United States of America VS the Metric System
What do we have against the metric system? Can anyone tell me why the good old US of A hates the metric system so much that it stands practically against the world in it's single minded "We're Number One" mantra? We stand alone with Myanmar (Burma) and Liberia. This doesn't bode well in the US's current stance in about any world wide political situation. I mean, when an argument could be won by almost any country by saying something school-ground childish around the lines of "well, we use the metric system, what do you use?" I think it becomes time to reconsider your standing point on the issue.
Most people (except Americans, Liberians and Burmese) would agree that the metric system is much more useful and makes a lot more sense than a system that relies on body parts (length measurements such as feet and yards) and old fashioned carrying devices (peck, quart, pint). If you don't believe me that we stand alone in this war against reason, here is a pretty picture in which the red countries are the countries who do not use the metric system. Bottom line is, the metric system makes more sense, period.
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What we have against the metric system is that it is inferior, for daily use, to the US standard system.
Sure, you can convert units easily in it…but real people almost never need to do that. That’s the job of soulless bureaucrats, tallying their statistics in order to decide what to force people to do “for their own good”.
But, in real life, what people need is for units to be as close to a convenient size as possible.
Naturally evolving systems of measure are far superior, in that way, to the “objective” units of measure that, by definition, avoid being adjusted to anything useful or convenient.
And the US system is even superior, mathematically. It is not decimal, an awkward means of breaking down units, but binary. Binary is not only the most advanced and objective numeric system, but also guarantees that you can find a unit closest to what you need.
Not only is one cup pretty much the best cooking size, but you can keep cutting it in half (the very next step down that divides evenly) until you find a unit that’s perfect, or doubling it (the next step up that is a multiple) until you do the same.
It’s far easier to increase your recipe by half, by increasing a cup to a cup and a half, than to multiply 236 milliliters (one cup) by 150%.
October 29th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Hey KAZ, you have no idea what you are talking about. Metric = 10. You can’t do better than that. Period. One foot was equal to the length of a body part? How is that even practical? Your mind is so set on some retarded system of measurement that you have a hard time doubling 236 ml. With a base ten measurement you can easily factor quantities and make refined measurements without the use of pen and paper. Example: Without writing it down or thinking too hard, is the number 10,790 divisible by twelve? How about the number ten? I guarantee you can answer the second faster than the first. BECAUSE IT IS PRACTICAL! You have obviously never had to teach the American standard to children. Trust me, you would think twice about its relevance if you had to.
December 19th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
@ previous comment
lol no offense but seriously dude, egocentric patriot fail
November 16th, 2010 at 9:07 am
I think Kaz Vorpal’s response is pretty dumb. Binary? How does length get dealt with in binary? 12 inches = 1 foot, 3 feet = 1 yard, 5280 feet = 1 mile. Or how about 4840 square yards for an acre. And then we have the stupid length to volume conversions that makes no sense at all. 1 gallon = 231 cubic inches. There’s nothing “binary” about that. The only thing that may be considered binary might be the volumes such as the gallon, quart, pint, fluid ounce, and tablespoon. But how many of us Americans can easily remember how many pints to a quart or quarts to a gallon. Not many. And what’s with this 1/3 teaspoon = 1 tablespoon?! Then we get into weights and that’s just as dumb. 16 ounces is a pound. How many people remember that? That sure looks binary, but 2000 pounds is a ton and that doesn’t look binary at all. In fact, it looks a little metric-like using 2 “thousand”. And it gets even more metric-like when we say kilo-ton. It also seems stupid to use “ounce” to measure both weight and volume (i.e. ounces and fluid ounces). Our standing in the world in terms of education is dropping. And this “American” system just makes things more complex for people to grasp. Engineering and science is all based on the metric system. Engineering and science is the future.
The metric system is much easier to remember as long as you can remember the prefixes (centi, kilo, mega, giga, tera, etc). Length is based on meters. Area can me as simple as just saying square meters. For volume, 1000 cubic centimeters is a liter. It is so simple. Everything is based on 10s which is how the world thinks. We don’t think in binary and we’ve easily mapped binary to the decimal system: 2,4,8,16,etc.
And why the heck do we use Fahrenheit?! 0 degrees Fahrenheit represents the freezing point of some brine and 100 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature for Fahrenheit’s wife’s armpit?! 0 degrees Celsius is the freezing point of water and 100 degrees Celsius is the boiling point of water (at standard atmosphere) makes more sense to me.
Yes, I was born and raised in the good ol’ US of A and I totally hate the American measurement system. No wonder why people call us “stupid” Americans. the US system in inferior to the metric system. But we won’t be able to change it so easily since it is a part of our culture and culture is hard to change and can take generations. We won’t be saying something like my 120-centimeter TV, the quarterback fumbling on the 15 meter-line, or changing the speed limit signs to 90 kilometers per hour anytime soon.
January 8th, 2011 at 1:45 pm
“No wonder why people call us “stupid” Americans?”
Which metric country sent anyone to the moon & brought them back alive?
NONE.
November 29th, 2012 at 6:23 am