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- Jon211, on 11/01/2007, -5/+772The UK should be half shaded in for the mish-mash of imperial and metric that we seem to use over here.
- utcursch, on 11/01/2007, -7/+469I always thought that United States was the only one. Surprised to see Liberia and Myanmar in the club.
Here's another interesting world map. It shows metrication, colour-coded by year of conversion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SI-metrication-world.png - xrisnothing, on 10/11/2007, -39/+417Australia and Canada did it in the 80's but America can't? WTF!?!
- 00420, on 11/11/2007, -7/+341My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!
- Ransomowris, on 10/11/2007, -29/+355And our education systems are still teaching children about feet, inches, yards, and miles. It's really a terrible system, and it's a wonder anyone can understand it, much less justify it.
- DariusMonsef, on 10/23/2007, -21/+304Myanmar, Liberia & The United States... Coalition of the Metrically Challenged.
- Shenanigans, on 10/11/2007, -45/+262The United States is also one of the only remaining countries where the drinking age is 21 with the exception of maybe 4 or 5 other countries. We should convert like the rest of the world. The more you're told 'no,' the more you want it.
- robz0r, on 10/11/2007, -35/+239I heard Ron Paul will be vetoing anything not handed him to him not metrically converted.
- fhernand, on 10/11/2007, -13/+215or the Axis of Furlongs
- Jon211, on 10/11/2007, -17/+210@RustedGod - I reckon it will take a while.
I'm 27 and got taught metric at school, but I'm 6'2" not 1.88m, 14 stone not 89kg.
I know what my car gets in mpg, but not l/100km (even though fuel is sold in litres!)
I still buy pints of beer and milk, until general culture gets rid of all these things we'll never truly get rid of imperial. - escheriv, on 11/09/2007, -6/+198Who controls the British Crown?
Who keeps the Metric System down?
We do! We do! - Caleb83, on 10/11/2007, -12/+189I am reluctant to admit this, but last week, I was watching Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, and one question was "How many feet are in two and a half yards." If you saw this episode, you know how gut-wrenching it was to hear the chick try to work out the distance. At first she says "My first instinct is the length of a football field." Alright, I can overlook this. Your husband probably watches football, and you probably heard the word "yards" thrown around a couple of times as he was watching. Then she wrestles with herself trying desperately to figure this answer out. At one point, she just blurts out "A yard is 352 feet!" Even some of the kids had the "WTF, Lady?!" look on their faces. It all ended when she couldn't decide, and decided to 'cheat' off another student. Thankfully for her, the student wrote down 78 feet. What I would like to know is, how the hell did you get 78? Anyhow, this should be part of someone's dissertation as to why the US needs metric. Even [insert demographic that stereotypically has lower than average intelligence] can count by ten.
- PsychoticClown, on 10/11/2007, -55/+224The US system is laughable. After trying the metric system, I found it to be much more precise and expressive than our current systems. Centimeters, grams, kilos, meters, many ways to describe. Much better than ours.
- treelovinhippie, on 10/23/2007, -44/+171The US is just stubborn... they think everything they do is the best and that all other countries should follow them.
e.g. democracy, "freedom", War on Terror, War on Drugs etc - jenshik, on 10/11/2007, -13/+136It's a system of measurements that's actually logical...
- dacheetah, on 11/01/2007, -0/+121@linkedlist:
"you missed a spot, it's called Hawaii."
Oh yeah, Hawaii should be at the very left of the map, in the middle of the pacific ocean, right near that Hawaii shaped red blob. - warriorscot, on 11/01/2007, -9/+128Switching to metric doesnt mean you stop using imperial, it just means children are taught it first because its is the world standard for science and engineering(and for good reason) so it makes further education easier its also just easier to understand, but you can still use metric in Britain we use metric AND imperial measurements it depends whats easier generally if you need to work mathematically with something it will be metric but otherwise things like road signs we use miles because it would take so long to change them and you dont need exacting precision just a rough idea how far your destination is, we drink a pint at the pub because a liter is too much and a half liter is just a little too small.
You can switch a country to metric and it doesnt mean you have to get rid of every piece of machinery you have, given that the united states is then only hold out unless its produced there you will have metric equipment any way you just let the natural process of replacing things make the change its no big deal its no massive strain in soceity it just means that in places where it makes sense you get to use metric. A good example of one of the great stupidities of the US resistance to the metric system is in space mission coordination everyone else works metric but NASA works imperial and its caused a few problems most notable a mars probe swan diving into mars.
