves along that wall and he wants to fill up the wall. With Metric units, 10 shelves that are 10 meter wide would fit that, but if we switched to Imperial units! Everything he could would be in Imperial now. There would be no exact match.

(no offense, but it's been a long time since I heard such a bad argument; and I was even more surprised as I thought you were WillJ )

 

[Yuri2356]

Say someone has a wall ['bout 1 Metre] long. He wants to put some shelves along that wall and he wants to fill up the wall. With English units, 3 shelves that are ['bout 1 Metre] wide would fit that, but what if we switched to to Metric units! Everything he could would be in Metric units now. There would be no exact match.

How's that for a match?

The arguement used by Europeans that the metric system is used by Scientists is stupid. Numbers used by most European countries (thousand, million, millard, billion) is not the system used by Americans and scientists (thousand, million, billion, trillion)

Wha? How does having different names for certain orders of magnitude make it a different number system? It's not like they use base 12 or something.

 

[Steph]

The arguement used by Europeans that the metric system is used by Scientists is stupid. Numbers used by most European countries (thousand, million, millard, billion) is not the system used by Americans and scientists (thousand, million, billion, trillion)

Milliard = billion you know

 

[GinandTonic]

I know, man. That sucks At least Belgians do it the proper way, "nonante"...

Without till desplays France would scare the hell out of me. She wants twenty and one four twenties ten and eight (or somesuch)? *Throws money at cashier and runs from shop screaming "I only wanted cheap brandy and posh mustard"*

Say someone has a wall 3 feet long. He wants to put some shelves along that wall and he wants to fill up the wall. With English units, 3 shelves that are 3 feet wide would fit that, but what if we switched to to Metric units! Everything he could would be in Metric units now. There would be no exact match.

The arguement used by Europeans that the metric system is used by Scientists is stupid. Numbers used by most European countries (thousand, million, millard, billion) is not the system used by Americans and scientists (thousand, million, billion, trillion)

Say someone has a well 10 meters long. He wants to put some shelves along that wall and he wants to fill up the wall. With Metric units, 10 shelves that are 10 meter wide would fit that, but if we switched to Imperial units! Everything he could would be in Imperial now. There would be no exact match.

(no offense, but it's been a long time since I heard such a bad argument; and I was even more surprised as I thought you were WillJ )

Today I was building some shelves in the airing cupboard. Slatted shelves to allow air to circulate. Now the sizes of planks of wood are measured in inches but the lengths of wood are measured in cm's. To add to the confusion 2" by 1" wood was only 2" by 1" before it was plained, afterwards it is more like 1 3/4" by 3/4".

Now if I want between 55-70% slats v gaps and the cupboard is 68cm wide and tapers between 61-58cm across the depth how many lengths of 2" by 1" (really 1 3/4" by 3/4") will I need? How many meters does this translate to?

Obviously when dealing with pine planks that are cheap it doesnt really matter, especially when this is an airing cupboard so it doesnt matter if the result isnt exactly what I was aiming at. But it is symptomatic of the way that using a dual system isnt ideal at all. The NASA contractors mistake is a high profile example, but unnecessary complications lead to unnecessary mistakes.

I thought I put a similar arguement rather better. It is not a reason to avoid switching (metric is better) but it is a reason to avoid using a dual system more than is necessary.

A certain degree of dual system is enevitable during a switch over, but as someone living in a country in the process it does get on my tits.

 

[Masquerouge]

Without till desplays France would scare the hell out of me. She wants twenty and one four twenties ten and eight (or somesuch)? *Throws money at cashier and runs from shop screaming "I only wanted cheap brandy and posh mustard"*

Man, I even started a thread a while ago about that whole stupidity.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=188384&highlight=four+twenty

 

[Tomoyo]

And being able to spice up any measurement with "Kilo" "Mega" or "Giga" is somehow not awesome to you?

There's nothing particularly awesome about Kilo, and I've never heard of the megameter (people just use 1,000 kilometers) or the gigagram.

Fathoms and pecks are things you can use on a daily basis.

