I clicked on 'New Thread' here, because I am not trying to get points, just wishing to start a discussion....that occurred to me today.

It was my thinking, back a few decades ago....there was a serious discussion, in Political Circles, about switching to the Metric System.

Well....here we are, over three decades later....and guess what? We still buy milk in quarts and half-gallons.....but there are bottles of water in liters and half-liters (litres for our overseas friends)

Many of the products that are labeled, per regulation, in the USA....mix and match the values....ounces, volume, quantity.....it's a free-for-all, at times.

The average consumer, as prices skyrocket, is understandably confused!

Of course, petrol (gasoline) is still delivered in US Gallons....and try not to imagine THAT as a 'conspiracy' to confuse, and deflect!!

Three decades ago, this Country could have tried to catch up with the rest pf the World, and gone Metric. There is an entire generation of people, living right now, in the USA, who don't even comprehend the metric system!!!!

I just took a wonderful holiday in the Baltic....and I had to constantly explain how the monetary system worked.....because people cannot do the math in their heads!!!!!!!

Sorry....if ten 'Kroner', for instance, equals six USD$.....the math is simple to understand!!!!

If people (Americans) cannot understand that one 'statue' mile is different than one 'nautical' mile.....and that one 'nautical' mile is about 1.6 kilometers.....then Americans are doomed.

For Americans...one 'inch' equals 2.54 cm.

One 'metre' equals 100 CM (centimeters)

One 'metre' is slightly longer than a 'yard'....just for comparison.

One 'kilometre' is shorter than a 'mile'.....it is ONE HUNDRED METRES!!!

See how simple this system is??

How many pints in a quart? Quick!!!!

See? Metric is a far better system....just learn....and it won't take much time!! (if you have ten fingers.....)

EDIT for spelling....but since I'm here, editing.....

I wanted to expand on the concept of 'ten', as the metric system is devised.

Most of us, we Humans, have ten fingers....I hope you'll agree with me on that point.

We also, as far as I know, use a Base ten number system.

Am told, some older civilazations may have used a 'base' 12, not sure why, unless they had six fingers on each hand.

Back to the Metrics....a 'metre' is defined as a pariticular segment of a Longitude Arc measurement of the Earth, at the Meridian....the Prime Meridian...it has ten, been refined, by more accurate measure.....and you can Wiki this info...segments.

Well, actually, a metre is one hundred segments, all of them an example of the division, by ten.....or a combination of ten....as in one kilometre, which is one hundred metres...but since few Americans (REMEMBER, I am one) fail to understand the Greco-Roman pro-nouns....well, they mostly just go 'huh???'

Shame. really....ebarrassing, as well, as an American....







[edit on 8/21/0808 by weedwhacker]

I agree completely that we should have "gone" metric when it was being considered in the past. I remember sitting in elementary school in the '70's and learning all about metric. Although, we were taught the measurements used in the U.S. as well, all of our teachers said that we were about to "convert" so we were just going to have to get used it and should, in fact, feel lucky to be the first generation to really "grow up" with the new system. Well, so much for that. By the time I got to high school, I was so confused as to why we were still using the U.S. standard.

Even now, as an adult with a child of my own going into high school in another year, I find it very egocentric that we cannot follow the rest of the world in the use of this simpler format.

I dont wanna learn a new measuring system *too old now* And doing the math in my head....well, no thank you.

Many of the products that are labeled, per regulation, in the USA....mix and match the values....ounces, volume, quantity.....it's a free-for-all, at times.

This is so true. Being the girl I am, and the amount of "beauty products" I buy I can tell you that most of the brands I buy are not necessarily American but usually European. So most of these products have both metric and standard. However, most products seem to have English and Spanish now too.

Pretty soon the packages will be so large to accommodate all the various languages, measurements.....we really will be paying more for everything on that alone!

OH and WW...if you start a thread, getting points is really ok

MODS: please move this and let WW get a few points

[edit on 8/21/2008 by greeneyedleo]

At the risk of sounding glib, to answer the OP:

In about 4 giga-seconds.

There are many interesting issues involved with units of measure, however. Industrial compatibility is not always economically beneficial, in the short term, with distinct supply chains. Homogeneity in production processes (including units of measure) results from an equal economic playing field; the denial of which can still create profit opportunity. How much does it cost factories in China to produce product in both Avoirdupois and metric dimensions?

Edit: missing words (I blame the Scotch)

[edit on 21-8-2008 by Ian McLean]

I regularly have this arguement with a Yank mate of mine, I say metric is superior and he replies...why because you have 10 fingers to which I always reply....just like your dollar is a multiple of 16 cents ?

The metric system is one of the best things ever to happen to the world, it is now an international standard which is relatively easy to learn. It helped to break down barriers amongst many nations in many different ways, especially in the field of the sciences and economics. NASA now uses the metric system but if you in 1999 it was a mistake of using old imperial based programming with the new metric data that sent the Mars Climate Orbiter ploughing through Mars' atmosphere and burning up.

There are a few places the imperial system will still dominate and that is on the roads. The cost of changing the speedometers and changing road signs across a country makes adopting a metric system almost financially impossible, a slow phase out would be required and that alone could take up to twenty years.

Personally if I could I would change everything to metric units in all nations, but I also understand the infeasibility of doing that now.

I was taught at school mostly in Imperial measurement, but in the UK we also have the metric system - a slow changeover I suppose.

Despite having used the metric system for years, the fact I was taught using the Imperial system means I do the calculations in my head when I see a measurement in metric and convert it to Imperial (if the packaging doesn't have both)
It's the same for distance - I automatically convert from metric to Imperial in my head, just as a rough guide, so that I'm absolutely clear on distance, or weight or whatever.

As you can imagine, this makes food shopping quite an experience, as I am stood there thinking "a litre of milk = 1 3/4 pints = 1.75 pints - hmm I won't use that much before it goes off, better get half a litre"

At least shopping keeps me a little sharper because of this

At least beer is still sold in pints, but then when I buy cans of beer.... 568ml = 1 pint
500ml can is under one pint by 68 ml so if I get 5 cans instead of 4 that will be...

oh, sod it I'll just get 8 440 ml and hope for the best...