EPTDo you use Imperial or Metric? - Page 13
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lololol
5198 Posts
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JollYRoGeR
Sweden342 Posts
1. Standard goes more naturally with fractions - quarter of a pint, half foot, etc. Technically, you don't say half meter but rather 50 centimeters or 500 millimeters. Actually u say "half a meter", but 50cm is okey too. Depends on the subject. Don't understand why "quarter of a pint" is more natural than "quarter of a meter". 2. Standard units are more practical and convenient. No one goes to the grocery to buy 400ml drink, instead, they buy it in 12 ounces. No one buys 5 meters of wood, instead, they buy it is 1x1x12, all in feet. In Sweden we usually call it 50cl or half a liter, why is 12 ounces ever better? Wtf is an ounce btw? Also, please rethink the second part. Worst logic I've ever seen. | ||
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Grovbolle
Denmark3813 Posts
Since metric is a lot more common AFAIK only America, Libya and Myanmar uses the Archaic system :D | ||
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turdburgler
England6749 Posts
On December 09 2011 18:25 EdSlyB wrote: Not entirely true. We often use 'half' fraction. Half a meter, two and half kilometer, etc... And altought it isn't very used nowadays people used to apply quarters 'quarters' to some measures too. Metric, at home, at work and in all my country. idd. england is in a quite unique position in that i regularly use both. although we are officially a metric country the older generation still uses imperial (im not calling it standard, the americanism of that term is overwhelming). although i understand the common imperial terms and roughly how big they are, id rather i didnt. i only have a grasp of what they mean by it being forced apon me by older people. with metric you "know" how big something is by its name. oh ive never heard of a kilometre before, but i know what a metre is, and kilo means 1000, so i know what a kilometre is. with imperial it goes, i know what a yard is, but whats an furlong? ill have to look it up. then its an obscure number of yards i cant remember and have to constantly look up. the thread is kind of funny in showing how out of touch america is  the "pros" of imperial measurements, and daring to call them standard when only america uses them, makes me smile  | ||
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jinorazi
Korea (South)4948 Posts
i work with millimeters and doing that in standard would suck diseased donkey balls. imperial units need to be abolished in my opinion. not using 1/4 mile (~400m) would be awkward though :/ | ||
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Thorakh
Netherlands1788 Posts
On December 09 2011 18:35 lololol wrote: The imperial system is far from being standard indeed.SI is short from "International Standard" in French, so calling the imperial system "standard" doesn't make much sense. Using anything other than SI boggles my mind. The United States is the only industrialised country that has not defined a metric system as its official system of measurement, although the use of a metric system has been sanctioned for use there since 1866. Although the United Kingdom committed to officially adopting a metric system for many measurement applications, one is still not in universal use there and the customary imperial system is still in common and widespread use. | ||
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bubblegumbo
Taiwan1296 Posts
On December 09 2011 18:39 Grovbolle wrote: Funny that you consider the american system "standard". Since metric is a lot more common AFAIK only America, Libya and Myanmar uses the Archaic system :D I am actually shocked that there are other countries other than the US that uses this ancient system. Fortunately the scientific and academic community in the US can handle both. It's sad to see a thread like this made, it's like the OP expected others to use "standard" outside of the US. Sorry but no. | ||
MasterOfChaos
Germany2896 Posts
P.S. powers-ten are stupid. Powers-of-two or powers-of-sixteen would be so much nicer. | ||
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Palmar
Iceland22633 Posts
On December 09 2011 13:32 Keyboard Warrior wrote: Advantages of Standard 1. Standard goes more naturally with fractions - quarter of a pint, half foot, etc. Technically, you don't say half meter but rather 50 centimeters or 500 millimeters. 2. Standard units are more practical and convenient. No one goes to the grocery to buy 400ml drink, instead, they buy it in 12 ounces. No one buys 5 meters of wood, instead, they buy it is 1x1x12, all in feet. This is simply incorrect/ignorant. Saying "half a meter" is just as natural as anything else, how can you even think that some units of measurement lend themselves better to stuff like this, that's straight up stupid. No they're not, you just think they are because you've grown up. What's your argument for saying no one buys 5 metres of wood? I worked in a hardware store for three years, and damn did I sell wood by metre. The use of inches for the other dimensions are still common, but I don't know how 2x4 is any more convenient than 5x10 (centimetres) which is the same size. in daily useage no one actually says 400ml, and most products aren't packaged such. The most common are 0.25, 0.33 and 0.5 litres. In daily use we simply say "small" or "big" can of coke, to refer to the 0.33 and 0.5 sizes respectively, if anyone were to ask actually how much that is, we'd say .33 litres or half a litre. | ||
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Badboyrune
Sweden2247 Posts
Having studied some chemistry and chemical engineering just hearing units like pounds per square inch makes me slightly nauseas. I have nightmares over all stupid conversions that have to be done at time because people can't agree to use just one measuring system across the boards. And that doesn't only go for imperial units. People who measure pressure in mmHg, or any other unit that isn't Pascal, should be imprisoned. | ||
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Frozenhelfire
United States420 Posts
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StanzA
Canada478 Posts
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Whitewing
United States7483 Posts
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EtherealBlade
660 Posts
It's confusing but it's the education system's fault not the poster's. | ||
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Jago
Finland390 Posts
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Copymizer
Denmark2107 Posts
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Non-Metric_User.svg) ![[image loading]](http://media.riemurasia.net/albumit/mmedia/wj/t2f/dnx/51291/669971703.jpg) User was warned for this post | ||
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Cyber_Cheese
Australia3615 Posts
On December 09 2011 13:32 Keyboard Warrior wrote: Advantages of Standard 1. Standard goes more naturally with fractions - quarter of a pint, half foot, etc. Technically, you don't say half meter but rather 50 centimeters or 500 millimeters. 2. Standard units are more practical and convenient. No one goes to the grocery to buy 400ml drink, instead, they buy it in 12 ounces. No one buys 5 meters of wood, instead, they buy it is 1x1x12, all in feet. Neither of these are true. On December 09 2011 18:57 Muki wrote: Calling the Imperial system "standard" is just as bad as calling soccer "football", when on an international forum IMO. It's confusing but it's the education system's fault not the poster's. FTFY, football refers to tons of games around the world. Soccer refers to the same game no matter where you live. | ||
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Raysalis
Malaysia1034 Posts
If I remember correctly, i believe NASA lost 1 or 2 satellites due to the mixup in the metric/imperial units. In science at least, i definitely think its best to stick to metric. | ||
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RA
Latvia791 Posts
)For us, standard IS metric. | ||
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Perdac Curall
242 Posts
On December 09 2011 18:15 Excludos wrote: I study in electrical engineering, and we use mm all the time. The only rule is that you have to be consistent, which is probably what you tried to describe above. You can't have something in meters, and then something else in mm, as that will break your brain in complex calculations. But if everything is in mm, and the answer you're looking for is in mm, there is absolutely no reason to not save yourself some trouble with decimals, and just use "mm" instead of "0.xx" or worse "xx * 10^-3" Sure but consider something with several units, like the Pressure of a gas P = RnT/V so you are dealing with atm, moles, Kelvin and m^3. Once you start doing calculations where several SI units are involved you have to be very careful to make sure you do write 0.5 m and not in mm or cm. Actually more correctly it would be (5x10^-1) meters xD though for 1 decimal place who cares. | ||
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