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On December 09 2011 18:50 bubblegumbo wrote:Show nested quote +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.
I beg to differ.
Mars Climate Orbiter
Fortunately, such errors only happens once in a while. The article I linked to is 12 years old.
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On December 09 2011 13:43 Keyboard Warrior wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2011 13:38 Ryndika wrote:I'm from country that doesn't use standard but when I'm drawing I think about things in feets and inches. I have no idea why, though, heheh. I wonder if in USA where you use standard, you also use metric? No one buys 5 meters of wood, instead, they buy it is 1x1x12, all in feet. but that's using 3rd dimension also, right? please tell me where i can buy 0.3x0.3x3.6 meter wood
It's more like 300mm x 300mm x 3.6m generally.
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On December 09 2011 18:50 MasterOfChaos wrote:
Funny how many people use metric for science and not for everyday. For me it's the other way round, everyday stuff uses metric, and in science we use rarely use metric because it's so inconvenient. But the only time I come across imperial is TL posts by Americans.
P.S. powers-ten are stupid. Powers-of-two or powers-of-sixteen would be so much nicer.
Well, Hex and binary still uses the same "system", its just that the base number is different. Imperial just uses a bunch of random numbers that doesn't add up and is a living nightmare to calculate with. 1000 for one up, 12 for the next, 3 for the next, and then suddenly 22..how are you suppose to calculate anything with such inconsistencies?
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Respect to the Americans who are willing to let that 'pride' of how you were brought up and taught go and admit that metric system is simply superior.
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i got a bot warning because the picture says ameri(c)unts apparently. it's not my intention to bash american or be hostile in anyway i just wanna say. it's just to show the difference.
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Does anyone else find it hilarious that when the US actually does use a metric system for distance(in the military), they call it "klick" instead of kilometers. I'm sure theres a reasonable explanation for this, but in my head I like to believe its a child refusing to agree that he's wrong, and just doing his own thing instead.
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Could you please tell me why does OP refer to US customary as 'Standard'?
I guess it's standard in the US but nowhere else really. As it is, the majority of the world is using the metric system (SI), so this should be more 'standard', no?
The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not mainly use the metric system in its commercial and standards activities, although the International System of Units (SI, often referred to as "metric") is commonly used in both the US Armed Forces and in fields relating to science, and increasingly in medicine, aviation, government as well as various sectors of industry.
That's so dumb...
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On December 09 2011 19:10 Cyber_Cheese wrote:Show nested quote +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.
I don't believe that 'football' refers to anything else than 'soccer' in Europe. Why do you think so many teams have 'FC' in front of their name?
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On December 09 2011 19:21 Excludos wrote:
Does anyone else find it hilarious that when the US actually does use a metric system for distance(in the military), they call it "klick" instead of kilometers. I'm sure theres a reasonable explanation for this, but in my head I like to believe its a child refusing to agree that he's wrong, and just doing his own thing instead.
Nah we call them clicks up here in Canada all the time too. It's a common slang term.
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nvm  was posted before
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On December 09 2011 19:13 Perdac Curall wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2011 18:15 Excludos wrote:On December 09 2011 18:10 Perdac Curall wrote:On December 09 2011 13:40 Keyboard Warrior wrote:On December 09 2011 13:35 Nothingtosay wrote:
Standard because the US is nonsensical and refuses to adapt.
Edit: Also people say half a meter, half a kilometer, etc, all the time. but then it is not technically appropriate, because the metric system is designed to have specific measures for fractions, like 500 meters or so. saying half a kilometer borrows from the logic of standard system, though there is nothing wrong with it Actually it is the opposite. If you mean technically as in how to use it in a technical field, I can say in engineering which is my field that you MUST say 0.5 meters or even 0.231 meters and not 231 mm because in complex calculations you have to do everything in SI units otherwise the conversions can get complicated real fast, and the SI unit is the meter not mm or cm. 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.
Ahm...
You don't have a problem switching out of accident between Yards and Inches do you?
So HOW is that diffrent? Except that an error in a metric system is corriged by moving the , a little...
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This^
I'm studying both Imperial and Metric systems but I can't stand Imperial as I have no feel for them and because of what the image above shows, So I convert everything I see to MKS (Meter, Kilogram, Second) system.
