Goodbye kilometer signs

[uwe]

Uwe, in all seriousness, when I was introduced to the metric system (by the aforementioned 2nd grade teacher), it was explained in a way that made sure I understood that Americans were stupid and backward for ever having NOT used the system, and that Europe and Canada, which were so much smarter than we dumb Americans, had devised this wonderful new way to measure everything. Then the teacher explained that it would only be a few years before we did away with the dumb American way of doing things and all would be well once we did. Even at 7 years old, I understood what she was saying perfectly well and my initial reaction was not only that she was a dried up old windbag, but that I didn't need her or anyone else telling me how inferior the 'American' way of doing anything was. I'm not implying that anyone advocating the metric system today is saying those things, but (other than needing two socket wrench sets), I just don't have a great need for it.

I have to note here that I don't think I, being an American, am superior to anyone born here or anywhere else. I do, however, like being one, just as I'd hope Aussie Mark prefers being Australian and Uwe prefers being German. I think everyone should have an innate sense of pride for who they are and where they come from. It makes them what they are, and can't ever be changed, so why not embrace it?

The reason for adopting the metric system is that it - like Blazer says - works in decimals (making it easy to learn, even for Americans!  )  and that it is the world language in measurements. It has nothing to do with US inferiority or superiority. The US is groundbreaking state and culture in many things and continues to be, but using a measurement rooted in medieval times that is quite remote from accepted mathematical principles isn't among them. (It's not like Europe didn't have similar systems. But we did away with them a couple of hundred years ago.) And I sure hope that the imperial measurement system is not what defines America, you guys and gals have myriads of other things that characterize you and make you great, special or just  lovably strange, no need to cling to an archaic measurement system that your former colonial oppressors forced upon you (and have meanwhile themselves done away with)!

Look at it this way: I'm all for advocating English as the world (first or second) language. It's not because English is a better language than others or because Anglo-American culture is superior, it is just a bloody effectve means of communication and a popularly accepted one at that. English is a beautiful langugage, but you can speak and write it badly, reduce it to pidgin and it still works for communication at a basic level, where many other languages fail if not spoken at least medium-well. English is a good tool then (irrespective for the literary qualities it has as well and the heights of sophistication it also offers).

In much the same way, the metric system is a good tool and prevalent measurement language. So listen to the well-meaning advice of your worldwide friends for once and sensibly adopt it so at least your next generation can work with it. It's not like abolishing Thanksgiving, you know. 

[Basvarken]

+1

[eb2]

- 1.  I come to praise metric, not to bury it.

The plain truth is that imperial is better.  It always was, and always will be.  I say this not out of ignorance of metric: I understand it, and lived "under" it.  You pick it up fast enough, and it works, kind of.  This is not a case of being backward, or forward.  These are concepts that metric was invented to address, and failed at.

Where to begin?  There are too many flaws, but I will start with the decimal concept.  It IS easier to convert from one subset to another, simply by adding zeroes or subtracting.  For instance, If one knew the distance between two cities - say Paris and Riga - were "X" km, then the conversion of that measurement to Meters, CM, MM is a simple matter of adding zeroes to it.  The same can be said of weight measure.

Now, if one knew the distance between say New York City and Apache Junction, then if someone asked the question "How many inches is that?"  The answer, of course, is "What is wrong with you?"  One would only ask this kind of a question, in metric or imperial, if one were a complete a-hole.

That doesn't mean this is not an unanswerable question.  You can figure it out, and you can even commit the conversion to memory.  But that is the beauty of the imperial measure: it takes into account humanity.  The designers of imperial (Summerians, Israelites, Greeks, Romans, etc) knew that some things were big (miles) and some things were small (inches).  So, the concept of having them inter-relate was secondary, as they knew, and all people know, that conversions are largely irellevant. 

Another point to consider is the human eye.  When one buys a piece of artwork, where do they typically hang it on the wall?  Typically, one wants it to be a third of the way down, or 2/3rds up.  What is a third of the meter?

