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Jul - News - Should the USA go metric? New poll - New thread - New reply
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Should the United States of America begin to commonly use the metric system?
For at least most uses. A few areas will probably still use US units, like surveying and construction.
Yes
 
 84.4%, 27 votes
No
 
 15.6%, 5 votes
Multi-voting is disabled. 32 users have voted.

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Posted on 10-03-09 02:43:51 PM (last edited by Terra at 10-03-09 11:45 AM) Link | Quote

I don't know if this is the right forum for this, but there was at least 1 debate-ish thread in here

Most countries in the world today use the metric system of units, but the United States is an exception, insisting on a variation of the old British system of miles, pounds, gallons, and such. Do you think that the United States should finally go ahead and make the switch to metric measurements?

I say yes. Here are some reasons:

- The metric system really is very easy to learn and understand. First, you start with base units like the metre, litre, and gram. (Yes, I know that the kilogram is the actual base unit for deriving other units such as the newton, but the gram is the base unit for naming other units of mass.) Then, you add prefixes that always mean the same thing. Kilo- always means 1000, so a kilometre is 1000 metres, a kilogram is 1000 grams, etc. Even if you've never heard of, say, a kilojoule, you know it has to be 1000 joules, so if you later see a mention of joules, or megajoules, or whatever, you already know how to convert them. There are even some special relationships between units of measurement. Plug in kilograms, metres, and seconds into F = ma directly and you get newtons right away. One cubic metre is exactly 1000 litres, and a litre of water weighs approximately 1 kilogram. Temperature is easy too. Which numbers are easier to learn and remember, 0 and 100 or 32 and 212?

- Easy conversion of units: just move the decimal point. If you want to know what 17 kilometres is in metres, just add 3 zeroes to the end to get 17000 metres. If you want to know 17 miles in feet, you'll probably reach for the calculator because few people can multiply by 5280 in their heads. Division is just as easy. You know that 3175 metres is a bit over 3 kilometres just by looking at the number and mentally moving the decimal point 3 places to the left.

- It's already the standard unit system of science. If everything else was metric too, we wouldn't need all these crazy feet-pounds and pounds-force and slugs and such. Mars Polar Lander, anyone?

- Other countries use it. My experience from the Internet is that using American units tends to confuse people from metric countries, especially considering how tricky the US unit system is. Sometimes I think the USA need to realize that it is not a deity, but rather a country just like all the others and should follow international rules.

- Units of measurement in the metric system always have the same value. A US gallon is different from an Imperial gallon, and the amount of weight an ounce or pound is, and even the number of ounces in a pound, depends on what substance you're weighing. A 150-pound human and 150 pounds of gold don't have the same weight. There are also similarly-named and similarly-valued units that are actually different, like the statute mile and the nautical mile.

- Both systems are littered with little-used units, but this isn't much of a problem in the metric system because of the regular formation of units. I don't think too many people use the decigram, but if you know that deci- means 1/10 and you know what a gram is, you know what a decigram is. How many people would be able to figure out that a rod is 16.5 feet?

- The kids learn the metric system in schools anyway. When I was in public school (1992-2005), I think we learned more about metric units than about US units. We had to know the prefixes from milli- to kilo- in order, and we worked a lot with metres, litres, grams, and degrees Celsius. They don't have to add a huge chunk to the curriculum because it's already there.

(Yes, I know I haven't been making the metric/SI distinction above, but the SI system seems to basically be a restricted version of the metric system.)

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Posted on 10-03-09 02:48:58 PM Link | Quote
Supakitsune's post
I'd really prefer it if we did.
However, it's not really that the government doesn't want to go metric, it's that people are too lazy to learn it any other way.
For example, New York state tried to change its highway signs to metric a few years back. Decent idea, right?
Well, after pretty much getting a massive uproar of hatred against it, the signs were taken back down. Good stuff!

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Posted on 10-03-09 03:03:27 PM Link | Quote
Then why not have both to please everyone?

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Posted on 10-03-09 03:04:44 PM Link | Quote
Supakitsune's post
Originally posted by Anya
Then why not have both to please everyone?
That's the ticket!
But you know. Government starts and ends with "duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrr". :specialed:

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Posted on 10-03-09 03:29:44 PM Link | Quote
The metric system is overall much easier to handle even though it might look hard when you're not used to it. Plus, anyone who reads physics or maths (on higher levels) will have to learn the metric system anyway, as it's used in the SI standard.