FYI the Imperial (Standard) units were originated in UK but today only US uses them and UK use the metric system.
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I use "standard", also known as Metric.
The name you're looking for is Imperial, or even "US units" as not even the US imperial system is the same as the rest of the world. It's a little mind boggling to me that the US has different units in almost every measurement system you can think of. Fuck, even their paper sizes are different. Maybe it's for that "we're the special ones" feeling.
Though they have certainly influenced certain parts of the industry with their systems, as in the aviation and – at least for speed and distance – naval industry their units are used, as opposed to metric, and likely other fields of work that I'm ignorant about.
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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.
1. rly? i say half/quarter meter/centimeter/ton/kilo all the time.
2. lol? 12 ounce less arbitrary number than 400ml? i personaly go to store and buy a given number of cans or packages. and u cant buy 0.2x0.2x5 all in meters?
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personally, I don't see any advantage for the standard system.
I always use he metric system but I agree that I'm mostly force to use it when I go buy wood. Other then that it's metric all the way.
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On December 09 2011 18:19 mjxn wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2011 17:56 Rye. wrote:
I personally would like to use kelvin instead of celcius, but that would confuse too many people.
What benefit would a normal person gain from using Kelvin instead of Celsius? I don't think very much.
My degree is in pure and applied physics, I used kelvin a lot, it made calculations much easier. For the average person then no they wouldnt get much benefit from it. But...
The point about SI units is not that they are easier to use; because the easiest thing to use is whatever you are used to.
The purpose behind SI units is to make everyone in the world use the same units. If you're going to have everyone use the same units, then it might as well be a logical system. everyone its taught and uses base 10. We have 10 fingers, 10 toes. This is where our use of Base 10 originates from. Metric measurements are designed around base 10.
1 centimeter = 10 milimeters
1 decimeter = 10 centimeters
1 meter = 10 decimeters = 100 centimeters = 1000 milimeters.
(note, decimeter isnt used very often as 0.1m is just as easy to use. many european bottles will state volumes in cl though instead of ml)
Try to apply the same logic to languages. Wouldnt it be easier for everyone if the whole world spoke one language?
unfortunately there is no SI language. Mandarin is the most natively spoken language. And yet English is considered the international language by many. People have stated that Esperanto could be used, and other languages have been created purely as attempt to create an international standard.
read more here Auxlang
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On December 09 2011 19:10 Cyber_Cheese wrote:First things first, Metric is standard. Imperial is the alternative. Show nested quote +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. Show nested quote +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.
In most countries in the world, when you say football everyone knowns exactly what you mean. The word for it in most languages is based on football(with differences depending on local pronunciation), and the rest have their own different word, I don't know of a single language that has a word based on soccer(and neither does google translate).
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Hi, doing research in physics, and these are my thoughts. Sorry for the wall of text, I bolded the "title" in each paragraph, so you know what it is about. 
- Got a bit curious about this thing with people referring to the US units as "standard", so I went to wikipedia for US units (btw, google for "wikipedia standard units" gives the SI units as first hit.  ). I searched the page for "standard" and found no reference to the system as "the standard system". However, there is an disambiguation page for "standard units" that is pointing to both units of measurement in general, and to the US set of units. I interpret that as the US system is sometimes referred to as "standard units" but it is probably not the official name of it.
And I have never heard of the SI units not being "technically" (whatever that means) allowed to be divided by things? It seemed like only one (very biased) person claimed that was the case, so unless someone can back it up with a reference, I'm going to disregard that statement. I have always divided my meters happily, and I have no intention of stopping.
Further, it is of course true that in science, and any profession where you measure things regularly, the metric system is superior. (Although yes, a 12-base or 8-base system would be even superiorer ) People bring up single examples where an inch or a pint (my Irish friends that claimed that half a liter of beer wasn't enough, a liter was too much, but a pint "just right" Nonetheless they would spend the evening drinking 4-5 pints ) or whatever is very good for measure something specific. Most of these cases are just because they are already used to the units, so they feel intuitive. My Irish friends would for sure argue that a pint was too much if they were used to drink half a liter. And exactly what makes 3.15mm objectively a better interval for measuring [whatever it was] than 2mm? And even if there are some cases where you can make this kind of unbiased arguments, there will be equally many cases where the metric system happens to hit a "good" number. Unless you want to measure the length of feet or thumbs, you can not argue that those units are superior. Actually the meter is defined such that the distance from the equator to the north pole is 10Mm (that's right, that's 10 megameters! :D) So I can from that make an estimate of large distances, like Sweden-Australia being a bit below 20 000km. Cute, right?