Now, imperial measure has all of that built in.  Want a half?  Got it.  Want a quarter?  Got it.  Want a third?  Got it, and built in, part of the system.

Imperial is better.



Uwe's Edit:  As a lawyer I can appreciate brilliant advocacy even for a non-sensical system/lost cause!

[lowend1]

So listen to the well-meaning advice of your worldwide friends for once and sensibly adopt it so at least your next generation can work with it. It's not like abolishing Thanksgiving, you know. 

Insert "raspberry" here...

[eb2]

I am afraid the non-sensical element is demanding a measurement that is decimal to provide ease of use in areas that really are never used.

But I add another facet of this foolishness: Celsius.  Celsius scale is, in theory, simpler(?) because it bases its scale on two solid points: zero is freezing, and 100 is boiling.  This "improves" on the superior Fahrenheit scale as nobody can remember those points (32 and 212 by the way) and in Fahrenheit zero means nothing.

Except, that they do.

And water only boils at 100 if you are at the right elevation, where Celsius goes out the window at other elevations.  So, its base points are off at best.  And that is important because when one boils water, one always inserts a thermometer to check its progress.  And when one makes ice cubes, one inserts the thermometer in the tray constantly to check for that 32 degree point. Right?

I guess that leaves weather.  Fahrenheit being a scientific and Germanic fellow, loved humanity.  He knew that it got a heck of a lot colder, and a heck of a lot hotter than his zero and 100.  But, being a human being, he realized that you really wanted a nice round about scale that told you things.  Zero outside?  That is really cold, about as cold as it ever gets where most humans live.  100?  That is about as hot as it gets.  50?  Take a sweater.  Way below zero?  It so cold it matches Celsius.

Celsius tells you at zero that you got a ways to go in the cold department.  50?  100?  You're dead.  Useless as a weather scale, imperfect as a thermal scale, and not as good as Fahrenheit - which is more precise anyway.

But some people think being able to count on your fingers should base everything.  Thank God the metric clock died in the womb.  Yeah, I know about that too.

[uwe]

This is getting way too political now with celsius and all that. 

I guess while you guys are intellectually ever so slowly inching forward to realization what the clearly superior and more widely accepted system is you still may have some miles to go. 

Flashthought: Are lightyears metric or imperial or has the speed of energy chosen to ignore both?

[nofi]

this country could never afford the metric system even if we wanted it . we would have to re-tool the entire nation. besides, we like being different .

[Pilgrim]

I don't WANNA drive a "5-litre".

I wants me a good ole 302, 305 or 307 small-block!

"Six litres" sounds wimpy.  A Chevy 350 sounds MUCH MAS better!

And a Pontiac 389, 400 or 421 shall always be referred to by that nomenclature!

[uwe]

Sigh! How comfortable ignorance can be ...

Doesn't it bother you that you are in century-old default of your own voluntarily chosen commitments? 


<sup>"Since the mid nineteenth century the United States has made several attempts at converting over to the World Standard. On May 20, 1875 the United States became a charter member of the metric club, having signed the original document (The Treaty of the Meter), in Paris. They were the only English-speaking nation to do so. Since then, 48 nations have signed this treaty, including all the major industrialized countries. In 1975 the US Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act and although made with good intentions, the Treaties, Acts, established Institutes, and passed legislation have yet to push through the change.

To answer the second half of the question - it is not true that the US remains the last holdout. While the rest of the world is pretty much standardized on the metric system of measurements, when it comes to mandatory use, the United States has company in its foot dragging. Great Britain, Liberia and Burma are right there along with the United States. Some international organizations have threatened to restrict U.S. imports that do not conform to metric standards and rather than trying to maintain dual inventories for domestic and foreign markets, a number of U.S. corporations have chosen to go metric. Some Motor vehicles, farm machinery, and computer equipment are now manufactured to metric specifications. We have a feeling that you will be seeing more and more of your customers in the US using the Metric system in their purchases with you as their customers make more and more original specifications in Metric.

