Presidential Candidate Lincoln Chaffee Proposes That US Go Metric

New submitter Applehu Akbar writes: The good news is that for the first time in years, a candidate in the next presidential cycle has proposed completing our transition to the metric system. Though unfortunately it's Lincoln Chaffee, let's all hope that this long-standing nerd issue gets into the 2016 debate because of this. Warning: Lame CNN autoplaying video.

Comments

Meh

[maz2331]

It's a non-starter of a proposal from a non-starter of a candidate. There is no huge push in the US to go fully metric right now.

Re:Meh

[DrVxD]

Not in the US - since most of the inhabitants don't even realise there *are* other countries...

Re:Meh

[cayenne8]

You don't count (almost) all the other countries on the planet being metric as a huge push?

No, not really.

The average American has very little to any interaction with anyone outside the US at all, much less one that would require much metric/imperial conversions.

It would cause more trouble than it's worth right now, a fiscal burden on an economy that is struggling still to get back on its feet.

I'd dare say if nothing else, there are MUCH more pressing issues that need to be addressed other than making everyone in the US have to go to their computer and do a conversion on the temperature being 30C to know how to dress to go outside after hearing it on the news in the morning.

Re:Meh

[Rei]

2x4s, of course, aren't 2" by 4". They're approximately 1,5 by 3,5 inches. As for lengths, here in Iceland it's sold in meters. We refer to our weights in kilograms and our heights in centimeters. Butter is sold in 500 gram bars. Cans and bottles of beer are in millilitres; I don't know what they call the size of a glass at a pub because I don't drink. Anyway, it's really hard to think of things we use imperial units on. The one that comes to mind is TVs, they're in inches. I'm sure there's others - they just don't come to mind at the moment.

The British are famously not-metric (they even use miles for distance), and Canada has a reputation for only being half switched over, so you picked two of the worst examples you could. I found this map which seems to be more detailed than a simple "metric: yes or no?", although I don't know what the color codes mean (red is clearly "effectively 100% metric").

And no, people will not "use whatever they are used to". They'll use what's on the package and all of the road signs. They're not going to pull out a calculator and start running conversions. You move to a metric country, you just get used to how things "feel". You don't need to know the conversion factor for miles to kilometers, you just get used to the fact that a kilometer is basically a "short mile" and the like. You get used to "0C = freezing, 10C = jacket weather / layers, 20C = light long sleeves, 30C = short sleeves" etc. You don't run conversions, you just get used to the norms.

Re:Meh

[Anonymous Coward]

Just like most of the inhabitants of Europe don't understand that the USA is mind-boggingly huge and is only bordered by two countries.

Re:Meh

[nine-times]

I will also continue to argue that, while the metric system is great for math/science, it's actually not as good for some things in day-to-day life.

For example, measuring things in Kelvin may make a lot of sense in a lab, the Fahrenheit scale makes a lot of sense for measuring weather. In Fahrenheit, 0-100 degrees is roughly the range of temperatures that is habitable for people. And I know, it's not exactly the range of habitable temperature, but if there's a climate that spends a lot of time outside of that range, then people probably won't be very comfortable there. In Celcius, that translates into roughly -18 to 38, and Kelvin is 255 to 311. Those seem stupid and arbitrary by comparison. Also, if you measure only in 1 degree increments, Fahrenheit degrees are smaller and provide better resolution, though I suppose I can't tell the difference between 69 degrees and 70 degrees anyway.

But similarly, the length of feet and yards are pretty convenient for measuring spaces. Being a relatively average-sized man, my foot is about a foot long, for example. If I want to measure the size of a room, I can put one foot in front of the other and walk, counting my footsteps. In the end, I have a pretty good approximation. Measuring a person's height in feet also gives a range with pretty good resolution with adults typically being between 5 and 7 when you round. With meters, when you round, basically everyone is 2 meters tall.

I know some people won't quite get my point, or they'll say, "But metric is so much easier once you know it!" Really though, metric is only much easier when you're doing math. On a day to day level, most of us don't need to do enough math for it to matter.

Re:Meh

[Etcetera]

I would also argue that the trivial benefits the imperial system has in being "good for some things in day to day life" are far outweighed by the inconvenience of every other country on the planet using a different measurement system.

Except it's not. Seriously, the average American is not inconvenienced in the slightest by using a different measurement system than "every other country on the planet." If you're constantly traveling internationally, sure, maybe. Or if you're in the import/export business. Otherwise there's essentially no drawback for the average US Citizen. And if your response to this is "Oh, well let's just make it inconvenient for Americans and then they'll *have* to change!" then you're what the average American hates about top-down social manipulation.

Judging from this thread, it's clear than non-Americans really don't understand much about Americans at all. Sure, they think they do... but they really don't.

Re:Meh

[jedidiah]

You mean like US companies already produce products with metric measurements? The idea that the US is not metric is somewhat disengenuous. What the US is not is "forced metric".

US companies happily adapt to other countries (like in Europe) that make it a sort of fascist fetish.

But it's true that Americans simply don't care, and have no interest in change just for it's own sake.

Re:Meh

[thegarbz]

For me I like the precision when dealing with fevers. You have 6-7 degrees between healthy and ER.

I enjoy blowing peoples minds: Have you heard of a decimal point?

Re:It's the economy, stupid

[HornWumpus]

What? My Engineering degree is 30 years old. We did almost everything in school in Metric.

After school it's industry specific. But all common metric parts are readily available.