Metric vs Imperial System

[tuckerkao]

12-13 feet is 4 meters. That's pretty easy though. 4391 meters in footage would have me stumped. The trick is not mixing them up in the first place. Liters = liquor and soda. Gallons = Milk and fried chicken. Miles = big numbers on top, kilometers = little numbers on bottom.

13.1234 feet is almost the exact length of 4 meters, approximate values like that can cause huge problems when the numbers get bigger during the conversions.

4.391 kilometers = 2.72844 miles

 

[Bugfatty300]

13.1234 feet is almost the exact length of 4 meters, approximate values like that can cause huge problems when the numbers get bigger during the conversions.

4.391 kilometers = 2.72844 miles

I recommend that you don't approximate anything where being precise is critical. Humans are notoriously terrible at it.

 

[tuckerkao]

I recommend that you don't approximate anything where being precise is critical. Humans are notoriously terrible at it.

1 foot = 30.48 centimeters is something I've learned since very young, the teacher won't accept 30 or 31 as the answer due to the precision reasons.

Also if any students are over 2 seconds late for the class bell, that's a tardy.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

1 foot = 30.48 centimeters is something I've learned since very young, the teacher won't accept 30 or 31 as the answer due to the precision reasons.

Where do you live where this is required instruction? I can't remember ever being forced to memorize that particular conversion and as @Bugfatty300 points out, we're taught to be fluent in both in school even if most forget.

 

[Bugfatty300]

1 foot = 30.48 centimeters is something I've learned since very young, the teacher won't accept 30 or 31 as the answer due to the precision reasons.

I can't remember anything I learned in math classes. The only thing I retain is the stuff I use day to day but for the most part I know what a kilo is and I know what a meter is. Converting them isn't important as long as I stick to one or the other. Edit: Cups and teaspoon measurements are alien to me. I've only ever used metric for volume.

 

[tuckerkao]

Where do you live where this is required instruction? I can't remember ever being forced to memorize that particular conversion and as @Bugfatty300 points out, we're taught to be fluent in both in school even if most forget.

It was in my biology class in Logan High School during year 1999. The requirements may vary from state to state.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Yeah I guess maybe I'm misremembering. I remember having to memorize spelling and multiplication tables but I just don't remember having to test on direct conversions like that.

 

[tuckerkao]

π ≈ 3.14, this is the minimum requirement, not 3.

Some teachers even require 3.14159

 

[Patine]

Yeah I guess maybe I'm misremembering. I remember having to memorize spelling and multiplication tables but I just don't remember having to test on direct conversions like that.

It was in my biology class in Logan High School during year 1999. The requirements may vary from state to state.

I can't remember anything I learned in math classes. The only thing I retain is the stuff I use day to day but for the most part I know what a kilo is and I know what a meter is. Converting them isn't important as long as I stick to one or the other. Edit: Cups and teaspoon measurements are alien to me. I've only ever used metric for volume.

Since I was going to elementary school in the early '80's, when Canada was still transitioning to, and "getting comfortable with," a switch from Imperial to Metric, I had the somewhat enviable position that were in a "Goldylocks," class where we actually were taught both.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Per google, there are about 80 miles of road per person in the US and for Australia about 111. The figure for Australia excludes unpaved roads. I do not know if the US figure includes them.

US
4.09 million miles of road for 327.2 million people = 80 miles of road per capita

AUS
221k miles of road for 24.6 million people = 111 miles of road per capita

I do not know what the average road sign density is for either country. I assume it's much higher in the US due to a larger total geographic area being densely populated but who knows. You need to know the road sign density in addition to the total number of miles of paved road (assuming unpaved is mostly unmarked) to do a full comparison on how the relative expense of converting all the road signage between Australia and the US.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

I'm wondering why the United States still using Fahrenheit, foot and inch, pound and ounce, gallon and quart while almost all other nations are using Celsius, Meter, Kilogram and Liter.

Since you can't even spell metre and litre correctly, it's probably a good thing that you're not using them.

 

[tuckerkao]

Since you can't even spell metre and litre correctly, it's probably a good thing that you're not using them.

Your spelling is the British way, Americans spell "organization", British spell "organisation", which 1 is correct?

Same patterns for meter or metre.

What about "thermometer"? I don't see "thermometre" any where, it must not be a British word.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

It should be metre, which comes from french mètre, wich comes from greek métron, meaning "measure"

 

[Truthy]

So what?

A huge chunk of all English words come from French. English speakers on either side of the Atlantic have changed spellings and pronunciations over the years. No one thinks maintaining fidelity with French is important in English.

And if you're going to make us use the meter, at least let us spell it the American way. Besides, when it even matters, it's just written as an m anyway.

 

[tuckerkao]

It should be metre, which comes from french mètre, wich comes from greek métron, meaning "measure"

Unfortunately, people in Japan and South Korea don't write "metre" because Americans who teach English write "meter" there, even the online spellchecker tells me it's "meter".

 

[civvver]

I don't think so. Humans live in temperatures from roughly -40° to 60°. Changing the scale to -40 to 140 doesn't improve anything. (Similar lack of improvement for cooking temperatures.) You get about the same accuracy with half-degrees in Celsius as you do in Fahrenheit, which is mostly needlessly precise anyway.

They're pretty much equivalent in terms of use for human living temperatures, but one is the standard.

When I visit hotels in non US countries the thermostats always work in half degree increments in Celsius. In the US they always work in single degree increments in Fahrenheit. I agree with your statement.

I wish we would switch. The conversions between units in the imperial system suck. It was worse when I started working at the brewery. The next step up from gallon is barrel which is 31.5gal. Brewers measure beer by the barrel. Kegs are 1/2 and 1/6 barrel. The other day I was trying to figure out how many cases of 12oz bottles were going to come out of a 10.5bbl batch.

You pretty much just have to memorize how many cases per barrel because it's not exactly mental math numbers. Easily solvable, sure, but kind of requires more thought than just moving decimals in metric measurements.

yeah but that's a ton of industry specific measurements. Like how big is a bushel? or a yard of dirt? or the hanging weight of a side of beef? or what's a peck?

I don't drive, so it's all numbers to me anyway, but I found out this week that British drivers will often talk about the size of their tank in litres, but their fuel consumption in miles per gallon, like that makes any sense at all.

I found in Germany fuel economy was measured in the amount of fuel used to go one km vs in the US we measure how many miles you can get out of one gallon. It's interesting, same ratio, just using a different base.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I found in Germany fuel economy was measured in the amount of fuel used to go one km vs in the US we measure how many miles you can get out of one gallon. It's interesting, same ratio, just using a different base.

I think you mean the amount of fuel to go 100 kilometres. To go 1 km it would be something like 0'05 litres, which is ridiculous.

 

[civvver]

I think you mean the amount of fuel to go 100 kilometres. To go 1 km it would be something like 0'05 litres, which is ridiculous.

oh right my bad

 

[Patine]

Your spelling is the British way, Americans spell "organization", British spell "organisation", which 1 is correct?

Same patterns for meter or metre.

What about "thermometer"? I don't see "thermometre" any where, it must not be a British word.

The old Oxford vs. Webster dichotomy.

 

[civvver]

For the longest time I thought executor was two different words, like how the imperial officers pronounce Lord Vader's ship on Star Wars as Exec-u-tor, vs someone who chops off heads is an ex-acute-or. Then I realized it's the exact same word with a different pronunciation in Britain.