Why should Grandma have to learn how many kilometers it is from Memphis to Little Rock when she already knows how far it is in miles. Does Granny care that it's difficult to convert from miles to feet (5,280 feet per mile)? No. Why should she? How often does she have to make this conversion?
Should uncle Ted down at the dairy learn how to calculate how many gallons of milk there are per hogshead? It depends. Does he really need to know? The truck that takes the milk Ted produces hauls a known liquid volume of the stuff in gallons. Thousands of gallons convert to gallons very easily. What Ted's interested in converting is milk to dollars. If he could make more money selling liters of milk than quarts, he'd be metric in a heartbeat.
Brother Todd the scientist, on the other hand, already uses the metric system. Why? It's the system of measurement used by his peers in the scientific community. Along with the jargon necessary to convey ideas in the idiom of his chosen specialty, Todd learned the metric system. Why? It's a tool of his trade.
Asking the U.S. to abandon their traditional system for no other reason other than it irks your sense of sensibilities is foolish. You may as well insist that the natives of certain tropical climes ought to wear Army boots. They'll ignore you, because they don't need such footwear, even though some of these places manufacture such boots for use elsewhere.
--Baloo
PS: I refer you to this for more on the subject.
PPS: I know a lot more of the metric system than most of my peers, having had some schooling in the sciences of physics and astronomy. As for the rest of the system, I figure if I need to know what a hectare is, I can look it up.
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If God Himself walks up to you and tells you to found a new religeon, ask for some I.D.
You're probably talking to an imposter.
www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/
[This message was edited by Baloo on May 08, 1999.]
And I agree with you wholeheartedly.
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When I saw you I fell in love,
and you smiled because you knew
- Unkown
...if you should die before me,
ask if you could bring a friend...
- Unkown
[ZZZIIIIPP!]
(How embarrassing!)
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If God Himself walks up to you and tells you to found a new religeon, ask for some I.D.
You're probably talking to an imposter.
www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/
So here lie my reasons for switching to metric:
1--We no longer live in the state of semi-isolation that perhaps we once did. Everyone has contact with everyone else these days. It naturally makes sense to "speak the common language" as it were.
2--Follow up to #1: The "common language" seems to be English, at least in many places around the world. It's been my observation that quite a few Europeans have more than one language that they know well, whereas, the majority of Americans know one--their own. That puts us in an awfully crippling situation, wouldn't you agree? A friend was telling me about a guy he knows how saw a guy wearing a T-shirt he got from some Chinese gift shop or something, perhaps in ChinaTown. He was proudly boasting this shirt, with 'cool chinese writing' on it, completely oblivious to the message it read in Chinese: "I am a stupid American." *L* No joke--honestly. That's just an example. We're behind the times here, and it's to our own disadvantage.
3--Simply this: what kind of message are we sending other countries, even our own children, in saying we refuse to change the way we have been doing things, even if it may seem backward and antiquidated to some? Probably this--that we are, again, to egocentric to change our stubborn way of thinking, and instead would rather continue what we are used to, and have everyone else bend over backwards to meet our needs. I talk to foreign friends of mine, and when we get talking about things like temperature, weight, stuff like that, I have no clue what conversion rates are--quite a few of them do, however, much to my chagrin. I have NO CLUE what my weight converts to in kilos...what my height converts to in meters (or metres... *L* ;-), and when the weather outside is frightful, I don't know how to convert Farenheit to Celcius or Centegrade...or are those two one in the same now? *once again, showing her ignorance...*L*
Anyway...I'm certainly an advocate of gradually changing the system. Heck--in grade school they were teaching me centimeters...why haven't we REALLY had to use that for anything since? I didn't go into science or math in university...and I don't intend to. In fact, I never have to take another math class...unless they change the policy *erk* and I'm trying my best to get around the chemistry and physics type classes that I haven't the brain power for...no doubt partly b/c they employ metric, and I never learned it, beyond centimeters, and that theres 100 cm in one meter. Not sure how many meters in a kilometer...i'm guessing 1,000, since in anthropology we use kya to denote #1000 years ago. Beyond that, I'm hopelessly ignorant. Quite sad, IMO.