A good start is to use both system in the US until everyone knows the metric one, then remove the old system.


I mean, it's just, kinda, sad looking at it.


Now if only we can get everyone to use english to....

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Posted on 10-03-09 03:31:14 PM (last edited by devin at 10-03-09 12:31 PM) Link | Quote
Voted yes because the metric system is basically better (way better)

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Posted on 10-03-09 03:34:55 PM Link | Quote
Voted yes because even though we don't have the metric system in place it should be instilled into any person that takes science in school these days. Customary is NEVER used in science. The only customary units I really think in are feet and pounds.

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Posted on 10-03-09 05:19:14 PM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Lunamon
WHAT
Guess the US is so powerful that it demanded to have its own units.

Personally I think running Metric instead of its own version of units will take time, a LOT of time. I mean, do you want to keep using your vehicle that shows how many miles-per-hour it's going when the sign shows how many kilometers you have until your destination? When you think about the intellegence of an average person nowadays it just doesn't work. I wouldn't complain, but I bet most of this town would. What do you say to that?

(As for my answer I'm going to go with Yes for now, but if we have a nationwide poll the result will point to No because of everyone else.)

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Posted on 10-03-09 05:21:52 PM Link | Quote
No, No, HELLLLLLLLLLLL NO. I can't stand the Metric Scale at all.

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Posted on 10-03-09 05:50:44 PM Link | Quote
Metrics are so much easier to work with, so I would say switch except for the fact that it would confuse everyone to death (I'm in the US).

Then again, looking at that map, I suppose we have Antarctica on our site, so we're not alone, heh.
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Posted on 10-03-09 05:54:10 PM (last edited by Acmlm at 10-03-09 03:32 PM) Link | Quote
Antarctica (does it even count), Liberia, Burma and ... that's it


Cars here show both MPH and km/h (my grandfather even had one that could be easily switched between miles and km), thermometers have °F and ºC, rulers count inches and cm/mm, and so on, so they could do the same ...

Canada switched from imperial to metric about 30 years ago, I think it took a while for everyone to adapt (but I wasn't born yet) but we got through (except we still use imperial for a few things like weight)

Metric just makes more sense for so many things, like:
- 1ml of water weighs 1g (and 1L is 1kg)
- 1cm³ = 1ml (and 1dm³ = 1L)
- 0°C and 100°C for water, while 0°F doesn't even mean much
- Earth's circumference is almost exactly 40000km
- none of this "12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, 1760 yards in a mile" mess to remember, it's always powers of 10
- science, of course

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Posted on 10-03-09 05:54:50 PM Link | Quote
Supakitsune's post
Originally posted by ⑨
No, No, HELLLLLLLLLLLL NO. I can't stand the Metric Scale at all.
what.
So you can't handle basic calculations in base 10?


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Posted on 10-03-09 06:15:24 PM Link | Quote

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US is partially behind Europe and the rest of the world, in part due to the fact they have to convert their stuff to imperial just so we can use it.

Metric or bust.

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Posted on 10-03-09 06:30:40 PM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Supakitsune
Originally posted by ⑨
No, No, HELLLLLLLLLLLL NO. I can't stand the Metric Scale at all.
what.
So you can't handle basic calculations in base 10?

I'll stick to my miles, feet, inches, etc., thank you.

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Posted on 10-03-09 06:37:04 PM Link | Quote
Originally posted by ⑨
I'll stick to my miles, feet, inches, etc., thank you.
How many feet are in eight miles?
How many meters are in eight kilometers?

Now, which question did you answer in a faster amount of time? Be honest.

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Posted on 10-03-09 06:41:33 PM Link | Quote
I answered the first one before I even looked at the 2nd. one.

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Posted on 10-03-09 06:42:20 PM Link | Quote
No, because then milk won't come in 3.78 L jugs any more

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Posted on 10-03-09 06:43:38 PM (last edited by Terra at 10-03-09 03:43 PM) Link | Quote

Did you use a calculator?

When I was in Germany, I had a teacher who kept converting things into US units just because there were some Americans in the class It would be fine if he also gave the metric measurement, but he didn't.

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Posted on 10-03-09 06:44:28 PM Link | Quote
No I did not use a calculator.

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Posted on 10-03-09 06:48:05 PM Link | Quote
1 mi = 5280 ft

1 km = 1000 m

I'm not going to lie, the metric system is a lot better for a lot of things. I'd like an overall change.

FUn fact, the US is actually supposed to be on the road to converting, but lol red tape

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