Metric vs Imperial System

[tuckerkao]

Fahrenheit has more precision, but it's an unnecessary precision. As I recall, Fahrenheit was based on a system of eights, using bodily measurements, but needed to be slightly recalibrated, which is why the "important" measurements on which the system is based (body temperature and frozen/boiling water) aren't useful numbers.

Freezing Temperature has the importance to the traffic and roads whether you'll need the snow tires to drive on the freeways or not.

The precision of dozenal Celsius is more than decimal Celsius but less than decimal Fahrenheit. Enough precision(since dozenal 100 = decimal 144) so I don't feel too much changes in physical feelings to turn my air conditioners/heaters up or down 1°.

I recalled some earlier replies mentioning that decimal kilometer was too short compare to decimal mile, when I tried the dozenal kilometer, the distance seemed to be more in the suitable range -

 

[Arwon]

This dozen thing is gonna get old real quick

 

[cardgame]

For the love of god can people use IPA or at least capitalise where they're putting the stress on these transliterations

I can't read or write IPA and I have absolutely no freaking clue where you people learned it.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

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.

Well the latter would be an executioner (as others have probably said, but I haven'r read the rest of the thread yet).

I can't read or write IPA and I have absolutely no freaking clue where you people learned it.

India?

 

[Truthy]

Do you say "metric system" of "metirc system"?

It is a matter of coherence and of knowing what's one speaking about...

Welcome to English. The Brits themselves turned gazillions of French -re words into -er words. What happened to Septembre, Novembre, Decembre, and lettre? What about diametre and perimetre—remind you of anything?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Yeah I thought that many of the spelling differences between American and British English were instigated by the British after the split. I know the US had some movements to standardize spelling in an American fashion but I thought the Brits were doing the same across the pond.

 

[Samson]

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

To find which is correct, which country is in the name of the language you are speaking? How they do it is right.

Americans tried to decimalize the imperial gallon(which can be easily figured out using dozenal math), this is why the ratio between the 2 measurements almost equals to 1.20 : 1.00.

Why not making 1 Imperial foot = 12 inches, 1 US foot = 10 inches, so people will have fun converting more numbers with more double standards for the similar units?

This makes conversions harder, not easier -

You think that is hard, but it does not show that the size of fluid ounces differ between the UK and the US, which makes it even more complicated.

 

[Truthy]

To find which is correct, which country is in the name of the language you are speaking? How they do it is right.

Ha. Good one

 

[Farm Boy]

And we've gotten to Angles in the math thread. I didn't sign up for geometry!

 

[IglooDame]

And we've gotten to Angles in the math thread. I didn't sign up for geometry!

That's because it's the shortest distance between two points of view.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Welcome to English. The Brits themselves turned gazillions of French -re words into -er words. What happened to Septembre, Novembre, Decembre, and lettre? What about diametre and perimetre—remind you of anything?

The months referenced above are familiar to anyone who has taken French, and of course most product labels and government communications in Canada are in both English and French. The company that owns the apartment building I live in has buildings in Quebec, so when I call customer service, the automated greeting is in both languages (I've been transferred to an agent in Montreal a couple of times) and all agents have to be bilingual.

To find which is correct, which country is in the name of the language you are speaking? How they do it is right.

We have such a mishmash in Canada. There is an "official" way to do it - government publications and the CBC use British spelling. The rest of us use a mix of British, American, and French spelling. If anyone here has paid attention to my posts you'll have noticed that I tend to use British and French spelling for a lot of words I use. There's no rhyme or reason for some of it. In many cases it's just a matter of habit or preference.

It's been annoying to have to deal with American-programmed spell checkers that keep insisting I have mistakes all over my posts.

 

[Truthy]

The months referenced above are familiar to anyone who has taken French, and of course most product labels and government communications in Canada are in both English and French. The company that owns the apartment building I live in has buildings in Quebec, so when I call customer service, the automated greeting is in both languages (I've been transferred to an agent in Montreal a couple of times) and all have to be bilingual.

