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On February 15 2012 14:53 Spikeke wrote:
1 KG = 2.2 lbs
This isn't entirely true. 1kg at g=9.81 m/s (exactly sea level) is ~2.2lbs. kg is a measure of mass, lb of weight. More accurate would be to say 9.81 newtons is 2.2#.
But yeah, I'm a canadian engineer and having to learn both systems is awfull. Officially, we don't use imperial the same way England doesn't, but that doesn't stop non-government related goods and services from using the system.
But in a couple generations, imperial will dissapear, the only exceptions I can see are people's height and buying large quantities of weed (funny how you buy by gram -> ounce -> pound).
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On December 09 2011 13:41 Medrea wrote:
As an American, I am both confused and angered by the metric system.
It's nonsensical attitudes like this that make me ashamed to be an American. What's to hate about the metric system? It literally takes about ten minutes to learn, and besides, you've already been using it! Volts, Amps, and Watts are all technically part of the metric system. Come on, America, let's adapt to the rest of the world for a change.
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On February 16 2012 00:21 codonbyte wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2011 13:41 Medrea wrote:
As an American, I am both confused and angered by the metric system. It's nonsensical attitudes like this that make me ashamed to be an American. What's to hate about the metric system? It literally takes about ten minutes to learn, and besides, you've already been using it! Volts, Amps, and Watts are all technically part of the metric system. Come on, America, let's adapt to the rest of the world for a change.
/facepalm
He was being sarcastic. There is nothing to hate about the metric system, but too much of our infrastructure is based on the imperial system. We have much more important things to be spending our time and money on than adapting to the rest of the world for no reason.
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TL vote me for president, i promise you i will change America to the Metric system.
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On February 16 2012 00:21 codonbyte wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2011 13:41 Medrea wrote:
As an American, I am both confused and angered by the metric system. It's nonsensical attitudes like this that make me ashamed to be an American.
Oh the irony!
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i grew up mostly standard but use a mix of both
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On February 16 2012 00:24 ZasZ. wrote:Show nested quote +On February 16 2012 00:21 codonbyte wrote:On December 09 2011 13:41 Medrea wrote:
As an American, I am both confused and angered by the metric system. It's nonsensical attitudes like this that make me ashamed to be an American. What's to hate about the metric system? It literally takes about ten minutes to learn, and besides, you've already been using it! Volts, Amps, and Watts are all technically part of the metric system. Come on, America, let's adapt to the rest of the world for a change. /facepalm He was being sarcastic. There is nothing to hate about the metric system, but too much of our infrastructure is based on the imperial system. We have much more important things to be spending our time and money on than adapting to the rest of the world for no reason.
Yep good point. School books, road signs, cars milometers (Or kilometers in our case ^^), maps, laws, etc...and all these things in a huge country of 300 million inhabitants.
I think like you, it don't worth it, it's billions dollars of investment for 0 added value.
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-____- 64 pages of people talking about a system based on multiples of 10 used by the science world and the rest of the world vs a system based on random used by effectively only 1 country. I wonder how long people will still put up with imperial after the US falls.
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I realize there are alot of different discussions going on between you guys around this topic right now, but just a quick question:
How do you guys measure energy/torque in Imperial? Is it practical?
We use joule and Newton, both have dependencies in the metric system - Do you use the same units? And if so, dosn't it annoy you to convert?
I realize alot of you americans in here use metric for science purposes, chemistry etc.
However, it's not exactly science to look at a product for its energy content on the back of the product before you buy/eat it - Do you guys use foot-pounds force for this, or? Can you easily relate that into something 'tangible'? (i dont know if thats the word, sry for my english)
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Time cannot be based on a power of 10. The Earth spins a complete revolution roughly 365.25 (leap year takes into account the decimals) times per cycle around the sun.
In terms of breaking up a day into powers of 10, well I suppose it could be done.
It could be done and it has been a number of times
(see Decimal Time)
Usual way to do it is to decide 1 day = 10 hours, 1 hour = 100 min, 1min = 100 secs.
It is now a bit late to make the change, but it wouldn't bother me much to wake up at 2: 75 instead of 6:36 ...
Of course, attempts to turn a 365.25 year into decimals get a bit strange. The french republican calendar proposed weeks of 10 days, month of 30 days each, then 12 months and additional days "as necessary".
(see french republican calendar)
Note that other calendars have juste ruled out the fact that 1 year=1 earth cycle around the sun, which then allows to define a year of 1000 days.
(question that would arise for example if we ever get to other planets: why keep a strange year value that matches an orbital time of this planet ?)
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On January 21 2012 08:11 Mr Showtime wrote:
Honestly this is a stupid topic to discuss. If you live in the few places of the world that use Imperial units, you MUST use them in most situations. You can't stop using a system that has been in use throughout the development of a country. Metric is more simple, yes, but stop bitching about how shitty Imperial is. If it was possible to abolish it and use metric, we would. But WE CAN'T.
Well said. Metric is obviously better, but americans don't really have a choice. Asking USA to suddenly switch to Metric would be like asking a country to completely switch language because their language is less developed.
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Calling inch standart? DAFUQ!
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On February 16 2012 01:07 NewK wrote:Show nested quote +On January 21 2012 08:11 Mr Showtime wrote:
Honestly this is a stupid topic to discuss. If you live in the few places of the world that use Imperial units, you MUST use them in most situations. You can't stop using a system that has been in use throughout the development of a country. Metric is more simple, yes, but stop bitching about how shitty Imperial is. If it was possible to abolish it and use metric, we would. But WE CAN'T. Well said. Metric is obviously better, but americans don't really have a choice. Asking USA to suddenly switch to Metric would be like asking a country to completely switch language because their language is less developed.