I always get a kick out of allot of my engineering text books allot of them have notes on conversion of metric and imperial that says, "Be careful when working with US data and convert to Metric, Americans like to be akward" it always makes me laugh that so many of them have that line in some form. - TwoDeuces, on 10/11/2007, -13/+129It's a system of measurement based on units of 10... so any tard can use their feet and hands as calculators... which would be a boon in this country.
- Myonosken, on 11/01/2007, -4/+111@mikeneilson, well officially we are metric, yes. But c'mon, a pint is part of British culture.
- ManicMouse, on 10/11/2007, -17/+124"BTW, Fahrenheit is more than twice as precise as Celsius. Why say "25.6 degrees" when you can say "78 degrees?" Ask yourself that."
Neither are any more precise than the other. Differences in decimal points have nothing to do with precision. Of course Celsius is more logical.
"Oh, and having to do all that division by 2 and 4 for our units of volume gives us a better understanding of binary."
How useful. (That was sarcasm in case you missed it)
Whereas metric is more logical and allows those who use it to calculate actual numbers better. Who can convert quicker, miles to inches or kilometers to centimeters? - thirdeyeopen, on 10/11/2007, -3/+103Hey all you guys bitching about Fahrenheit or Celsius, sorry but Kelvin is the best.
- inactive, on 11/01/2007, -5/+102@Jon211: Are you 27 in metric or imperial years?
- Psych77, on 10/11/2007, -0/+96In the UK it's a bit of a mess.
I buy pints of beer and milk, but litres of petrol.
I weigh about 13 stone, but cook about 125g of pasta. Some drugs are sold by the ounce, others in grammes.
I am 5' 10", the far wall of the office is about 100 metres away, but my house is about 25 miles away.
I drive to work at about 90mph. I have no use for kph.
The temperature got up to about 30 degrees recently, but when I was ill my temperature was about 99 degrees. - p0tent1al, on 10/11/2007, -18/+109Why are you digging him down? He asked a totally legitimate question. I mean yeah most people know what the metric system is, but you don't have to digg him down. At least he didn't say something stupid like
"What is the metric system? I bet it's stupid anyway, all the smart countries are the ones in red."
Don't digg down clueless people, digg down idiots. That is all.
* cue the digging down of this comment * - TheSmiddy, on 10/11/2007, -32/+122@derkaas
"BTW, Fahrenheit is more than twice as precise as Celsius. Why say "25.6 degrees" when you can say "78 degrees?" Ask yourself that."
haha, that is a rediculous statement.
i could just swap the variables around and say "Why say "78.8 degrees" when you can say "26 degrees"?"
Celcius is more precise, 0 IS the temperature that water freezes, 100 IS the temperature that water boils, what's your body temperature in Fahrenheit? 98.2 or something? isn't it meant to be 100? - DuxDucis, on 10/11/2007, -4/+87@ xrisnothing;
Actually Australia switched in 1966. Dunno why the wiki map is wrong. My mum (who is in her 50's) learned metric when she was in school.
You're probably right about Canada though. - Devilboy666, on 10/11/2007, -5/+82Google says thats about 1200 litres per km so I guess you drive a Hummer?
- inactive, on 10/23/2007, -1/+74Wrong!
It was adopted and the people refused to convert to it's common usage.
The use of the metric system made legal (but not mandatory) in the United States by the (Kasson) Metric Act of 1866 (Public Law 39-183). This law also made it unlawful to refuse to trade or deal in metric quantities.
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/laws/metric-act.html - MAdaXe42, on 10/11/2007, -9/+80Something NASA haven't heard of.
- kewagi, on 10/24/2007, -4/+75As much as it amuses us dirty Europeans, I can understand why the US have a hard time switching to metric. Yes, it's the better system in every aspect, but changing any measurement system will trouble the generation getting caught in the exchange. When the Euro (For those who think that Kosovo is a car maker: it's the currency of the European Union) was introduced, many people needed months, even years to get acclimated to the change, carrying conversion lists when they went shopping - some old people still ask "What's that in [insert old currency here]?"
About the only way I can think of would be to make the metric system mandatory in school, which would collide with the U.S. educational system as I understand it. But one day, you too will be freed from gallons and miles!
Just my 1.50082545 Eurocents. - rholloway, on 10/24/2007, -53/+123do you people have anything else to do but bitch about America?
