The Metric System

[Typhoid]

The metric system. The handy tool that lets us know that water is solid at -0 and is liquid at +0.

Only 3 countries on the entire planet don't follow the Metric system: The US, Burma and Liberia.

The Metric system is amazingly simple, and highly convenient.

Why do you think the Metric system hasn't been adopted in these three places? What cons can you find against the Metric system being implemented worldwide?

[Angrist]

People are afraid of change. Just like we had to get used to the Euro currency (replacing our guilders). It takes a few years, a lot of people complain about it, but a generation later everybody will we glad they did it.

[ZebraRampage]

I really don't know. In college I had to do problems in the US system and the metric system for some classes, so I have no problem with it. I would just need to get used to using the metric system for everyday stuff, like knowing distances from places in terms of kilometers instead of miles.

It would be hard to talk about NFL in terms of meters instead of yards though. I don't think that will ever change, even if it's done in the CFL.

[thatmariolover]

Back in Elementary school, my class was told the metric system would be standard by the time I graduated (2003). However, I was also told they said the same thing to the graduating senior class when they were my age.

We haven't switched over because nobody's told us we have to. Until there are government mandates for the changes it will never happen. Working at the Mayo Clinic, I used the metric system on a daily basis. It's dead simple.

I have no idea why we aren't more accommodating aside from a superiority complex that stems from ignorance.

[Professor S]

IMO, its money. The US is a massive industrial power, and with all that power is billions of dollars of machinery, tools, etc. That machinery does not run on metric. The cost of adopting metric standards would be massive, and so far the positives of the change have not outweighed the costly negatives.

[Fox 6]

I think Prof was on the right trail. Another reason why is because its already a known, workable, and reliable standard in the majority of industries in north america. When I was working in a lumber yard, everything was in imperial, despite us using metric.

[Typhoid]

Zebra, CFL uses yards.


I do agree that it could be because of machinery not wanting to be changed, and financial reasons.

However, we in Canada, while being Metric, use Imperial for some things. Such as cooking. Every single cooking instruction is in F. This is why we heat our ovens to 450 and not 230 (or whatever it would be in C, because I actually don't know).

Now, there is obviously good reason to not change to metric in the cases of machinery, however Canada is proof that just because you go Metric not everything changes with it. IE Ovens/Cooking.

The only things that would really change (worldwide) would be that countries with MPH would need to learn KPH, and Celsius opposed to Fahrenheit for outdoor temperature purposes.

As for learning Kilometer, I think it is rather easy - not because I know it, but because it's just plain easy.

1 KM = 1,000 Meters.
Everything is clean, and everything has an easy conversion.
It just seems to make a lot of sense for the age we live in to not be following a system that was enacted in the 1500's, and then minorly changed around in the 18th century.

It just boggles my mind.

[KillerGremlin]

Education moves really slow. That's where the problem lies. I was taught both the Metric and Imperial ways to measure units during my time at school. It is mandatory, at least for anything Biology, Chemistry, or Physics related, to become a wizard (so much cooler than whiz) of the metric system. So someday when the old generation is dead and gone we will see an America that embraces the Metric system as the primary was to measure things. We might even see it in our lifetime, at the least the front end of the movement! Right now you have a bunch of old farts clashing with a new wave, and as nice as it would be to put all the old people on an island where they can use the Imperial system and we can use the Metric system...it is inhumane and cruel. Although isn't Florida like an island for old people?

What is really a mind fuck is when you throw non-Metric, non-Imperial units into the mix: Kelvin for temperature, Cubic Meters for volume, and Joules instead of Calories for energy.

So actually, the Metric System is outdated and the current science field uses the updated International System of Units. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units

[manasecret]

What is really a mind fuck is when you throw non-Metric, non-Imperial units into the mix: Kelvin for temperature, Cubic Meters for volume, and Joules instead of Calories for energy. [/url]

This is kind of where units in engineering get fun. You can derive many units into the form of something else. For example, an Ampere is actually how much charge passes a given space per second -- C/s, or Coulombs per second. Deriving an amp down to C/s gives you a much more visceral feeling of what an amp really is. It's like a speedometer, but for electric charge.

Another plus of messing with units is that you can often derive an equation that solves for some variable given some other variables, by just figuring out where the units should go. Units give you a nice check to make sure your calculation didn't fuck up somewhere.

[ZebraRampage]

Zebra, CFL uses yards.


Interesting, I wasn't aware of that. I don't follow the CFL, but I just assumed it would be in the metric. Thanks for making that clear haha.

[Professor S]

Education moves really slow.

That's an interesting point I hadn't thought of. It reminds me of a lecture series I heard about American education where the lecturer (I forget his name) made the point that American education has not changed in nearly 30 years. The content has changed, yes, but the methods why which we educate and test (testing should be eradicated in a perfect world) have not. In fact, you could say we have "doubled down" on old system and continuously ignored advancements in understanding how people learn. This is why I find teaching in the private world to be so rewarding: I get to continually experiment with new methods of knowledge transfer and evaluation.

If a private company did not evolve in 30 years, would we expect them to be able to compete? No. So why would we expect our children to compete scholastically, and change as the world changes?

Is on topic or an I being tangential?