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How Can We Convert the US to the Metric System?
thesolo asks: "Despite past efforts of the 1970s and 1980s, the United States remains one of only three countries (others are Liberia and Myanmar) that does not use the metric system. Staying with imperial measurements has only served to handicap American industry and economy. Attempts to get Americans using the Celsius scale, or putting up speed limits in kilometers per hour have been squashed dead. Not only that, but some Americans actually see metrication efforts as an assault on 'our way' of measuring. I personally deal with European scientists on a daily basis, and find our lack of common measurement to be extremely frustrating. Are we so entrenched with imperial units that we cannot get our fellow citizens to simply learn something new? What are those of us who wish to finally see America catch up to the rest of the world supposed to do? Are there any organizations that we may back, or any pro-metric legislators who we can support?"
...nobody here uses metric. Everything is in miles rather than kilometres such as all of our traffic signs for distance and speed and I don't know anyone who uses metres and centimetres for measurements - it's always feet and inches when buying anything in hardware stores for example.
I'm currently studying Physics in the UK but come from one of the most SI countries in the world, Luxembourg. When talking to people I discovered that even though the UK has officially gone metric most people still think in imperial units when it comes to body weight and height, liquid volumes, speeds and distances (long and short) and those who I asked said they found it hard to picture 170cm or 70kg, very common numbers which I find extremely natural, much preferring "feet/inches" and "stones".
I must admit however that the foot is a very appealing unit in that it can be easily measured using common body parts such as the hand-elbow distance or the foot.
I think the problem is that the parents who grew up with imperial units use them in day to day conversation, hence associating different benchmark sizes with specific words in their children's developing minds, making a natural transition to metric quite difficult, but certainly not impossible... i guess the situation will improve once britain follows ireland in getting the traffic system metricized.
1) Force all business to use metric whenever anything is sold or advertized (this doesn't really cost anything).
2) Only teach metric in the schools.
3) Wait 20 years.
4) Make it illegal to use the old units for anything at all.
Somewhere along the line you'll get profit:)
Until you get to step #4 we (world - United States, Liberia and Myanmar) can make fun of your contortions and strange conversion factors that need to be applied to do even the simplest thing:)
Quick, tell me how many miles per gallon 40 rods per hogshead is, if you can do that without looking anything up then you get to keep the old system, otherwise you will need to convert.
-- To dream a dream is grand, but to live it is divine. -- Leto ][
How many meters per second is that? Where's our metric system for timekeeping? The current clock system based on 12's and 60's needs a metric overhaul IMHO. Good luck getting people to convert to that though. Military time is confusing enough to most non-military types.
Canada switched to the metric system decades ago. Being a British commonwealth for such a long time, of course most of us were well accustomed to Imperial units. I still remember as a kid, how my Mom was one of the holdouts for the Imperial system for a long time. She would tell me to get a quart or gallon of milk, and I would have to ask her how many liters that was.
The thing is that the metric system is officially used everywhere. Road signs, groceries, public schools, the works. The only basis that we have for even knowing the Imperial system is our parents. I've used the metric system my entire life. I know my height and weight in feet and lbs, but couldn't tell you what it is in metric units. But I can guess fairly accurately how much something weighs in kilograms, but I'm not so good with pounds. Likewise, I'm more comfortable with measuring things in meters, rather than feet.
A rather amusing story though. I am currently living in the US, trying to get by without using the old ways. I am not always successful. But I try. Anyways, I was on the phone with my Mom the other day, and she asked how warm it was here. I googled the answer, and got it in Fahrenheit (46F). I laughed, and said she would be right at home here, and gave her the answer in Fahrenheit without doing the conversion. I was rather amazed at her response. She told me that it's been so long since she's used the Imperial system that she's forgotten it. She honestly didn't remember what 46F was.
Anyways, my point is that it doesn't matter if the older people don't use the metric system. Teach it to the young, and switch the entire country to the metric system on all official items. It will all sort itself out in time.