Go ***** yourself a yard at a time. - wmarcello, on 10/11/2007, -2/+64@caleb
The question was dumbed down even further. They were given context.
"If little Jimmy stood on little Timmy's shoulders, they would be 2 and a half yards tall. How many feet is that?"
Yes, moron. A child on another child's shoulders would be 78 feet tall. Bravo. - RustedGod, on 10/11/2007, -10/+69@mikeneilson: Because the pint is just the right amount. A half-litre's too little, a whole litre too much. Not that you'll mind about the 'too much' once you've had that first half-litre. ;)
- hiddi, on 10/11/2007, -4/+59@Shenanigans
The drinking age is something that is determined by the state. The federal government ties their hands though and will not provide funding for roads and such if the drinking age is under 21. - brickbat, on 10/11/2007, -13/+64The UK is still using miles.
- jebus123, on 10/11/2007, -1/+52“My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!”
- WestDC, on 10/11/2007, -16/+66@jammer.
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, so I'll just go ahead and prove you wrong anyway.
Best economy? No. You're ~9 trillion US dollars in debt.
Technology? I'd actually agree with you here, but I think Japan would have something to say about it ;)
Living standards? Poverty at 13%? Not exactly ideal for such a developed nation. - the_craze, on 10/11/2007, -0/+47I want a litre-a-cola.
- gregfadein, on 10/24/2007, -0/+47The metric system IS mandatory in school in the States.
It's just that no one uses it in real life. - Chewie67, on 10/11/2007, -6/+52We are a very stubborn country. The very fact that the rest of the world uses this system is enough of a reason for us NOT to use it in many people's minds.
We may get there some day -- after all, we buy 'liters' of Coke, not gallons -- but it won't be any time soon and the conversion will be a nightmare on the scale of Y2K.
@jon211 - "I'm 14 stone not 89kg"
14 stone? 89Kg?
Scratch that. We'll never convert to metric. Pounds and Inches forever! - SamKellett, on 11/01/2007, -2/+48The UK is really screwed up when it comes to measurements:
Centimetres, inches, feet, metres, miles
Pints, litres, gallons
Grams, ounces, pounds, kilograms, stone - UnderWurlde, on 10/11/2007, -19/+62The US and their Imperial system reminds me of Microsoft which keeps coming up with new file formats while there are some international standards out there. Americans don't like to be told what to do by the international community. Anyway, that's what I hear. -Mohammed (Iraq). :P
- hiPpymIck, on 10/11/2007, -3/+41http://www.themeatrix.com/
oh and
1cc of water weighs 1 gm and to raise its temp by 1 degee cent reqires 1 joule of energy - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -5/+42madaxe is referring to the incident where I believe satellite that was sent to Mars didn't function because the US team that had corroborated with the other international teams had used Imperial measurements while the rest of the teams used SI units.
- Midnightbrewer, on 10/11/2007, -9/+45"The US and their Imperial system reminds me of Microsoft which keeps coming up with new file formats while there are some international standards out there. Americans don't like to be told what to do by the international community. Anyway, that's what I hear."
Except that we didn't invent it. Imperial refers to the British Empire. And it's not a new system, but a very, very old system, and we're just being lazy about it. There's just no good reason. On the other hand, one thing that *is* superior in imperial vs. metric is that the foot is base 12 (and nothing else, of course.) This means that you can divide a foot evenly into halves, thirds, and quarters and always get whole fractions. The metric system really falls down at thirds. - inactive, on 10/23/2007, -0/+35Don't forget the metric Conversion Act of 1975.
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/laws/metric-conv.html - RockinRoel, on 10/11/2007, -4/+37Thanks p0tent1al, my thought.
Also, I silently laughed at the 'metrix' joke.
Say this like only Morpheus can:
The answer is out there, zapkiller, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.
The Metric is a system, zapkiller. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
Source: imdb
I find it funny that this quote can be changed into a metric system quote. Also, I do not stand by this opinion, the US has to be freed (freedom!) from the imperial system. - wmarcello, on 10/11/2007, -0/+33@jon211
Canada has a little bit of a mix as well. We deal mostly in metric, but height and weight are still mostly talked about in feet/inches and pounds. - kcpwnsgman, on 10/11/2007, -1/+32well, with the metric system, its not because we think we're right, its because were lazy
- TEMM, on 10/11/2007, -7/+38And the imperial system really falls down at fifths.
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