Metric vs Imperial System

[IglooDame]

If I say thing is different ways, then Americans will start to recognize why they keep wanting to stick with the Imperial measurement system.

The #1 reason because American Football field is measured by the yards and it isn't that easy to play the same sport league with the meter lines on the ground. Any major changes will alternate the basic rules of some professions.

Fix the fundamental quality of a language will be even harder than switching the measurement systems or counting math in several different bases. If English is really that strong of a language, the entire world would have adopted it as the default language.

Is English your native language? I am not asking to belittle you (I consider multilingual people smarter than monolingual folks by default), but because what you've typed there is not necessarily coherent.

 

[tuckerkao]

The solution to that one is not to play American football.

Unfortunately it'll be about how much money some Americans can earn, they will never want to be retired from the celebrity status.

Is English your native language? I am not asking to belittle you (I consider multilingual people smarter than monolingual folks by default), but because what you've typed there is not necessarily coherent.

English isn't my native language as far as from the listening and speaking perspectives. Reading and writing probably more native.

 

[Arwon]

The solution to that one is not to play American football.

The time is ripe to reunite it with Rugby

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Just to chime in on-topic (I know, weird for me), I've been using the metric system all of my adult life for work and I find it far superior to imperial (though I am fluent in both).

One odd thing, however: When I want to figure out how far I am from a destination in a car, I use miles per hour as it is evenly divisible by sixty and thus easy to calculate and convert to time. I'm usually pretty accurate too, even though I never drive the speed limit... Um... One has to adjust the calculations slightly.

 

[cardgame]

I'm confused how mph is better than kph for that purpose. They're both 'per hour' so they should both be divisible by 60? Unless you mean typical 60mph speed.

 

[tuckerkao]

The solution to that one is not to play American football.

Your answer is very correct for a decimal world.

I thought this for several hours, It's possible to keep the decimal twenty feet starting lines and most of the touchdown areas while not having to reconstruct the entire football field, only to repaint the while lines.

It has to be the "1 dozen 6 meters" for the starting lines, very unfortunate conversion rule into the Metric System when the smaller distance is counted as 1 meter.

Sorry, I cannot draw a decimal metric football field, it's simply not functional. The touchdown lines will be way out of the dimensions.

 

[Zardnaar]

I can use both in approximate amounts.

1 foot is 30 centrmetres
1 yard is 3 foot, it's close enough to a metre.
I'm 6 foot tall
60 mph is 100kmh
To convert kilos to pounds double it and add 10%
1 mile is approx 1.6 km.

I know it's not exact but it's close enough for day to day use.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

When I want to figure out how far I am from a destination in a car, I use miles per hour as it is evenly divisible by sixty and thus easy to calculate and convert to time.

How does that not also apply to kilometres per hour, or even light years per hour?

 

[IglooDame]

Your answer is very correct for a decimal world.

I thought this for several hours, It's possible to keep the decimal twenty feet starting lines and most of the touchdown areas while not having to reconstruct the entire football field, only to repaint the while lines.

It has to be the "1 dozen 6 meters" for the starting lines, very unfortunate conversion rule into the Metric System when the smaller distance is counted as 1 meter.

Sorry, I cannot draw a decimal metric football field, it's simply not functional. The touchdown lines will be way out of the dimensions.

My friend... I applaud your efforts here, but I truly can't imagine successfully teaching the general population a new base numbering system purely for the sake of making conversion to metric easier.

And with sports in particular... why bother at all? No one is converting yards to miles (or meters or km) for serious purposes in American football. Field arrangement is esoteric in almost every sport, it just is much more regularly referenced in American football. Go tell the Cricket folk that you want to resize their field and see what sort of reaction you get.

 

[civvver]

I'm confused how mph is better than kph for that purpose. They're both 'per hour' so they should both be divisible by 60? Unless you mean typical 60mph speed.

I think what she means is if I'm 15 miles away from something I can estimate it's about 15 minutes, since I typically drive around 60 mph. I do that too on freeways.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I think what she means is if I'm 15 miles away from something I can estimate it's about 15 minutes, since I typically drive around 60 mph. I do that too on freeways.

Yeah 60 mph is a typical speed in much of the US.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I think what she means is if I'm 15 miles away from something I can estimate it's about 15 minutes, since I typically drive around 60 mph. I do that too on freeways.

Exactly right.

 

[warpus]

That works the same in metric though. Toronto is "2 hours away", since it's 200km away. Most people drive around 100 km/h on the highway. Of course factor in traffic jams, and that doesn't quite work.

People will use whatever system they're used to though. My friend Brian measures everything in comparison to Obama's penis size. So for example I would be about 9 Obenises tall, and Toronto is about a million Obenises away.

