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For the first time in my life, in one of my engineering courses, I am forced to use US Customary Units instead of the obviously superior S.I. unit system. The course I have to use them in is statics and structures. The more I have to use them, the more ridiculous they are to me.
First of all, all scientists and engineers (even in America) are taught physics and chemistry in terms of S.I. units (or at least I'm pretty sure this is the case). Mass is in terms of Kilograms, Force in terms of Newtons, Energy in terms of Joules, volume in terms of Liters, length in terms of Meters, etc. All you have to do is learn the basic units, and then memorize like 6 prefixes, and then you know how to interpret any quantity, and how to easily compare them. It's simple, it makes sense, it's really the pinnacle of how we've developed the way we measure things as humans.
Before this I've never had a problem with the US customary unit system- after all, I was raised on it. I know how long a mile is in terms of how long it takes me to travel a mile, both in a car and on foot. It's second-nature to me and to any American. I'm okay with people still using miles when they're driving around- it's the most used non-SI unit in America.
But what really pisses me off is that for some reason, most people in America absolutely refuse to accept a switch to SI units, just because it's too much of a change-of-pace for them to get used to. But the simple fact is that most people don't even use most of the units they're so attached to. Do most people even know about how silly it is to measure mass in Slugs, or to have to convert between the volume measurements? To be honest the majority of society would say we measure mass in Pounds. Who are they to decide what unit system engineers use?
It's absolutely absurd. It's almost as though someone a long, long time ago, who by today's standards would probably be retardedly dumb, just threw random numbers out, and everybody else was like "hey, whatever, we don't even know what volume is".
I can only imagine the conversation the people who came up with this system must have had.
"Five-thousand, two-hundred and eighty."
"BRILLIANT! PRINT IT!"
If the U.S. Customary unit system was proposed to the modern scientific community today it would be laughed into the most shameful disgraces of history. It's just so terrible.
 
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I agree with you so hard.
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mile
Introduced after 1066, originally the Roman mile at 5000 feet, in 1592 it was extended to 5280 feet to make it an even number (8) of furlongs.
So it's more like:
"Let's make it an even number of furlongs, for simplicity's sake."
"BRILLIANT! PRINT IT!"
The definitions of these things are so funny:
furlong
"One plough's furrow long" (Saxon furrow is furh), the distance a plough team could be driven without rest. This varied from region to region depending on soil type and local habit. In modern context, it is deemed to be 660 feet, 40 rods or ten chains.
I agree with you completely though. Although I've heard chemists complain that mass should be in g not kg.
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In my courses I always use the SI units but in everyday stuff such as how much I weigh, how far to travel etc. I use imperial units just because I'm used to them.
Edit: Except for temparature, I use centigrade for that ^^
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You know how hard it is to try and apply anything you learn in the classroom to real life when you have no idea what units what I am trying to do use.
It would be so much easier if congress would just make a law that would make the S.I. units the bigger/first in signs so the US would actually have a reason to switch instead of having a promise it is never going to fulfill to switch. The plan now is teach us in school but if in everyday life we use the other units we are never going to do anything, other than waste time.
Fun fact: You know how the zero point of the Fahrenheit system was created, equal parts snow and ammonium chloride. (Ya Americans in all are brilliance use this when there is an option that doesn't have such stupid zero points)
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As far as temperature goes, the only system that is relevant mathematically and physically is kelvin.
I asked my professor why we were using english units instead of SI and he told me to write my congressman =[
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On September 18 2008 07:04 Meta wrote:
As far as temperature goes, the only system that is relevant mathematically and physically is kelvin.
I asked my professor why we were using english units instead of SI and he told me to write my congressman =[
I'm going to stick with celsius as being the best measurement, but only because Anders Celsius is from my home town, so I gotta represent!
Still, kelvin is better of course, but not really for everyday life, don't you think?
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So so so glad we don't have that system here apart from occassional use of miles.
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That sucks, america makes everything bad doesnt it?
jk love america (some what)
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I can only imagine the conversation the people who came up with this system must have had.
"Five-thousand, two-hundred and eighty."
"BRILLIANT! PRINT IT!"
I lol'd pretty hard at that.
Just remember, you are asking people who believe the earth is 6000 years old to change the way they think. It just isnt going to happen.
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well I see good points with Fahrenheit, it scales goes 0-100 (most used numbers) while Celsius goes -20 to +30, but I have used SI system my whole life so other system is hard to adapt.
Miles too, usable range is 0-100 (you dont need go faster really) rather than km/h goes like 0-160.
But making dramatic change from miles to km/h could be bad. People would drive faster because they are not sure if its limit at miles or km/h.
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truth
i hate how we have to learn both systems to learn science in america
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Agree. Luckily, never had a class that required non-S.I. units.
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On September 18 2008 07:35 Barbarne wrote:
Still, kelvin is better of course, but not really for everyday life, don't you think?
Aren't they pretty much the same? It's not difficult to know both and adapt to the context. Use celcius in everyday applications, use kelvin in chemistry.
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On September 18 2008 08:39 Too_MuchZerg wrote:
well I see good points with Fahrenheit, it scales goes 0-100 (most used numbers) while Celsius goes -20 to +30, but I have used SI system my whole life so other system is hard to adapt.
Miles too, usable range is 0-100 (you dont need go faster really) rather than km/h goes like 0-160.
But making dramatic change from miles to km/h could be bad. People would drive faster because they are not sure if its limit at miles or km/h.
Then again if its negative then you can kinda like can assume theres gonna be ice and stuff. I just hate the fahrenheit scale 
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Agreed, americans are weirdos  Likewise.. why do UK people drive on the wrong side of their cars? O.o
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On September 18 2008 20:47 VIB wrote:Agreed, americans are weirdos Likewise.. why do UK people drive on the wrong side of their cars? O.o
I've heard it was because back in the day when people went around on horses they would always carry their weapon in their right hand and thus they would travel on the left hand side of the road so that they could use it on people coming the other way, but it doesnt say that in the wiki article..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_hand_drive#Left-hand_traffic
"Research in 1969 by J. J. Leeming showed that countries that drive on the left had a lower collision rate than countries that drive on the right"
"Some countries that have switched to driving on the right (such as Sweden) saw their long term accident rates increase by more than any increase in traffic volumes[citation needed]. It has been suggested, but not proven, that this is partly because it is more common to be right-eye dominant.[14][15][16] Traffic flows in a clockwise direction when driving on the left which enables right eyed people to use the right eye to see oncoming traffic"
I didn't know that :O
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I totally agree with the OP. SI units work. Luckily in Australia we only deal in SI units and it makes life easy.
As for the celcius/farenheit/kelvin discussion.
Celcius is easiest for the layperson to understand. When water freezes, its 0c. When it boils its 100c. So when the temperature outside is negative, chances are its going to be snowy weather. Its easy. Its also very easy to convert to the most scientifically correct temperature scale (kelvin). All you do is add 273 to your celcius number. To change farenheit to kelvin is [K] = ([°F] + 459.67) × 5/9
I think its time America got with the modern and more practical system.
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The only reasonable reason is financial. Retail outlets and State highways don't want to have to spend in converting their stores/highways signs to S.I.
/shrug.
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Germany2896 Posts
SI is not necessarily the best system. In Elektrodynamics cgs has its advantages. But of cause pounds, yards, foots miles&co always suck. But as a German I only come into contact with them on TL when people tell how large they are/how much the weight. Ands that's annyoing enough.
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EPT
