Why I 'don't like' Metric

[BossTamsin (imported)]

The United States is the last major holdout. How long will it be before we go metric?

The last major holdout, but not the last holdout.

The United States is in great company, as far as not changing over to the metric system. You have at least two major allies that I know of in refusing to use the same system as the rest of the world.

So feel good, because Liberia and Myanmar have your back. (Although those may be your only two allies in this...)

[Dave (imported)]

The United States is the last major holdout. How long will it be before we go metric?

Ask me if I care...

As far as it goes, if this were the political board I would ask if as a good republican you want to convert over to the "French" or European masters and adopt the "other" European standards.

There are a set of manufacturing and operating standards that go under the name of ISO (numbers). ISO does not mean "International Standards for Operations" but for our discussion, it's close enough. I was lead auditor for an ISO 14000 effort. That's the environmental management system.

A bunch of companies started to trash the ISO 9000 (the manufacturing standard) as "european" and "french" and "them" and all that horseshit/bullshit/crap and lies.

Then the companies discovered that they wouldn't be able to do business overseas without using the standard. So the smart companies went and implemented the ISO standard and started doing business overseas.

So do I care if we ever implement the Metric system?

No. But if you want to do business, you better have a set of metric wrenches or whatever it takes to keep your business doing business and profitable.

I still want the standard measure to the "Furlongs per Fortnight" It's such a convenient number to work with... just divide by 2928. That's so easy, so simple !!!!

[Riverwind (imported)]

Hi ho silver and away.

River

[jab (imported)]

Now, are you referring to the kind of nuts that fit on bolts or some of the nuts that we have in the Archive?

They are not all American nuts.

[micropenis (imported)]

When will American schools get with the program?

Only serious science geeks and drug dealers learn the metric system.

Only graffiti artists practice penmanship.

[KittenAB (imported)]

When will American schools get with the program?

Only serious science geeks and drug dealers learn the metric system.

Only graffiti artists practice penmanship.

Not really, I'm a geek and because I live in the US and every thing's not in metric, I don't bother "mastering" it. Most people here know it, it's just the hassle of changing every thing over that's making it hard to get the ball rolling, not to mention we have other problems that are more important to deal with ... like the government pulling wool and the media dumbing down ... well ... the world.

[moi621 (imported)]

When will American schools get with the program?

Only serious science geeks and drug dealers learn the metric system.

Only graffiti artists practice penmanship.

They do but it does not change the facts that there are

too many bananas in a Kg

and too little gasoline in a liter.

No one really cares if their medicines are in mg and not grains.

Moi

[Riverwind (imported)]

Moi, I feel your pain, this weekend I bought a 3 liter can of olive oil, I poured some in a 1 cup measuring cup, then transferred it to a bottle that I just finished which said 12 oz. My son questioned if I had made a good purchase and I said I had, 5 dollars a liter, is better then 7 dollars for 12 oz.

So Moi, how many oz in 3 liters, or how many refills will I get before I need to buy another 3 liter can of olive oil?

Come on now Moi, you should be able to do this in your head.

River

[transward (imported)]

Moi, I feel your pain, this weekend I bought a 3 liter can of olive oil, I poured some in a 1 cup measuring cup, then transferred it to a bottle that I just finished which said 12 oz. My son questioned if I had made a good purchase and I said I had, 5 dollars a liter, is better then 7 dollars for 12 oz.

So Moi, how many oz in 3 liters, or how many refills will I get before I need to buy another 3 liter can of olive oil?

Come on now Moi, you should be able to do this in your head.

River

A liter is close enough to a quart you can convert 1 to 1 in your head. A quart is 32 ounces so three is 96 ounces divided by your 12 ounce bottle gives about 8 refills. (Since a liter is about one part in 20 greater than a quart, you will have 3 or 4 ounces left over after the 8 refills, unless you spill it)

(Worked this in my head. I'll see how close I got after I post this)

Transward

[transward (imported)]

What really Pisses Me Off is having an American set of wrenches and metric nuts.

Or having a metric wrench and an American nut...

The mechanic who worked on my ancient Alfa also worked on vintage English cars. He said he had to keep three sets of wrenches: American, metric and Whitworth which was used on old MGs and Morrises. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Standard_Whitworth

British Standard Whitworth (BSW) is one of a number of imperial unit based screw thread standards which use the same bolt heads and nut hexagonal sizes, the others being British Standard Fine thread (BSF) and British Standard Cycle. These three are collectively called Whitworth threads.

Transward