I think most younger people over here in Britain would prefer metrification of the roads (myself included). We're barely taught about imperial units (no-one memorises conversion rates any more), and Metric makes much more sense. It'll probably be at least 10 years before we even stand a chance of holding the majority of public opinion, however. Even thatn, the most we're likely to get is dual metric/imperial signs, which I'd be happy with, at least.
I'm a young fellow from Australia, and I guess from my perspective growing up in a metric society perhaps has given me biased for the way we measure things. Our Television so saturated with American television has acustomed me to seeing your world in imperial measurements. There's just something about an American house built on inches compared to an Australian building built in centimetres - I guess it comes down to culture. At the end of the string though, we are slowly moving to a globalisation - the ability to communicate, travel and live throughout the world without headance means that more than ever we need to communicate and collaborate together in the most efficient way possible. I know this is a very idealistic view on the world, but surely we will all eventually have to start working together to reach the same goals - renewable power, elimination of poverty, global harmony. There is certainly room for both standards and I'm sure if America moved to metric, Impreial would be a common association in describing physical characteristics. Almost all people in Australia know their height in feet and inches, building materials are still sold in inches - whatever happens, I'm sure the old way will not be forgotten with the incredible data collection of todays society it surely will not be forgotten. Perhaps we should look at what would be best for the world instead of what works for our country. Heck, if that meant the world went Imperial, I'd be all for it, it is just the time that it takes for our Governments to gell together enough to figure out what is best - for all I know, it may be better to keep going the way we are, really we have made it this far without any major short commings. Everyone has their beliefs, and it's my view that everyone has the right to believe whatever it is they want to believe. As long as this is the case, there will always be a fight about who is right and who is wrong.
Will it still weight that much after the icecaps melt and sea level rises?
And what US scientist uses Imperial units anyway? Engineers, sure, but I've never met a scientist (and I am one) in the US who didn't strongly prefer metric.
Well, as a maths student, I would prefer to ban degrees and keep radians. Radians are actually useful to work with.
I think that is really the foundation. You can set your indoor/outdoor thermometer or weather applet to metric and use the metric side of a ruler by yourself. If you have an older car it can be easy to get used to looking at the metric conversions of various speed limits. Probably nobody who can get sued is going to recommend setting your LCD to km but rough conversions in your head aren't exactly hard (and, let's be honest, you're blending in with traffic anyway, right?). And, as an aside, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get used to a 24 hour clock.
As Americans in a global economy, we just get used to thinking of our own country as the odd man out. Hasn't been hard for me the last few years. And if enough people start doing it, some politician will be glad to take credit for his leadership in proposing national metric standards.
I'll pick the box marked, "American Rocket Scientists".
SPACE.com -- NASA Finally Goes Metric (8 Jan 2007)
Maybe the conversion "isn't rocket science", and therein lies the problem?
Fahrenheit was based on better science in the day than Celsius. The original scale by Celsius had 100 as freezing and 0 as boiling but he did nothing to take into account pressure changes so there is about a 3 to 4% error on the top end of the scale and a 1% change on the bottom. That means the original deg C scale would nearly always be off by at least 1%. The deg F scale was based on a reproducible zero point that didn't change by more than .25 deg F and the top end was calibrated to the body temp of a dog and if you have a healthy dog in normal condition that is with in about .25 degrees as well.
Its still easier to create 0 deg F in a lab than 0 deg C. The top end is still tricky but I've gotten water to boil below 80 def C in a lab but I'm not going to pick on any dogs to calibrate my thermometers.
The argument that imperial is better for daily use is repeated here over and over. However I have been using metric system all my life and it is intuitive for me that where I live there is at least 30C in hot summer, about 20C in spring and 0C to -15C in winter (except January 2007). I can easily estimate dimensions of things in cm by looking at them, their weight in kg by trying to pick them up etc. I know how 500ml of beer will affect me and what will happen after four shots of 100g vodka glasses (or 8 x 50g, both are common).
