Will the U.S. ever convert to the Metric System entirely?

[Eli]

Doubt it.

It's possible, but it would take many, generations. And that's once we started actually phasing it out.

 

[LumbergTech]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
i doubt it. afaik, most, if not all science/engineering is done in metric units. i wouldn't have it any other way

This is why I don't really see the big deal about converting. Metric is already used in the sciences where it actually matters. For Joe Consumer, though, metric vs. imperial doesn't really make a difference. I mean the switch will have to happen eventually because of globalism, but I'd just let the transition happen naturally.

eh, wouldn't it be better to have the children fully prepared to compete in that environment, then to just wait for them to be behind

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Dear god I hope so. English units are a damn nightmare with engineering work.

Pounds mass. What the hell?
Pounds is a unit of force, not mass.
And it doesn't help to have food sold by weight (oz) and mass (grams). They're not interchangeable, dammit!

I use this for mass units in English as often as I can: (lbs-sec²)/in
It really makes things so much easier.

/furiously reads Wikipedia

I was going to say "wat", but I think you just blew my mind.

Edit: It does say that ounce is commonly used as a unit of mass in the US, though. lol

 

[IronWing]

Slugs man, slugs are where it is at. Slugs and barleycorn.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Dear god I hope so. English units are a damn nightmare with engineering work.

Pounds mass. What the hell?
Pounds is a unit of force, not mass.
And it doesn't help to have food sold by weight (oz) and mass (grams). They're not interchangeable, dammit!

I use this for mass units in English as often as I can: (lbs-sec²)/in
It really makes things so much easier.

/furiously reads Wikipedia

I was going to say "wat", but I think you just blew my mind.

Edit: It does say that ounce is commonly used as a unit of mass in the US, though. lol

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

[matas]

Metric system is so much easier.

 

[BrokenVisage]

We're waiting for the rest of the world to adopt our way.

 

[Tom]

the universe isn't metric.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Tom
the universe isn't metric.

it's not finite either.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Dear god I hope so. English units are a damn nightmare with engineering work.

Pounds mass. What the hell?
Pounds is a unit of force, not mass.
And it doesn't help to have food sold by weight (oz) and mass (grams). They're not interchangeable, dammit!

I use this for mass units in English as often as I can: (lbs-sec²)/in
It really makes things so much easier.

/furiously reads Wikipedia

I was going to say "wat", but I think you just blew my mind.

Edit: It does say that ounce is commonly used as a unit of mass in the US, though. lol

And I've seen instrumentation labeled in "kgf" - kilograms-force.
WTF!!?????

I think I'll start measuring my water consumption in amps.




Also:
Kilogram = (N-sec²)/m

Mass = (force * sec²)/distance

Originally posted by: Tom
the universe isn't metric.

But it sure as hell makes the Universe a lot easier to understand and explain.

 

[jarfykk]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Dear god I hope so. English units are a damn nightmare with engineering work.

Pounds mass. What the hell?
Pounds is a unit of force, not mass.
And it doesn't help to have food sold by weight (oz) and mass (grams). They're not interchangeable, dammit!

I use this for mass units in English as often as I can: (lbs-sec²)/in
It really makes things so much easier.

Well, no they're not measuring the same thing. But since the gravitational force exerted is more or less constant on Earth, they can be converted quite easily and for most intents and purposes are the same thing. It is when you head into space that the easy convertibility gets murky...

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: LumbergTech

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
i doubt it. afaik, most, if not all science/engineering is done in metric units. i wouldn't have it any other way

This is why I don't really see the big deal about converting. Metric is already used in the sciences where it actually matters. For Joe Consumer, though, metric vs. imperial doesn't really make a difference. I mean the switch will have to happen eventually because of globalism, but I'd just let the transition happen naturally.

eh, wouldn't it be better to have the children fully prepared to compete in that environment, then to just wait for them to be behind

I'm pretty sure metric is standard curriculum in US public schools, so it's not like kids aren't at the very least familiar with the system. That should be good enough, the stuff isn't exactly rocket science. All a conversion to metric would do is give people a better intuitive sense of metric units.

I just don't think it's worth dumping any significant amount of money into a forced conversion.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: jarfykk

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Dear god I hope so. English units are a damn nightmare with engineering work.

Pounds mass. What the hell?
Pounds is a unit of force, not mass.
And it doesn't help to have food sold by weight (oz) and mass (grams). They're not interchangeable, dammit!