 

[mdwh]

Say someone has a wall 3 feet long. He wants to put some shelves along that wall and he wants to fill up the wall. With English units, 3 shelves that are 3 feet wide would fit that, but what if we switched to to Metric units! Everything he could would be in Metric units now. There would be no exact match.

And if they were three meters long?

The arguement used by Europeans that the metric system is used by Scientists is stupid. Numbers used by most European countries (thousand, million, millard, billion) is not the system used by Americans and scientists (thousand, million, billion, trillion)

Except we are switching over - the UK at least now uses the "US" version for billion, trillion etc. So if these things are similar, that's even more of an argument in favour of metric - if we can change, why can't you?

Anyway, the argument isn't that it's scientific, it's that it's easier to computer with. This doesn't apply to the different versions of billions - the more scientific version would be to use scientific notation, anyway.

 

[History_Buff]

There's nothing particularly awesome about Kilo, and I've never heard of the megameter (people just use 1,000 kilometers) or the gigagram.

Fathoms and pecks are things you can use on a daily basis.

Fathoms and Pecks are something I have never used, or seen used in my life. They are also stupid names for things. Kilo = much cooler.

No, it's because I copied the problem incorrectly. The answer was 1 meter*10^1.

Yeah, I figured you did, but I was surprised nobody else noticed.


Anyway, the be all-end all of this argument is that Imperial is not even a complete system. There are certain things that if you want to do, you need to do in Metric. So why not be in Metric the whole time?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

The arguement used by Europeans that the metric system is used by Scientists is stupid. Numbers used by most European countries (thousand, million, millard, billion) is not the system used by Americans and scientists (thousand, million, billion, trillion)

Buff... So many things wrong...

Lets see...Short scale and long scale are two ways of naming numbers and have nothing to do with metric system or science. Both are coloquially used by scientists depending of the country.

Long Scale:
10^9 milliard or more commonly thousand millions.
10^12 billion
10^18 trillion

while short scale is:
10^9 billion
10^12 trillion
10^18 quadrillon

Most European countries use officially long scale, in other countries it is not very clear, for instance UK traditionally used long scale but they changed to short scale few years ago.

The General Conference on Weights and Measures propossed the use of the long scale which in any case would be the scientific one, but in fact the scientific way is to use the metric prefixs which is totally unambiguous.

 

[Firstlady]

Yeah, I was born with the Imperial System and to me it's the metric system that is pretty darn complicated and messed up.

 

[NKVD]

As a canadian i grew up in metric all the way...but bizarre as it may sounds I know i'm 5'11'' and weigh 146 lbs...but don't ask me how much it makes in Kg and meters...I cant even tell you lets say how small is 145 cm but 5'4'' for example is easy for me to tell.

 

[Will9]

Say someone has a well 10 meters long. He wants to put some shelves along that wall and he wants to fill up the wall. With Metric units, 10 shelves that are 10 meter wide would fit that, but if we switched to Imperial units! Everything he could would be in Imperial now. There would be no exact match.

(no offense, but it's been a long time since I heard such a bad argument; and I was even more surprised as I thought you were WillJ )

I meant meant a wall 9 feet long

Fixed

 

[Yuri2356]

I meant meant a wall 9 feet long

Fixed

So, a 3 Metre wall, with three 1m shelves.

 

[nihilistic]

Say someone has a wall 9 (not 3) feet long. He wants to put some shelves along that wall and he wants to fill up the wall. With English units, 3 shelves that are 3 feet wide would fit that, but what if we switched to to Metric units! Everything he could would be in Metric units now. There would be no exact match.

Actually, that's where you are wrong. The imperial system is actually now a derivative of the metric system. For example, 3 feet is exactly 0.9144 meters.

The arguement used by Europeans that the metric system is used by Scientists is stupid. Numbers used by most European countries (thousand, million, millard, billion) is not the system used by Americans and scientists (thousand, million, billion, trillion)

You see, the metric system uses either exponential notation or prefixes:

1E3 kilo
1E6 mega
1E9 giga
1E12 tera
1E15 peta
1E18 exa
1E21 zetta
1E24 yotta

and so on ...

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Actually, that's where you are wrong. The imperial system is actually now a derivative of the metric system. For example, 3 feet is exactly 0.9144 meters.

What do you mean: "a derivative?"