The one exception of SI units being useful is the Kelvin, which I think is objectively a bit inconvenient for our everyday life. Why you ask? Because the "0" of Kelvin is not at all intuitive for us, and that all our temperatures in everyday life end up between 250 and 350K, which is a bit stupid. We all know how long 0 meters (or inch for that matter) is, 0kg, 0 seconds. 0 Kelvin? No idea. For us it gets kindof cold in the winter, and super cold in the freezer and in like Siberia its crazy cold and Antarctica is penguin cold. And it can get even colder!! But 0 K? no idea. Stupid unit for everyday use. Celcius vs farenheit, I'd say they are comparable. The celcius zero makes a bit more sense imo, as that is when it can start snowing, and water will freeze, which pops up frequently in everyday use (at least here in Sweden...). For the 100 though I'd say that the body temperature is a bit more useful (105? that's a fever!!) than the water boiling temperature (anyone take the temperature on water about to boil?) in everyday life. This can ofc be discussed though.
Also, while SI units are superior for professionals, I can perfectly well understand non-professional US people that are used to their units and don't feel like relearning. For must everyday use, you don't have to do this kind of conversions between units that SI-people like to bring up. So for a ordinary US person that already is used to their units, and don't have a work where these conversion are used, probably would not benefit from relearning the units. Compare to someone researching history and calenders figuring out that it would make more sense to redefine year 0 to second world war, as that would make history and book keeping easier but wouldn't really affect every day life much apart from you having to relearn your birthyear etc. No matter how reasonable the argument was, I would not be very happy about having to relearn. And all you SI-people going "l2SI" (I actually saw that very expression in a stream chat), would you like to start refering to time in terms of deciday (1 dd = 2.4hours), centiday (1cd = 14.4 minutes) and milliday (1md = 86.4 seconds)? If you are not ready to start using those units, don't be too aggressive towards people being lazy about the US units.  Feel free to take down people trying to argue that US units are actually better though.
- See you in a centiday then!
- What? >_>
- L2SI!!!
or
- omg, it'll take at least a deciday to finish these chores...
- What? >_>
- L2SI!!!
or
- I went with this guy yesterday night after the club... he barely lasted a milliday... what a loser.
- What? >_>
- Yeah, incredible, I know. Only milliday...
- No, I mean, what is a milliday?
- L2SI!!!!
you get the point.
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Metric! Since everybody in germany uses it xD
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On December 09 2011 19:26 Velr wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2011 19:13 Perdac Curall wrote:On December 09 2011 18:15 Excludos wrote:On December 09 2011 18:10 Perdac Curall wrote:On December 09 2011 13:40 Keyboard Warrior wrote:On December 09 2011 13:35 Nothingtosay wrote:
Standard because the US is nonsensical and refuses to adapt.
Edit: Also people say half a meter, half a kilometer, etc, all the time. but then it is not technically appropriate, because the metric system is designed to have specific measures for fractions, like 500 meters or so. saying half a kilometer borrows from the logic of standard system, though there is nothing wrong with it Actually it is the opposite. If you mean technically as in how to use it in a technical field, I can say in engineering which is my field that you MUST say 0.5 meters or even 0.231 meters and not 231 mm because in complex calculations you have to do everything in SI units otherwise the conversions can get complicated real fast, and the SI unit is the meter not mm or cm. 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. Ahm... You don't have a problem switching out of accident between Yards and Inches do you? So HOW is that diffrent? Except that an error in a metric system is corriged by moving the , a little...
..What are you on about? I'm from Norway and he's from canada, neither of us uses yards or inches..so obviously you're not talking to either of us? The difference is that in an exam you get F because your answer was "the resistor needs to be 1000 Ohm big" instead of "0.1 Ohm" because you used Volt, Kelvin and millimeters instead of meters..
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tZwKg.jpg)
