can we go metric?

O.K. I admit I'm not the smartest guy in the room. but I have worked on plenty of engines and 13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 16mm, is much easier than 1/2in, 9/16in, 5/8in, 11/16in, 3/4in. Don't you agree?

My point is that the metric system is measured in multiples of ten and based on an actual equasion in reference to the size of the earth. yet we Americans continue to use a system of measurement thas is substantially more difficult and based on the length of some guys foot.

I am true blue 100% American and I apreciate a good tradition. but is it too much to ask that we get with the program and go metric already.

This idea has been shot down by the govt. since the 1970s, Americans just too lazy to do it. Really stupid considering that the metric system is much more precise.

hehe yeah, and why not go over to using a 24 hour clock too while your at it... i never understood your am's pm's.... what the hell does pm stand for anyway. all i know is that it's 18:45, and that means it's evening.

PM stands for Post Meridian and if there is to be One World-------------- (fill in the blank) then there will be a unified measuring system (ie metric) also. Watch for an executive order to go metric by the POTUS 4 yrs and 1 day from today.

PM stands for Post Meridian and if there is to be One World-------------- (fill in the blank) then there will be a unified measuring system (ie metric) also. Watch for an executive order to go metric by the POTUS 4 yrs and 1 day from today.

reply to post by president


Nah, the non-metric system keeps us in check, like when NASA blew 125 million.

www.cnn.com...

We need to hold on to the things that make us different, so people can visit and say, 'wow, they drive on the wrong side of the road and they use some kind of non-metric system how funny'.

I know what you're saying but here in England people are in limbo when it comes to metric/imperial. Height measured in feet and inches, weight in stones and pounds(lb) and building materials measured in both!!! Don't get me started on cars released though late seventies/eighties.

Infact, some car manufacturers are getting into these spline bites and torx bits... I've only used them a little... do their names relate to measurement?

What about old English money? Anyway, I say use them all, diversify vocabulary and expand the mind!

Originally posted by president
13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 16mm, is much easier than 1/2in, 9/16in, 5/8in, 11/16in, 3/4in. Don't you agree?

What is the diff between the mm sizes and 8/16, 9/16, 10/16, 11/16, and 12/16? The fact that there is an extra / and two numbers after it?

My point is that the metric system is measured in multiples of ten and based on an actual equasion in reference to the size of the earth. yet we Americans continue to use a system of measurement thas is substantially more difficult and based on the length of some guys foot.

Isaac Asimov (who was also a well-published scientist, not just a science fiction writer) stated that the english system was actually more accurate than the metric system, especially when talking about astro-physics.

Now, if you want to put on the tin-foil hat, a LOT of the ancient monuments (and the weird relationships between them and other things) disappear if you use the metric units, as opposed to the english units. Go figure.

Hey now, a 24 hour clock isn't metric.
You want to divide the day into 30 hours or some such?
The 24 is still a part of the "12" system that has been in place for eons.
Not just a measure of some guy's foot.

And how about the 12 months of the year? Want to make more or less of them to fit metric?

Do we still get 12 eggs to a dozen or will there be maybe 15 metric units?

And then there are the 365 days of the year - used to be 360 before one of the cosmic catastrophes which might even have been as close in time as year 1258.

And the 360 degrees to a circle....are they going to make that metric too?

All those numbers divisible by 3, 6 and 9, & 12. hmmmm wonder what all that means, don't you? Maybe some kind of unity.

If I was religious, I would say that metric is the work of the deviil.

A) WHY IS THIS IN THE 2012 FORUM?

b) Canada uses the metric system and we drive on the right side of the road!

Originally posted by Portugoal
A) WHY IS THIS IN THE 2012 FORUM?


I don't know. I thought the mods would put it where it fit best. somewhere in bts. Like I said, "I ain't smart."


I am concerned about taking our football games overseas and not converting the field to meters. I know it is called a football because it is a foot long and decimeter ball dosen't quite sound right.

it just feels rude.

I also know that we can't have one language, but there are so many differences like height and weight and race and gender and age, that we could try harder to at least count the same.

Originally posted by sir_chancealot

Originally posted by president
13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 16mm, is much easier than 1/2in, 9/16in, 5/8in, 11/16in, 3/4in. Don't you agree?

What is the diff between the mm sizes and 8/16, 9/16, 10/16, 11/16, and 12/16? The fact that there is an extra / and two numbers after it?

that is fine if you use the same denominator every time, but 8/16 is the same as 1/2 and 4/8 where-as 5mm is 5mm no mater how you look at it.
I am all about less thinking.

How do you buy eggs in the US of A? In the UK, we tend to have them in modules of 6, so that if you have two of those you get 12; that’s a half dozen and a dozen, so if that was converted to metric, it would be 5 & 10 packs, but a 5 pack of eggs doesn’t make sense.

Then if you buy a pound of apples, a person gets an amount they understand, whereas with a kilo they can’t get their head round it.

I worked for an automotive components manufacturer in the UK, with its head office in the USA. We were sent the designs from HQ of an air pressure motor manufactured in the USA plant, which was in Imperial measurements, i.e. Feet and Inches.

Because of the European legislation, we had to convert the whole design and all of the components and sub-assemblies into metric for manufacture and sale in the UK. The Chief Draughtsman compiled an easy look-up table for the draughtsmen to use when drawing the parts; this was before computer aided design was in use.

We had years and years of failures in the field on heavy trucks, some of them going out of service as they were loading up at the docks. It was a nightmare, and after years of investigation and thousands of free replacement motors being sent to trucking companies, the cause was found.

On some of the critical components of a certain size, the metric dimensions on the look-up chart had a decimal point in the wrong place. It was all new to everybody and whereas a 3/8” component could be visualised by the draughtsmen, the metric equivalent was less easy to do.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it; Feet and Inches are good.

Originally posted by president

Originally posted by Portugoal

I am concerned about taking our football games overseas and not converting the field to meters. I know it is called a football because it is a foot long and decimeter ball dosen't quite sound right.

it just feels rude.

I also know that we can't have one language, but there are so many differences like height and weight and race and gender and age, that we could try harder to at least count the same.

I wondered why you guys called football soccer - if the American football is called so due to it being a foot long than that makes sense - did you always call football soccer? When was American football invented, did that bring about the name change to soccer to not confuse the too, soccer being called football in UK as controlling the ball with the foot

I have been brought up using both meteric an imperial, metric by the school system but i had to learn imperial anway as a child as it was and is still so widely used by people.


[edit on 21-1-2009 by MCoG1980]

i hate imperial, really hate it. 25/38ths of an inch

it's always been my opinion that the imperial measurement system is the reason that american cars are more unreliable and less powerful than japanese or european cars.

[edit on 21/1/09 by pieman]

it's called American pride.