Anyway, nuf said...I've been at this one for QUITE a while now *L* Hope I haven't offended anyone...if so, well...accept my apologies. It wasn't my intention, just my opinion.
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Clones are People Two
**The Light only shines in the dark, and sometimes innocence is just an excuse for the guilty**
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The Leader in Offensive Ideology.
De-Value Life Today!
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Clones are People Two
**The Light only shines in the dark, and sometimes innocence is just an excuse for the guilty**
Go ahead, but I challenge you to use every unit of measurement in the metric system. You probably won't for the simple reason you (personally) don't need them all.
BTW, the system of measurement we use in the U.S. is called the "English System" of measurements. <Trivia>Even during WW II, the English-English system and the American-English system were out of synch. If you measured the distance from the New York to San Francisco, the two (ostensibly similar) systems would disagree by a few inches, but that was enough difference that parts for Merlin Engines manufactured in the U.S. would not fit (or fit poorly) engines built in England.</Trivia>
Why did England metricise? Probably because most of their trading partners were using Metrics anyhow. Does England still use Miles and Gallons? I dunno, but I think they did at least recently, if not now.
Please understand, I am not anti-metric (I'm pro-metric, but also Pro-choice on the matter). If it's good to encourage (so-called) primitive peoples to preserve their culture, traditions, and language, why is it wrong that America tries to preserve that particular part of their culture? And if it's wrong for America, why isn't it wrong for other cultures?
--Baloo
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If God Himself walks up to you and tells you to found a new religeon, ask for some I.D.
You're probably talking to an imposter.
www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/
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Clones are People Two
"The Force is like duct tape: it has a dark side and a light side, and it holds the universe together"
(notices how many errors he just made in grammar and speeling...)
AHH! Theres another!
--
I hate metric, although sometimes it's easier to convert. But all those 10's get confusing.
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"Chances thrown / Nothing's free / Looking for what used to be / Still it's hard / Hard to see / Fragile lives, shattered dreams..."
Here is how I would measure things
If I am doing something scientific I will measure in cm's, weigh in kg's and do capacities in cm^3.
If I measure someones height I will do it in m's and cm's.
If I measure long distances I will do them in miles and speed in mph and acceleratin in mph/h.
Small distances I will measure in inches.
Liquid capacity I will use litres
I weigh things in Stones, pounds, and ounces.
I measure temperature in degrees Clecius (Don't ask me how to convert to Farenheit or Kelvin)
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'Today is a good day to die!' - Worf
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http://frankg.dgne.com/
Walter Barnett: "D-Did that thing just shatter an overpass into dust?"
Donny Finkleberg: "No, I...I think it was an entrance ramp."
And we use both. I can use both inches and cm. I measure distance in miles. And my speedo measures miles an km/h. Like all British cars.
Metrix makes sense.
cent=100 You should know that Americans. How many cents in a dollar?
Kilo-1000.
So there's 100 centimeters in a meter
And 1000 metres in a kilometer.
1000 litres in a kilolitre.
1000 grams in a kilogram.
CM are the only real case of using cents...all the other scales tend to use mili's (1000 milimeters in a meter, 10 milimeters in a centimeter, 1000 mililitres in a litre) and kilos. And sometimes nano's (as in nanometers)
I can understand Amerians not knowing exactly how long a kilometer is, but not knowing how many cm's in a meter is shocking.
BTW, why would you ant to convert feet into kilometers? Surely miles into kilometers makes more sense (1.5km to the mile is the rough estimate. It's more like 1.6, but what the hell).
And our petrol stations now use litres. But most old people convert back to galleons.
BTW, you're money system in metrix. You can understand that with no trouble can't you? Now WE had a imperial money system, and that was complex.
Oh, and we still use pints for beers. Cause as 1984 said, 1 litre isn't enough, but 2 litres is too much.
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'You want the moon on a stick, don't you?'
-Richard Herring
corrected embarrasing maths mistakes. Thanks Simon
[This message was edited by PsyLiam on May 09, 1999.]
[This message was edited by PsyLiam on May 10, 1999.]
