One way to push the U.S. toward metric right now

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Who here actually knows the imperial system without having to look it up? Not only does the naming change along the scales, the ratios change as well, I've had to deal with this system for years and I still have to look things up. With metric, there is no looking up, because I know what meters, grams, and liters represent, and I know the difference between milli and kilo.

Imperial isn't what the US uses, they use an older system so I don't know how different it is. What are you struggling with tho? A mile is 5280 feet, that's the hard one to remember but it's very easy for me to visualize a mile at this point. 4 quarts make a gallon, 2 pints make a quart, 2 cups make a quart. Inches, feet, yards. 16 ounces make up a pound. It's not that hard, I don't see why everything has to be based 10.

"2 cups make a quart"

2 cups also make a pint. You need to spend more time in the kitchen.

oohhhhh you caught my typo

what is your address so I can mail you your prize ?

Remember, this is an autistic forum, they might not get your point, as demonstrated in the posts below you. But basically, I agree, the current customary system is often confusing and a burden. I don't understand why so many of my fellow Americans insist we all continue to bear it. This article suggests the cause is nationalism, ignorance, and anti-intellectualism:



http://www.phillyvoice.com/infrequently ... ry-system/

Just send it to Wrong Planet, I'm sure it will find it's way.
But I'm sure you'd find it impossible to make the same error while cooking.

P.S. The eye roll was intended to go along with the "Who me?" and wasn't
meant to gain a response.

A weekly piece knocked out by a newspaper journalist is hardly proof of anything. Most people are not interested in changing. You're beating a dead horse, just as they did in the '70s. People don't HAVE to be logical.

The US system of weights and measures is called "avoirdupois."

I wouldn't care if we went Metric....but many Americans would.p

We should probably use Metric in health care settings.

Sounds like a you problem. If everyone you know uses Fahrenheit and you choose not to that's your fault not theirs. You can't force people to be like you that's wrong.

Also you know you can set it up to always show in Celsius so you're whole extra hassle is again your fault.

Look I'm a picky eater, When I go places and find the food not to my liking I don't blame the other people eating. It sucks yeah and I have to go through the hassle of telling them to take a lot of stuff off, but reality is most people like all that stuff on their food. What right would I have to try to force everyone to eat like me. Same goes for those very few of you who want to use metric in America.

So this is a social and national issue, not an individual one, right?

It seems, to you, it's an individual problem with the present system, which creates an individual need.

Although the metric system was promoted very heavily in the '70s, it was rejected. And as I mentioned a little earlier it was also promoted heavily in grade schools in the '50s as well...and people rejected it then as well.

Although many organizations promote the metric system they ignore the fact that people use the metric system everyday for medicine. For uses that people, in general, decide are better handled by the present system it will remain. Eventually I believe the metric system will supplant the present system but across, perhaps, another 50 years.

Divide one foot (12 inches) into 1/3rds. Easy: The answer is 4 inches; exactly.

Divide 1 meter into 1/3rds????

I came up with my examples of not having a choice because I wanted to show the whole promise of "voluntary" conversion was a sham. It's a way for politicians to make it look like they are moving toward metric conversion without actually doing so.

Generally, what units we use are controlled by the national government. The same is true of the United States, as the Framers granted Congress the power to "fix the Standard of Weights and Measures" (U.S. Const. Article I Section 8 ). To a large extent, any conversion or not is going to depend on what Congress does.

The very first proposal for metrication, or a move to a metric-like system, actually came in the 1790s with Thomas Jefferson's proposal.

In my view, we should simply get it over and done with. History has shown that when this happens, the issue dies, and the country remains metric. The use of metric units becomes normalized and the discussion ends. I think it's really harmful to this country that the lack of a spine by many politicians has dragged this issue out resulting in us using a confusing mess of units and the problems I mentioned above, which can have drastic consequences. Instead, politicians hide behind the "voluntary" rhetoric. At least I showed you guys how the "voluntary" rhetoric is full of crap. We need to stop hiding behind it.

As for your 1/3's example, the conversion factors of the measurement system should match the radix of the numbers we use to count. This allows conversion to happen by moving the decimal point, as the radix of our number system is 10.

As for need, we as a nation need to metricate. It may be hard at first, but when we're done, we'll be glad we did it. Our children and grandchildren will be glad we did it, that they're not stuck dealing with the same problems we're dealing with. Think about it, not having to use a confusing gaggle of units from multiple systems with sometimes catastrophic consequences, when you work in science knowing the units you're using intuitively like it's your native language, being able to use the same units as people from all across the world, and not having the whole rest of the world dumb units down to units you can understand because like a big overgrown baby you refuse to metricate.

I look over at this bag of Western Hearth by Van de Kamp's cracked wheat bread, and the label says its mass is, "NET WT 20 OZ (1 LB 4 OZ) 566g". Jesus Christ. Why are we still having to parse long strings like this to know how much of something we're having to get? Talk about information overload. There's so much information here that people just ignore it, they don't have time to parse strings like this for every single item they're getting. If we followed the proposal by metrication advocates, it would read something like, "NET WT 566g", and that's it. See how much simpler that is, how much less confusing that is? See also how it gives you an intuitive understanding of metric units because with experience you can start to develop a feel for these units, especially when coming at it as a kid?

Why are we denying children today the chance to grow up with an intuitive feeling for metric, to join the community of nations that use the same measurement system as the other countries? Because a whole bunch of old farts are too lazy and nationalistic, they can't bear the thought of having to learn something new, and we must bow down to them?

So, again, it's something we must do as a nation, and there's no reason not to do it now.

We as a nation don't want to though. What right do you a a select minority have to force the majority to use a system they don't want. Move to Canada if you want it so bad.

Of course Canada prints everything in two languages, why don't they just get with the world and use one language

Don't talk to me about, "just move to some other country". It's a cop out. That is not always possible, especially if you are poor or disabled. I am currently disabled. At least have the spine to say "Too bad, it won't happen. We won't go metric come hell or high water, no matter the costs, because we're America, we're special and we're better than everybody else. You're just wasting your time if you want to discuss the benefits." Too afraid to stand by your desire not to convert no matter what that you gotta come back with such cop outs?

For all we know, the rest of the world might still give up on the metric system one day and US customary units might spread worldwide.

And then many Americans would resent it as "cultural appropriation" and there'd be wars over it.

That's not going to happen.