 

[tuckerkao]

People will use whatever system they're used to though

Some people are right handed writers, some are left handed baseball pitchers, if kids start to learn how to write with both of their hands, then they can enhance the abilities when they become adults.

The top advantage is that they can finish their assignments faster. Similar ideology applies for people learning multiple measurement systems or math bases.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

That works the same in metric though. Toronto is "2 hours away", since it's 200km away. Most people drive around 100 km/h on the highway. Of course factor in traffic jams, and that doesn't quite work.

Yes, while that is true, it is easier for me to figure out in my head if I use imperial measurements as a multiple of sixty can be directly and easily converted into time. 60 MPH = 60 minutes directly and easily. No heavy calculation required. Whereas with metric, I have base ten to convert to a time base. How many kilometres do I cover in one minute? Multiply or divide a fractional measurement by 60 in my head... Arrrgh. It's fine if I'm working with a full hour, but if I want to figure out when I will be somewhere and have 20 km to drive, the math is just irritating. But if I'm using imperial and I'm 20 miles away, I know I'll be at your house in 20 minutes. No migraine.

It's just the way my brain works. YMMV (no pun intended).

 

[Cutlass]

I'm confused how mph is better than kph for that purpose. They're both 'per hour' so they should both be divisible by 60? Unless you mean typical 60mph speed.

60 miles per hour is one mile per minute. Which is a really nice way to approximate things. Of course, the odds are you aren't actually averaging 60 miles per hour. But it's still an amazingly easy approximation.

 

[tuckerkao]

Whereas with metric, I have base ten to convert to a time base. How many kilometres do I cover in one minute? Multiply or divide a fractional measurement by 60 in my head... Arrrgh. It's fine if I'm working with a full hour, but if I want to figure out when I will be somewhere and have 20 km to drive, the math is just irritating. But if I'm using imperial and I'm 20 miles away, I know I'll be at your house in 20 minutes. No migraine.

It's just the way my brain works. YMMV (no pun intended).

I often say decimal 60 as 5 dozens, 100 km per hour or 100 km per 5 dozen minutes, so 20 km per 1 dozen minutes, thus decimal 12 minutes will be the required time.

Decimal 100 = 8 Dozenal 4
Decimal 60 = 5 Dozens

[Dozenal] "8 Dozen 4" / "5 Dozens" = 1.8 km per minute.

[Dozenal] 1/3 = 0.4, 2/3 = 0.8, so it's time for you to tell me why it doesn't work in decimal.

 

[Farm Boy]

Yes, while that is true, it is easier for me to figure out in my head if I use imperial measurements as a multiple of sixty can be directly and easily converted into time. 60 MPH = 60 minutes directly and easily. No heavy calculation required. Whereas with metric, I have base ten to convert to a time base. How many kilometres do I cover in one minute? Multiply or divide a fractional measurement by 60 in my head... Arrrgh. It's fine if I'm working with a full hour, but if I want to figure out when I will be somewhere and have 20 km to drive, the math is just irritating. But if I'm using imperial and I'm 20 miles away, I know I'll be at your house in 20 minutes. No migraine.

It's just the way my brain works. YMMV (no pun intended).

Imperial is easy to live, annoying to science. Which should be fine. Annoyance is bad for living, and science is going to use its own damn system when on the clock anyways.

 

[cardgame]

I'd be down for switching to metric even though I don't use it almost at all. Keeping Fahrenheit though.

 

[uppi]

Yes, while that is true, it is easier for me to figure out in my head if I use imperial measurements as a multiple of sixty can be directly and easily converted into time. 60 MPH = 60 minutes directly and easily. No heavy calculation required. Whereas with metric, I have base ten to convert to a time base. How many kilometres do I cover in one minute? Multiply or divide a fractional measurement by 60 in my head... Arrrgh. It's fine if I'm working with a full hour, but if I want to figure out when I will be somewhere and have 20 km to drive, the math is just irritating. But if I'm using imperial and I'm 20 miles away, I know I'll be at your house in 20 minutes. No migraine.

It's just the way my brain works. YMMV (no pun intended).

Err...there is no reason you could not use metric in multiples of sixty as well. If you go 120 kph per hour, you cover 2 km each minute. If you try to do the math with the equivalent 75 mph, it gets much more complicated. There is no useful multiple of 60 in the definition of a mile.

Imperial is easy to live, annoying to science. Which should be fine. Annoyance is bad for living, and science is going to use its own damn system when on the clock anyways.

"Imperial is easy to live" can only be said in ignorance that metric is much easier to live by. As soon as you need to relate things not in the same unit, imperial units have way too much needless complication.