Other countries didn't pop into existence with the metric system. Gradual change is possible.
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On February 16 2012 01:17 Djzapz wrote:Show nested quote +On February 16 2012 01:07 NewK wrote:On January 21 2012 08:11 Mr Showtime wrote:
Honestly this is a stupid topic to discuss. If you live in the few places of the world that use Imperial units, you MUST use them in most situations. You can't stop using a system that has been in use throughout the development of a country. Metric is more simple, yes, but stop bitching about how shitty Imperial is. If it was possible to abolish it and use metric, we would. But WE CAN'T. Well said. Metric is obviously better, but americans don't really have a choice. Asking USA to suddenly switch to Metric would be like asking a country to completely switch language because their language is less developed. Other countries didn't pop into existence with the metric system. Gradual change is possible.
Yes but kind of pointless. Without trying to seem rude, I don't think USA even could switch to metric. I personally see americans in general as more stubborn, proud and maybe dumb (not all obviously) than most euopeans/asians. I think a huge part of the US would just refuse to switch to Metric.
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Lol at people who use the metric system and "weigh" themselves in grams and relate it to pounds. Learn your own system please, mass does not = weight.
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On February 16 2012 01:17 Djzapz wrote:Show nested quote +On February 16 2012 01:07 NewK wrote:On January 21 2012 08:11 Mr Showtime wrote:
Honestly this is a stupid topic to discuss. If you live in the few places of the world that use Imperial units, you MUST use them in most situations. You can't stop using a system that has been in use throughout the development of a country. Metric is more simple, yes, but stop bitching about how shitty Imperial is. If it was possible to abolish it and use metric, we would. But WE CAN'T. Well said. Metric is obviously better, but americans don't really have a choice. Asking USA to suddenly switch to Metric would be like asking a country to completely switch language because their language is less developed. Other countries didn't pop into existence with the metric system. Gradual change is possible.
Gradual change is possible, but expensive and unnecessary.
I've given this example before in this thread, but I'll go ahead and do it anyways. In my profession (water resources planning) there are literally thousands of legal documents in my state alone that all depict legal locations in feet or miles and amounts in gallons or acre-feet. It would be completely counterproductive and impractical, and a waste of our and our clients' money and time to attempt to switch any of this over to the metric system.
Many of our scientific communities already use the Metric system, but the vast majority of the populace is comfortable with the Imperial system in their daily lives (weighing themselves in pounds, buying milk in gallons, measuring height in feet/inches). What exactly is the problem with this? The system may be non-intuitive and arbitrary, but it's what we've got.
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On February 16 2012 02:30 Ungrateful wrote:
Lol at people who use the metric system and "weigh" themselves in grams and relate it to pounds. Learn your own system please, mass does not = weight.
Is there actually a single metric system using country that weighs themselves using newtons?
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On February 16 2012 02:30 Ungrateful wrote:
Lol at people who use the metric system and "weigh" themselves in grams and relate it to pounds. Learn your own system please, mass does not = weight.
I'm confused here. Both grams and pounds are units of mass, so why wouldn't you relate the two?
Regarding mass being confused with weight, that might be a translation issue. In Sweden, weight can be translated to both "vikt" and "tyngd", where "vikt" is a synonym to mass. Most swedes correctly use the synonym for mass when speaking of grams in swedish.
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On February 16 2012 02:42 Chenz wrote:Show nested quote +On February 16 2012 02:30 Ungrateful wrote:
Lol at people who use the metric system and "weigh" themselves in grams and relate it to pounds. Learn your own system please, mass does not = weight. I'm confused here. Both grams and pounds are units of mass, so why wouldn't you relate the two? Regarding mass being confused with weight, that might be a translation issue. In Sweden, weight can be translated to both "vikt" and "tyngd", where "vikt" is a synonym to mass. Most swedes correctly use the synonym for mass when speaking of grams in swedish.
Actually mass can equal weight. 1 pound-mass has an equivalent force of 1 pound-force. Similarly, a kilogram-mass has an equivalent value to 1 kilogram-force. But of course we rarely use kilogram-force. We normally just use Newtons.
Also, to be honest I dislike the imperial system because I don't see much of a reason retaining it when I have to go through all those painful conversions from pounds to kilograms or gallons to metre^3. It's just time consuming when I have to do that as an engineering student.
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Since I'm from the UK, I use both for different situations because we're cool here  It's actually far more confusing than America just using Imperial...
Long distances and speed of vehicles is imperial, but noone really uses yards, so metres is used in small situations. Generally inches is used for small measurements, but young people increasingly use centimetres. Although we use metric weights for measuring produce, materials, etc, we would never think of someone's weight as being in kilos, and it would be pretty meaningless to most British people t say you weighed 70 kg. Same with their height, which is always thought of in feet and inches rather than metres and centimetres (1.8 metres means very little to me in terms of visualising someone's height). When we talk about a persons weight, we always use stones to talk about it, so I weigh 10 and a half stone, which is 147 pounds (I think...) and like around 70ish kg I think? But you'd only ever here it in stones here.
Loose produce is always given in pounds and kilos, although a lot of smaller packages, and generally pre packaged items will only have grams.
Metric is better obviously, but although I know roughly all the conversions for both systems, it is very hard to visualise them if you aren't used to talking about a certain measurement in that system (like using kilos for measuring weight for example).
Confusing, no?
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EPT
