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Keyboard Warrior
United States1178 Posts
On December 09 2011 18:32 adacan wrote: metric system was invented by communists and further developed by terrorists. God handed us down the standard system on the 5th day of creation. Hahaha User was warned for this post | ||
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roCh
Sweden870 Posts
![[image loading]](https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/392348_10150386510570878_610740877_8604686_128011198_n.jpg) | ||
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fabiano
Brazil4644 Posts
We use metric system for almost everything, except in very specific situations eidt: ^ We use days/month/year too | ||
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Cocacooh
Norway1510 Posts
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DarthXX
Australia998 Posts
On December 09 2011 20:14 Enearde wrote: Yeah, that's as confusing as the imperial system is for us. Quite the shock i guess^^ I have to use google to convert heights of people when they give them on the internet >< The decimal thing isn't that bad, its obvious with money since that is rounded to 2dp. But when I was visiting family in Europe and helping a cousin with her maths homework, it was the biggest mess ever :D | ||
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Stancel
Singapore15360 Posts
Took me a while to figure out the DD/MM/YY thing. Yeah, MM/DD/YY can be confusing to see. edit: and really, only in the US that you see people at the grocery stores buying drinks in 12oz and whatnot. | ||
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Earll
Norway847 Posts
On December 09 2011 14:32 AngryFarmer wrote: I think it's actually called SI. Standard international. And it's kind of dumb how ppl use diff units. One of the reasons why the boeing 787 was delayed was because a part designed in France didn't fit properly when they tried to use it. Lol.. i say we all change into SI since everyone uses it and is somewhat easier to remember. I am not sure if you are trolling or what you are trying to say, but it seems to me that you are saying that SI means standard international, and that is why this thread has called the imperial system standard, and that everyone should change to Imperial (standard) because "everyone" uses it and it is easier to remember. If that is what you are trying to say then I dont even know. SI is the International System of Units (abbreviated SI from French: Système international d'unités, thank you wikipedia), aka the metric system. I read in this thread, and have also heard it before, that the farenheit system makes more sense than celsius because when its 0 its really cold and when its 100 its really hot. I mean... I dont even know what to say. thats like saying the imperial system makes sense because a mile is pretty long and a foot is pretty short. Some countries\places go above 100F frequently and some places go below 0F frequently, and in some places really hot (for the place) might be well below 100F. I could say the same thing about celsius, that 0 is pretty cold and 50 celsius is about as hot as it gets (and the 50celsius would be closer to the truth than saying 100F is as hot as it gets.) Ofcourse this all means taking into consideration that there lives people outside of America. That being said In norway as with most other countries we use metric, but there are some imperial units that have snuck themselves in, i think when you deal with the size of tools, screws, bolts etc, imperial (inches) is pretty common. Also the size of TV's is in Imperial (inches) and I am sure there are a few other examples that I can't think of right now. | ||
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Colour415
Canada26 Posts
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h41fgod
Sweden377 Posts
On December 09 2011 20:02 DarthXX wrote: The real issue IMO is how in Europe you use a comma where we use a decimal point. You have no idea how freaked out I got when I saw the price for a bottle of coke in France! As a programmer and someone who learned high school math under a US system, that freaks me out as well. We need to adopt the decimal point everywhere (and get rid of the notion that a comma/point is for zeros). Also, any point the American measurement system has is that you are used to it. Which is a horrible argument in and of itself. | ||
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Maenander
Germany4926 Posts
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NKsc2
Sweden133 Posts
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lololol
5198 Posts
On December 09 2011 19:30 Cascade wrote: 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. "Day" is not a SI unit, your examples are RUINED!!! Units of time other than the second are "non-SI units accepted for use with the SI" anyway. Additionally, time cycles can't be standardized, because they are based on natural phenomena, for example you can't make it so there are 100 days in a year(except if you change Earth's rotational speed around it's axis or the sun, but that's kind of overdoing it just for the sake of standardization). There is also the problem that days and years aren't static, they change slightly over time, so you have to change the standard. | ||
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Integra
Sweden5626 Posts
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Robje
Netherlands1044 Posts
On December 09 2011 13:32 Keyboard Warrior wrote: 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. Most likely already said but... in most countries people do use the metric system for things like that as well, simply because they don't use the "standard" system. I don't find it logical to buy 12 ounces of milk, and buying 5 meter of wood is pretty damn convenient, seeing as you (OP) stated you actually use the metric system to measure things like this. Makes no sense to buy wood in terms of feet while you measured in meters how long it has to be. | ||
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Stiluz
Norway688 Posts
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lololol
5198 Posts
On December 09 2011 19:55 Remb wrote: Fahrenheit is based on the freezing point of brine (ocean water) in the North Atlantic Ocean. It's great if you're a sea navigator or naval officer for the 18th century British Empire. Not so much for the other 99.99999% of the world. So 685 people still live in the 18th century? :D | ||
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SlaveboyZerg
Sweden9 Posts
I probably will get banned for saying this though. User was temp banned for this post. | ||
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lololol
5198 Posts
On December 09 2011 19:53 opisska wrote: This is a really confusing thread for non-Americans. What the hell is "Standard"? In our country, noone has any idea about Imperial units, except for maybe inches that are for some obscene reason still used as a measure for computer screens, tires and gardening pipes (but the original meaning of "inch" is then supprssed, as a 21" screen does in no dimension measure 21 inches). Maybe someone will know, what a mile is, but usually people would be confused whether it is 1.6 km mile or 1.8 km mile. The more exotic units like pints or pounds? 99 % of the people here do not have even a remote idea how big these are. We buy beer in half-liters. There is nothing "imperial" on using half-something, half is a number as good as any other. With decimal system, it is extremmly easy to calculate fractions in terms of small units, most people don't even think of it. Many of weight-related food purchases or done in dekagrams - it is a supplementary, not basic unit, but it is clear as day and very convevient to buy cheese, salami, salads. There is saying, that there are only three countries in the world left that use the imperial system - Liberia, Bangladesh and USA. It is not factually correct, but it is funny For monitors it's the diagonal. | ||
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Gahlo
United States35172 Posts
Give me metric with Kelvin instead of Celsius, the date format either way doesn't matter to me, and a 24hour system instead of am/pm and I'll be happy. On a side not, I'd like a metric calendar too. 12 months of 30 days with a day in between each month and a new years day. | ||
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[]Phase[]
Belgium927 Posts
(f.e. I go buy 1.5liter milk, because thats on the package and thats what we are used to in my country. (and probably in most of the rest of the world) When I go buy wood to construct stuff, I go buy 1 meter of wood or easily put in centimeters : 100x10x10. You can easily say half a meter. Someone who uses the system immediatly knows its 50centimeter) Wether something feels 'right' or not depends on how long and much they've been using it in their life. The only arguments we should look at in this debate is which one is the most correct and makes the most sence. From what I have previously stated, the arguments you gave for the "standard" totally don't matter, because that feeling you have is non-existend with someone who has been using the metric system all his life, and it doesn't feel unnatural at all thinking in meters. TL;DR : It is "standard" because you have been using it all your life, but if you were in the position of the people who have been using metric all their life, you would see that the "natural feeling" is simply caused by the fact that you learned it a certain way. You learned the wrong thing, it's not your fault. Now teach your children to use the right system. Extra : there might be better systems than metric, but in the choice between metric and "standard", metric is obviously the way to go. | ||
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