Do Americans find metric too difficult?

[Captain Caveman]

Where accuracy is not important, that's when you use imperial measurements

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Where accuracy is not important, that's when you use imperial measurements

When it matters people use decimal measurements.
I.E. - .125 instead of 1/8 etc.
All machines, computer programs etc. all use decimals of imperial, which is obviously 100% as accurate as you can possibly ever get.

 

[hjmick]

WTF?! Nobody said there would be a test...

 

[westwall]

Where accuracy is not important, that's when you use imperial measurements

Fahrenheit is far more precise than Celsius.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

When it matters people use decimal measurements.
I.E. - .125 instead of 1/8 etc.
All machines, computer programs etc. all use decimals of imperial, which is obviously 100% as accurate as you can possibly ever get.

Back in the 80's there was an oil crunch,this was when I'd recently started machining.
With machine shop jobs being hard to find I took one at a hydraulic repair place.
They'd just opened recently and the place was owned by a german dude.
He told me he had a lathe coming in a week or so and when it showed up it was metric.
Now the prints were all in metric but the problem was all of my inspection tools were obviously in thousandths.
He wanted me to go out and buy metric inspection equipment. Of course I said no and the right way to do it would be to translate the metric prints to thousandths.
When I told him I wasn't about to buy metric inspection tools since I had well over 5k in thousandths tools he got all huffy.
Got fired about a week later,but I wasn't all that upset about it considering he had given me a beeper and wanted me to be available 24/7.
A month later I was heading to my new job and the place was already closed down.
I figured they couldnt find a machinist dumb enough to work there.

 

[hjmick]

Back in the 80's there was an oil crunch,this was when I'd recently started machining.
With machine shop jobs being hard to find I took one at a hydraulic repair place.
They'd just opened recently and the place was owned by a german dude.
He told me he had a lathe coming in a week or so and when it showed up it was metric.
Now the prints were all in metric but the problem was all of my inspection tools were obviously in thousandths.
He wanted me to go out and buy metric inspection equipment. Of course I said no and the right way to do it would be to translate the metric prints to thousandths.
When I told him I wasn't about to buy metric inspection tools since I had well over 5k in thousandths tools he got all huffy.
Got fired about a week later,but I wasn't all that upset about it considering he had given me a beeper and wanted me to be available 24/7.
A month later I was heading to my new job and the place was already closed down.
I figured they couldnt find a machinist dumb enough to work there.

1mm = 0.03937"

When I wrote CNC code, I always converted the metric drawings to SAE. Fourteen years since I last wrote code and I still remember the conversion...

 

[Winco]

I got ten bucks says you're wrong.

Well prove your point.

They both measure.
One is based on 10's, the other involves fractions, and I know how the average American, student or adult, struggles with fractions.

Imagine our money system.

Can you make change?

I'm sure you can.
Now take our same money system and replace it with fractions rather than decimals.

Make change quickly from one dollars if the total bill comes to 33/100, without using ALL pennies (1/100) or a single coin worth 67/100.

If you're good with fractions, this should be easy, if not, it may be a challenge.

My guess for most, is that it's easier to give $0.67 in change with 2 quarters, 3 nickels and 2 pennies. Of course other ways work too, but this is quicker than using fractions. IMO.

 

[Winco]

measurements are measurements, people just have to learn conversions to what they are comfortable with thinking in--just like language.

I agree with this ^^^

 

[Captain Caveman]

Fahrenheit is far more precise than Celsius.

Never used Fahrenheit in my life. I can't equate it to my surroundings, so water freezing at zero and water boiling at 100 makes sense. So if I see a Fahrenheit figure, I have to Google the conversion to Celsius.

 

[westwall]

Never used Fahrenheit in my life. I can't equate it to my surroundings, so water freezing at zero and water boiling at 100 makes sense. So if I see a Fahrenheit figure, I have to Google the conversion to Celsius.

That's fine, just realize for every degree Celsius, there are almost two degrees F. Thus Fahrenheit is more precise.

 

[Moonglow]

We use metric in electronics so I have no problems using it.

 

[The Duke]

I use both imperial and metric. Whatever I'm doing, if metric or imperial works better, I use that. When it comes to Quantity Surveying, I have to use metric because materials are sold in metric units.

Do you, or can you use metric?

Never used Fahrenheit in my life. I can't equate it to my surroundings, so water freezing at zero and water boiling at 100 makes sense. So if I see a Fahrenheit figure, I have to Google the conversion to Celsius.

Freeze@32, Boil @212

I guess I use both, I've had Jap bikes, and Chevrolets and Fords and Dodges.

Kilometers and meters are pretty gay, though.

I would not even consider cooking with metric.

1/4 cup is 1/4 cup. When hunting I use yards, not meters.

I have square yard sticks, even.

 

[themirrorthief]

I use both imperial and metric. Whatever I'm doing, if metric or imperial works better, I use that. When it comes to Quantity Surveying, I have to use metric because materials are sold in metric units.

Do you, or can you use metric?

iits difficult to rule a world with a different system of math....the usa does not want to be ruled by anybody....senile JOe is enough of a pain in the gastric system

 

[themirrorthief]

We use metric in electronics so I have no problems using it.

the new world order will be happy to hear that

 

[Captain Caveman]

That's fine, just realize for every degree Celsius, there are almost two degrees F. Thus Fahrenheit is more precise.

The preciseness of both scales are the same.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Freeze@32, Boil @212

I guess I use both, I've had Jap bikes, and Chevrolets and Fords and Dodges.

Kilometers and meters are pretty gay, though.

I would not even consider cooking with metric.

1/4 cup is 1/4 cup. When hunting I use yards, not meters.

I have square yard sticks, even.

I can only do temp in Celsius, a person's weight in stone and lbs and never in kg or lbs alone, liquids in pints gallons millilitres and litres, our roads are in miles and yards, the rail system is still in miles furlongs and yards. Cooking in either gas mark or Celsius, I use cups teaspoons and grams.

In the UK, a meter is a recording device for usage, for example, an electric meter. A metre is a unit of distance, 3' 3".

 

[Moonglow]

the new world order will be happy to hear that

Tell them to get bent.

 

[hadit]

If we had just gone ahead and switched back in the 70's, this wouldn't even be a discussion today. You'd only have a few old-timers talking about how we used to do it back in their day.

Metric is so much easier to convert between units of measure. Pharmacy students are still taught all the different measurement systems for drugs, even though they really only use metric. My wife hated that.

 

[westwall]

The preciseness of both scales are the same.

Negative.

 

[Polishprince]

I use both imperial and metric. Whatever I'm doing, if metric or imperial works better, I use that. When it comes to Quantity Surveying, I have to use metric because materials are sold in metric units.

Do you, or can you use metric?

I like metric myself.

My doctor switched to a metric scale, and overnight I was at 125 again, a weight I hadn't seen since 8th grade.