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Clones are People Two
"The Force is like duct tape: it has a dark side and a light side, and it holds the universe together"
Frankly, I wish the Brits had stuck to their old 1 £ = 20 shillings = 240 pence system. It was unique and unmistakably British.
The new system is as exciting as wet newspapers. 1 £ = 100 pee. Sheesh! If I go to England, I won't know if I'm getting change or a urine sample. Perhaps I'd better wear rubber gloves?</Rant>
--Baloo
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If God Himself walks up to you and tells you to found a new religeon, ask for some I.D.
You're probably talking to an imposter.
www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/
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SHATTERED MIRROR
My gripe with the english system (or imperial, as we call it up here) isn't that the American farmers still use it (I couldn't care less what they use), but that we're still forced to use it up here even though Canada is officially metric. The reason is a lot of equipment is imported from the US, and most Canadian companies don't bother insisting on buying stuff specified in metric units (probably because its more expensive). Hence conversions all over the place. No doubt I'm biased because I grew up with metric, but imperial just irks me after I've worked with metric.
A related rant, something that bothers me that no few people care about. Often we get stuff from the US that has metric units on it, but the wrong units, or utter nonsense. An example: Kilograms per square centimeter is NOT A UNIT OF PRESSURE. No doubt the confusion comes from the fact that in the english system there are actually two kinds of pounds: pound force and pound mass. But in metric, kilogram is mass and Newton is force. The metric unit for pressure is the Pascal (which is 1 Newton per square meter). Some people seem to think that to convert Pounds per square inch to metric, just convert pounds to kilograms and square inches to square centimeters. But mass per unit area doesn't make any sense for those of us living in three dimensions. Argh. 
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"Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you."
-Commander Riker, USS Enterprise
[This message was edited by Chimaera on May 10, 1999.]
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Clones are People Two
"The Force is like duct tape: it has a dark side and a light side, and it holds the universe together"
. Perhaps I can justify my blatant repitition by clarifying my point that Canada is officially metric, so we shouldn't even have to work in English units (and we wouldn't have to if Canadians were determined and insisted on metric units), something that annoys me frequently given my future career in engineering.------------------
"Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you."
-Commander Riker, USS Enterprise
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Clones are People Two
"The Force is like duct tape: it has a dark side and a light side, and it holds the universe together"
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Quark: "Lesson number one: No one involved in extra-legal activity considers himself nefarious." (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")
Y'know Baloo, that whole thing about 5 pee..which isn't spelt like that anyway, it's just 5p. Since in Britain we don't say 'pee' except as an American saying, it never pops up. WE say 'piss' harsh but true. Or failing that 'I'm going to the toilet/loo' Yes, TIOLET. Not BATHROOM. Why do Americans say Bathroom for the toilet, even when it lacks a bath?
Besides, the old system spelt 5 pence as 5d. Isn't THAT strange?
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'You want the moon on a stick, don't you?'
-Richard Herring
My guess on the bathroom issue is this--once upon a time all of them had a tub AND a toilet. Most in homes still do, as far as i've seen. it's only in public places where you won't find bathtubs/showers...and there they usually call them restrooms ;-) toilet just seems rather crude *L*
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Clones are People Two
"The Force is like duct tape: it has a dark side and a light side, and it holds the universe together"
Actually, indoor bathing arrived around that time, too.
Tune in tomorrow, folks! I'm off to find the answer.
--Baloo
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If God Himself walks up to you and tells you to found a new religeon, ask for some I.D.
You're probably talking to an imposter.
www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/
But because of these media influences, it is great to have a body with 36-24-36 body measurements instead of ....something equvilant in cm's.
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I did'nt do it.
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Clones are People Two
"The Force is like duct tape: it has a dark side and a light side, and it holds the universe together"
([[[[[[*]}�������������������������
Maybe I am just isolated from the rest of the world.
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"Chances thrown / Nothing's free / Looking for what used to be / Still it's hard / Hard to see / Fragile lives, shattered dreams..."
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Quark: "Lesson number one: No one involved in extra-legal activity considers himself nefarious." (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")
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I did'nt do it.