I use this for mass units in English as often as I can: (lbs-sec²)/in
It really makes things so much easier.

Well, no they're not measuring the same thing. But since the gravitational force exerted is more or less constant on Earth, they can be converted quite easily and for most intents and purposes are the same thing. It is when you head into space that the easy convertibility gets murky...

Things also go nuts when you're trying to get units to work out properly. If you're doing an equation in lbf and ft, and suddenly you get a density in lbm/in, or something like that, you may find yourself needing to divide by 386.4 and then some weird conversion factor to get lbm and lbf to work out. It's a mess, and it's a hell of a lot easier in metric.

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: jarfykk

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Dear god I hope so. English units are a damn nightmare with engineering work.

Pounds mass. What the hell?
Pounds is a unit of force, not mass.
And it doesn't help to have food sold by weight (oz) and mass (grams). They're not interchangeable, dammit!

I use this for mass units in English as often as I can: (lbs-sec²)/in
It really makes things so much easier.

Well, no they're not measuring the same thing. But since the gravitational force exerted is more or less constant on Earth, they can be converted quite easily and for most intents and purposes are the same thing. It is when you head into space that the easy convertibility gets murky...

Things also go nuts when you're trying to get units to work out properly. If you're doing an equation in lbf and ft, and suddenly you get a density in lbm/in, or something like that, you may find yourself needing to divide by 386.4 and then some weird conversion factor to get lbm and lbf to work out. It's a mess, and it's a hell of a lot easier in metric.

I'm just glad I'm an EE and not an ME or CE. Fortunately, seems like we mostly work with SI units.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: Train
jeebus do we have to have a thread a week where the metric fanboys tell us how lame the rest of the US is for using a diff system.

Use metric when you need to, or when it makes sense. It doesnt make you smarter or better than someone who uses feet/inches, get over yourself.

note: I use metric everyday in my job, and I can speak fluently in kilometers and mils when traversing terrain. But I still prefer to speak in MPH, degrees F, and "six feet tall"

Lame! I mean saying I'm 200 pounds sounds dumb, I'd much rather tell people I weigh 38.4 stone.

I hate Metrics, I hate Celsius, I hate KM. ounces & pounds makes sense to me, people who weight themselves based off this "stone" thing, I have no idea lol...

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: QueBert

Originally posted by: Train
jeebus do we have to have a thread a week where the metric fanboys tell us how lame the rest of the US is for using a diff system.

Use metric when you need to, or when it makes sense. It doesnt make you smarter or better than someone who uses feet/inches, get over yourself.

note: I use metric everyday in my job, and I can speak fluently in kilometers and mils when traversing terrain. But I still prefer to speak in MPH, degrees F, and "six feet tall"

Lame! I mean saying I'm 200 pounds sounds dumb, I'd much rather tell people I weigh 38.4 stone.

I hate Metrics, I hate Celsius, I hate KM. ounces & pounds makes sense to me, people who weight themselves based off this "stone" thing, I have no idea lol...

The only reason we're stuck using the Imperial system is because of stupid people too lazy to figure out the metric system.

I learned both well in high school, and would have no problem dealing with it on a daily basis.

Makes Physics bearable, imagine trying to find the wavelength of something after a diffraction experiment and realized you'd somehow thrown the measurement when putting it all in the calculator, and you were using eighths of an inch or something equally moronic. I got a result that clearly wouldn't give me nm for blue light and realized that I'd forgot to multiply something by 10, so easy.

By the way, nice job moron, stone is imperial too; British people are the only people who use it.

 

[sdifox]

OMG, Foxtrot addressed this problem on Nov 23

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ft/2008/ft081123.gif

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: ironwing
No, not entirely, ever. The land grid for every state platted after the Northwest Ordnance is laid out in township/range/section. Townships are six miles on a side, sections are mile squares. The land is further subdivided into 640 acres in 160 acre/40 acre/10 acre chunks. Trying to convert the survey grid to metric would be hellishly expensive and complicated. I will go out on a limb and say it ain't going to happen.

Very good point. But the rest of the world has converted, so why not us? If anything, it should be easier for the richest country in the world to do so.

Really, it's just a matter of passing legislation to get it done over a 10-20 year period. They could phase it in slowly. Packaged foodstuffs already show both imperial and metric measurements. Yeah, people would complain, but I think people would get accustomed to it pretty quickly.

Schoolkids are taught the metric system, it's just that we in the U.S. rarely use it in everyday life.