Americans and the stupid standard system

[Anonymous]

Why don't we use metric already to be consistent with the rest of the world? Standard is stupid beyond belief while the metric system makes complete logical sense. Standard need to be banished to hell where it belongs.

[Anonymous]

I suggest you visit the UK.

[Anonymous]

If you think the standard system is arbitrary, I suggest you read about the old British money system, before they made it a little more logical.

[Anonymous]

We should probably just use kelvin

[Anonymous]

I lived in countries with metric for many, many years.

Why is it a problem that Americans use a different system? I didn't have a problem going back and forth, and aspects of metric are just as arbitrary as standard. I do think F is a more realistic reflection of temperature than C, and measuring in inches and foot allows you to picture small lengths easier than cm and meters. There are obviously advantages to metric but it's not the end all be all either.

[Anonymous]

There was an attempt to introduce metric in the early 80s. It didn't stick.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Gen X kid and I remembered just after learning feet, inches, yards, etc. Jimmy Carter wanted schools to teach the metric system (which we probably should have switched to then) and teachers were like, okay, forget everything you just learned and let's do this instead. It just didn't stick. The only thing I can really remember is that a meter is about a yard. I do agree that having the U.S. as a holdout is just more evidence that our county is backward in many ways.

[Anonymous]

I tried to bake a scottish biscuit recipe earlier this week, which provided metric measurements. I tried converting and the recipe did not turn out very well. I can't find metric measuring cups, though. Are there any around?

Otherwise, I tend to use metric as much as possible. My apps are set to Celsius, etc. My fitbit is on the metric system.

My husband comes from a country that uses the metric system, so it's come in handy.

Still can't bake, though.

[Anonymous]

I also lived in a metric country for a number of years. F is the winner in F vs C. I do prefer CMs to Inches, but probably lbs to kg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also lived in a metric country for a number of years. F is the winner in F vs C. I do prefer CMs to Inches, but probably lbs to kg.

False.

100 C water boils. 0 C water freezes. C>>>>F. It's based on actual science that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Let's not forget medical professionals use kg for weight in medical records-- more universally consistent-- and base 10 is just more reasonable all around... who can contest that?

[Anonymous]

I'm a child of the 80s too--and learned metric alongside Imperial. I can visualize either, but prefer imperial--as a PP said it's easier to visualize smaller distances in inches and feet. I don't have an issues when I visit other countries because I know a meter is roughly 3 feet, I know 90 KMH is roughly 55 MPH, and an inch is roughly 2.5 cm. I can convert F to C and back again and have be relatively accurate. I just don't see what the point is in using metric for everything--do is really matter how many nanometers or micrograms something is? No. For day to day life, whatever system you're used to is perfectly fine. If the entire world used Imperial and the US used metric, you'd be complaining about that.

Oh, and BTW, the US wanted in on the metric system, but Napoleon was mad at us about something, and blocked us and UK from getting in on it from the beginning--so we did try!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tried to bake a scottish biscuit recipe earlier this week, which provided metric measurements. I tried converting and the recipe did not turn out very well. I can't find metric measuring cups, though. Are there any around?

Otherwise, I tend to use metric as much as possible. My apps are set to Celsius, etc. My fitbit is on the metric system.

My husband comes from a country that uses the metric system, so it's come in handy.

Still can't bake, though.

Did the recipe give weights? I find weighing ingredients works better than using measuring cups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in countries with metric for many, many years.

Why is it a problem that Americans use a different system? I didn't have a problem going back and forth, and aspects of metric are just as arbitrary as standard. I do think F is a more realistic reflection of temperature than C, and measuring in inches and foot allows you to picture small lengths easier than cm and meters. There are obviously advantages to metric but it's not the end all be all either.

For me it is years of having errors in planning scientific experiments, scientific papers and databases due to someone accessing or citing data that is not in metric units.

This includes the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft.

I have seen planning of Navy operations affected by this as well.

The issue is not whether you can convert km to mi or F to C in your daily life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's not forget medical professionals use kg for weight in medical records-- more universally consistent-- and base 10 is just more reasonable all around... who can contest that?

No one has ten hands. Base 2 for the win.