One More Important Thing To Know: SI is the abbreviation for the Système International d'Unités, the modernized version of the metric system that most nations have agreed to use. It defines the length of a Meter as the distance light will travel in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. Talk about calibrating your measuring tools!"</sup>


"It defines the length of a Meter as the distance light will travel in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second." Wow, that number sounds crooked enough to be imperial/standard! 

Let's just settle for the fact then that the US of A is  a rogue state in metric terms - together with Liberia and Burma. The company you keep ...  

[TBird1958]

 "Besides, you Yanks already took revenge on the French for the Metric system by sending Jerry Lewis to France, isn't that cruel enough?

 Not really 
I wish we had a young clone of Mr Lewis to give to the French 
 

[eb2]

Ahh, the futility of a losing argument.

First, let's examine the SI.  It is now the "the modernized version" of measure.  Why modernized?  Simply because the systems units were based on mis-calculations.  And arrogant concepts to boot: the idea that modern (then) men could improve on time-tested and functioning measurement systems used by those pesky Brits.  So they based it on the mis-calculated circumference of the world, the world being their mother or some such egalitarian nonsense that pollutes the globe till this day.  Bottom line is that to legitimize a system of measure that has been involved in or contributed to virtually no modern scientific invention or convenience, one needs to express it some rediculous galaxian constant - the speed of light?  Please.  And if I never see that shibboleth about metric-standard nations refusing US imports again.  This of course would lead one to believe that US goods cannot be measured in metric standards, which is again nonsensical.  Most European goods (ahem) are not squared off or cut down to exact metric sizes either.  The argument has been used 40 years ago for trade wars.  The good ole bushel of wheat is welcome wherever starving children await it.  If someone needs to express that in liter displacement, have at it.  If some nation is capable of out-producing or out-consuming the US, get in line.  

No, our European friends cling to the arrogance of their illusionary superiority in embracing the measurement system of the modern world, only it isn't worth the effort.  Imperial is better, and will always be a better system, because it was designed by people for people.  Metric was dictated by egalitarians for improving on those dirty lowly people back then.  Its inherent bombast is its flaw. And just who are we supposed to be joining in with, globally?  Europe?  Hardly worth the effort.  For international trade, there isn't that much to bother with.  For building codes?  Same deal.  Are our roadways supposed to be more welcoming for vacationing engineers from Slovakia?  I think they get around fine.  

Besides, look at the people who used imperial measure, and who chose metric.  Imperial: Virgil, Charlemagne, St Catherine of Sienna, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Mickey Mantle, John Entwistle.
Metric: Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Mugabe, Versace.

Canada drags its feet as well.  Signs are changed, but try ordering 454 grms of baked ham somewhere.  Try figuring out why the Coke and paint cans are such an odd non-metric size.  

[Blazer]

Besides, look at the people who used imperial measure, and who chose metric.  Imperial: Virgil, Charlemagne, St Catherine of Sienna, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Mickey Mantle, John Entwistle.
Metric: Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Mugabe, Versace.

EB2 I hope for you that you're kidding with what you've just stated.

BECAUSE: Metric also stands for Klaus Voorman, Rinus Gerritsen, Eddie Van Halen, Werner Von Braun (The USA would've never set foot on the moon without the Metric system!)

And why would you say a fashion designers' name in one breath with tyrants? Versace had no blood on his hands. 

[Chris P.]

Come on, man! Don´t take this so serious! He´s just joking! Chear up a bit.

BTW: Hugo Boss designed the SS uniforms:)

[eb2]

Clearly I was referring to Donatella.

Werner Von Braun would have never set foot on Florida without Robert Goddard, who used no metric.  And I suspect a major part of the Apollo program was imperial measure as well.  Metric had as much to do with the moon landings as imperial.

[Lightyear]

Flashthought: Are lightyears metric or imperial or has the speed of energy chosen to ignore both?

That would be Imperial!   

And please, in the future, make sure that you capitalize the "L"