There is nothing special about imperial or metric system for daily use. You just have to be accustomed to it.
A unit between cm and m exists: 1dm = 10cm = 0.1m, but is rarely used (at least here).
Ok, units of measure for volume, distance, weight, yea, metric rocks. But lets face it, celsius is not dramatically any better than Fahrenheit. In fact as a gage for human relateable temperatures in weather Farenheight is vastly superior. 0 is f'n cold and 100 is f'n hot...what better range is that? I feel totally shortchanged in other countries when I have to deal with the measly tiny little range of temperatures. I mean come on! How can you get any satisfaction at being hot at 40 when you could complain about 100. Now thats a number to be hot at!!! So what is water freezes at 32? Im from Iowa...trust me 32 is still warm. Its not cold untill your under 20
Besides whats so magical about Celsius anyway. Its just as arbitrary as Fahrenheit. somebody just picked a range based on water..so what? and it doesn't even hold up in higher elevations where water does NOT boil at 100.
It is probably a good thing that the USA still uses imperial measurements. Since it is one of the fastest growing and most successful economies not to mention one of the key sources of innovation in the world. It is a good thing the USA is "handicapped" or the country would be assured world domination. One of my personal issues with converting from imperial to metric is that I would have to go back and totally recalibrate my beer consumption limits. I know how many pints I can handle before I fall over. I have not idea what that point is in liters. Hmm, now that I think about it the calibration process isn't really that bad. OK, bring on those liters!!!
Yes it does, 1000cm^3 = 1dm^3 = 1 liter, and by definition 1 liter of pure water weights 1kg (== 1000g) at sea level.
Metrics just pwned you, good sir.
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
Born and raised in Canada, which of course is a completely converted Metric Nation, I was taught the metric system in school since I was 3' tall. Now that I'm 6'1", I wonder why I feel the need to describe small distance and weights in the old imperial way that wasn't around in my country for my entire life. My drivers license tells me I am 185cm tall, but if someone were to ask me how tall I am, I would still tell them in feet and inches. I still see myself as 170lbs and not 77Kg. When I'm talking about how far I have to drive or how well my car is on fuel it is always in kilometers. When it comes to volumes I only think in Liters and milliliters. I think the problem being, with me anyway and probably most people, is that their parents, still half stuck in the Imperial era, have unknowingly pushed it upon their children. My father, being in residential construction and of the "old school", would still measure things in feet and inches. I helped him in many a projects growing up and I found telling him a measurement in metric confused the heck out of him so it was imperial all the way. I found myself saying 2.5 inches, which in my head meant 2 1/2 inches but really doesn't work the same if you're not thinking about it as a half. In school it made complete sense and does in everyday life. My problem being is that I can't seem to get over the weight and short distance problem. When I get my hair cut I still say I want it about and inch and a half. When I lift weights I still say I can lift 200lbs. I still tell my height and weight in the old imperial. This has all made me think that maybe I should make a mental note to curve my parents influence so as not to inflict the same damage on the future generation.
As far as the country and government are concerned, Canada is completely metric. You wont find any lingering signs with miles or inches on them, the grocery stores will still have the lbs in fine print to help out the 'old school' but that is the final residue of a country gone completely metric. As for me, I need to work on it still. The metric system makes so much sense in calculations and is all based on water which we can all relate to. Why shouldn't water freeze at 0 and boil at 100 degrees C? It make sense, it's just beating the aftermath of change that is the biggest problem.
Yeah, cool. Radians. And wouldn't it be neato keen if when pilots need to change the direction of an aircraft, the tower could call out "Golf Tango Fox, come to heading 1.733 pi radians."
You can have my SIG when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
2.4 inches. What's so hard about that?
