Do Americans find metric too difficult?

[Captain Caveman]

Negative.

They're both precise. Yesterday, it was 19.8635c or 67.7543f.

Tell me which one is more precise than the other? I assume you and Concerned American were thick as fuck at maths at school, and still are.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Negative.

I believe America uses metric. Apparently they're always using 9mm in schools.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I believe America uses metric. Apparently they're always using 9mm in schools.

When I was in high school, it wasn't metric. We only used .22 (of an inch) rifles on the on-campus shooting range.

 

[themirrorthief]

When I was in high school, it wasn't metric. We only used .22 (of an inch) rifles on the on-campus shooting range.

metric is for anal retentive people who cant accept the greatness of the USA USA USA

 

[Bob Blaylock]

metric is for anal retentive people who cant accept the greatness of the USA USA USA

Give me back my mirror!

 

[Concerned American]

When I was in high school, it wasn't metric. We only used .22 (of an inch) rifles on the on-campus shooting range.

One degree Celsius is equal to 1.8 degrees fahrenheit. Fahrenheit scale is more accurate than celsius.

 

[Oddball]

I like fives and twenties. I hate twos and fifties. Tens are OK, but pennies are worthless.

Pre-1982 pennies are worth 2.5¢.

Though not much in one unit, how often can you reach into your pocket and pull out something worth over double its face value?

 

[Oddball]

 

[Concerned American]

Pre-1982 pennies are worth 2.5¢.

Though not much in one unit, how often can you reach into your pocket and pull out something worth over double its face value?

Similar to pre 1964 US silver coinage. Pennies today actually cost 1.43 cents to produce and they are just copper plated zinc. Pre-1982 are all copper.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

One degree Celsius is equal to 1.8 degrees fahrenheit [sic]. Fahrenheit scale is more accurate than celsius [sic].

That makes no sense. Nothing to do with accuracy at all.

PRECISION (not the same thing as accuracy) is closer to relevant, but still, not. If you limit yourself to one significant digit of precision, then a degree Fahrenheit represents a finer step than a degree Celsius. But nothing says you have to limit yourself to one digit.

Then, there is the concept of gratuitous precision, an ill to which I am often prone. Oddly, as illogical as it is to express something in gratuitous precision, the hardest related stereotype I have in my head is of the Spock character from Star Trek doing exactly that. Imagine the following hypothetical exchange:

• Captain Kirk: Spock, how far away is that wall?
• Spock: Captain, that wall is six point one seven five six four eight six meters away.

That six meters, about twenty feet in real units, but here is Spock, as he is stereotyped as doing, specifying it down to a much finer precision than he could possibly be able to estimate. Over a good room-sized distance, he's specifying it down to a degree so small that you cannot see it with a light-based microscope. There's no way that Spock can know the distance, can estimate the distance, to that degree of precision.

I'm pretty sure that I faintly remember some sequence in one episode, details of which are forgotten, in which Spock stereotypically express some figure down to an absurd level of precision, with both Kirk and McCoy slowly repeating each digit, effectively mocking him.

 

[Concerned American]

PRECISION

I stand corrected. However using whole units Fahrenheit gives a more precise and accurate measure than say 78F = 26C (actually 78F = 25.55556C)

 

[Zebra]

Do Americans find metric too difficult?​

I think metric is a lot easier than Imperial.

 

[hadit]

One degree Celsius is equal to 1.8 degrees fahrenheit. Fahrenheit scale is more accurate than celsius.

I think the word you're looking for is "precise", not "accurate".

 

[Bob Blaylock]

One degree Celsius is equal to 1.8 degrees fahrenheit [sic]. Fahrenheit scale is more accurate than celsius [sic].

I think the word you're looking for is "precise", not "accurate".

And even then, he's still getting it wrong. He's conflating the side of the units with precision, rather than his own artificial limit imposed by sticking to whole units. You can specify a measurement in either unit, to any level of precision, by using enough digits past the decimal point.

However precise you state a measurement, however, is entirely divorced from whether or not the instrument used to make that measurement is accurate enough to justify that level of precision.