It turns out they are also familiar to anyone who speaks English

 

[Farm Boy]

That's because it's the shortest distance between two points of view.

That's a cute way of putting it!

 

[tuckerkao]

The US started switching over, but people freaked out.

People wouldn't be freaked out if they had been taught math in different bases such as binary and octal, at least those from the computer language.

Unit conversions are other types of math base transitions which most Asian nations are familiar with.

Americans are raised to fluent in both systems so we get to enjoy the benefits of metric while also being exclusive unique hipsters when we want to be. It's win win.

I thought this for a while, but I have to define your short-term win as a long-term lose.

There are millions of packages shipping between U.S. and China daily. Unit conversions seem quick on the computers, but keep in mind, it's not as fast as the light speed. Also most international trading require tangible forms, so more paper and inks are consumed. Consider how many more papers will have to be printed daily to represent both the Metric and Imperial systems and the labors associated with those projects, those cost gradually and ultimately go into our taxes and tariffs.

For the United States to convert from Imperial to Metric, it's expensive but only once. Additional daily trading cost seem small, but they add up from time to time, not to mention that U.S. and China already has so much trading tensions.

 

[Farm Boy]

A solid argument against multiple languages.

 

[Zkribbler]

You think that is hard, but it does not show that the size of fluid ounces differ between the UK and the US, which makes it even more complicated.

44-gallon and 55-gallon drums hold the same amount. You're welcome.

 

[Arwon]

To find which is correct, which country is in the name of the language you are speaking? How they do it is right.

It should hardly need saying, but all varieties of any language are equally valid and none are "correct" or "incorrect"

 

[tuckerkao]

It should hardly need saying, but all varieties of any language are equally valid and none are "correct" or "incorrect"

There has to be a default language which everyone requires to learn, not only read and write, but also fluently in listening and speaking. English of course is the best candidate because the computer keyboards are based on it. English is easier to learn as the 2nd language compare to most of other world languages since you can figure out the pronunciations by just looking at the alphabet combinations.

But, in return, why should Americans refuse to learn the Metric system while almost the entire world has already adopted it? What if this issue eventually cause the Chinese to be angry and they refuse to learn English too?

A large scale World War III will be the most expensive result compare to anything else. United States + European Union vs Russia + China + Islamic Union will likely be the scenario, but is it avoidable?

 

[Arakhor]

What happened to Septembre, Novembre, Decembre...?

The English spellings are the same as in Latin. Of course, many originally Greek words passed through Latin on the way to Western Europe, so they're filtered through Latinate spellings and then Anglicised.

 

[Arwon]

There has to be a default language which everyone requires to learn, not only read and write, but also fluently in listening and speaking. English of course is the best candidate because the computer keyboards are based on it. English is easier to learn as the 2nd language compare to most of other world languages since you can figure out the pronunciations by just looking at the alphabet combinations.

I'm talking about varieties within English. North American Englishes, Carribbean Englishes, Australian and New Zealand Englishes, Indian Englishes, Irish and British Englishes, all of them formal and informal, are equally valid. So Samson staying of England "How they do it is right", ie "the prestige variety of English spoken in London, and the orthography associated with it, is the correct one" is an absolute nonsense.

Also, this?

English is easier to learn as the 2nd language compare to most of other world languages since you can figure out the pronunciations by just looking at the alphabet combinations.

Is just extremely off base.

First, the ease or difficulty of learning a language depends pretty much entirely on the similarity or dissimilarity of the native language of the learner.

Secondly, being able to tell pronunciation from the written form isn't really a big marker of fluency or proficiency, it just means you can say written words out loud.

Thirdly, of all the reasons to name as a reason why English in particular may be easier, "pronunciation can be understood from orthography" is probably the least true. English has one of the least phonetic writing systems out there. Spelling is historical or etymological. It's not as far removed from the spoken language than the very old norms of Tibetan or Thai scripts are from their modern languages, but many European languages and a lot of non-European ones hew a lot closer to the ideal of "see word, know how to say word" than English does.