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Heh, where are the chains, nails, bottles and pottles? BTW, I prefer my beer measured in firkins - if only people could decide how much exactly a firkin is. That is the big problem with the old units - not the unit iself - the lack of standardization is the problem. An English foot, Dutch foot and American foot are all different - same with everything depending on those, but volumetrics are just as bad.
You could buy a firkin of beer in the country side and sell it in London for the same price, at a tidy profit. You could do the same with a gallon of gasoline bought in Canada and then resold a few yards to the south accross the American border...
In an old Dutch City like New York, the land titles were a huge mess, with Dutch, English and American measures.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
AFAIK, Imperial units were not "designed" at all.
Rather they were codified/formalized after common use.
The superiority of the metric system rests in the fact that it was, indeed, designed for use.
This applies to science, education, AND common use: it is just easier to move between different magnitudes, from grams to kilograms, for example, or cms to metres... and once children learn of one type of measurement (space), all of the principles (prefixes, conversion methods, etc) apply to the others (e.g.: weight).
Of course, I'm from a metric country, so I can't readily see how the imperial units feel any easier to north americans. I'm as used to metric on daily use as you are to imperial.
But I have to disagree that the "foot" provides any convenience for common human work; it has always seemed to me one of the most irrational measuring units.
The final 'imperial foot' is as arbitrary as the meter, without any of the conveniences.
Whose 'foot' is it? The british king's back in the 12th century? Your foot? An ostrich's? Feet, hands, fingers vary in size between people, and for each person, they vary within their lifetimes.
While your foot may approximate an 'imperial foot', not only does this not apply to a lot of people, but is utterly useless to a child, for example. The approximation is also deceiving, because unless my foot is almost exactly that length, I cannot really measure a room by walking through it without losing a lot of precision (unless it is very small).
For that kind of rough approximation, any arbitrary equivalence works. In any metric country, children and adults have rough mental images of how long are meter/centimeters/etc, and make rough measurements in the same way, while preserving the advantages that the system was designed for, and the universality of the measurements for every line of work.
I do not believe there is any intrinsic convenience in the imperial unit system.
The reasons it has not been replaced are well known: cultural solipsism, and population.
The US has a lot of both, and being the economic superpower it can afford not to optimize on this and other things.
Admittedly, it has much bigger things to deal with.
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
two arms is base 4. one arm would be binary.
The US actually adopted the metric system by an act of Congress in 1866, which included the text:
"It shall be lawful throughout the United States of America to employ the weights and measures of the metric system; and no contract or dealing, or pleading in any court, shall be deemed invalid or liable to objection because the weights or measures expressed or referred to therein are weights or measures of the metric system."
What Congress did not do, was penalize or discourage other systems of measurement. Consequently, there was little incentive for metric units to be adopted outside science and engineering, so traditional quirky units persisted in common use, despite their problems (the standard yard was shrinking, for instance). However, even these were redefined by the Bureau of Weights and Measurements in 1893 to be based on the metric units, so that 1 inch is exactly 0.0254 meters, for instance.
Perhaps as a result of the lack of use of the metric system in the US in the century since it was officially adopted, Congress passed another act in 1988, which mandates "the metric system of measurement as the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce." All government business is supposed to be in metric units...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I'm a Canadian living in the US. Temperatures are about the biggest thing that bothers me down here. Most groceries have the metric equivalents written in smaller letters, and portion sizes are usually the same as in Canada anyways. So it doesn't bother me very often, unless I am buying fountain pop, and someone tells me the drink sizes in ounces. Then I will just give them a blank look for a minute, and ask to see the cups. I also had difficulty when mailing a letter. I was quoted prices by the ounce. But the guy working there converted it to grams for me right off the top of his head (I was grateful).
But I have a fast way of converting Fahrenheit to Celsius, with a reasonably small margin of error for common values. 100F is more or less the same as 40C. Every degree in Celsius is about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. So if someone tells you that it's 80 degrees, you can guess that it's about 30C. It isn't exact, but it's within about 5 degrees, which is good enough for the most part. It at least tells you what to wear.