i hate inches, feet and pounds and miles ?

[Lefty]

skinny to slim to medium to buff to plump to fat

 

[hotatlboi]

the Americans have it right, any one who uses that metric thing is archaic....join the new millennium people.

You've got it backwards friend. Actually it is the imperial system that is archaic. The SI system was developed after it.

 

[unloadonme]

The craziest are the British weighing themselves in stones. That's like stating your height in (horse) hands.

It doesn't seem crazy to me. If an American tells me his weight in pounds, I have to mentally divide by 14 before I can understand how heavy he is. If a European tells me in kilograms I have no reference point at all and just take no notice.

No-one measures themselves in hands, although I'm 18.1 hh if you're interested. Again though, if you want to tell me how tall your horse is, you'll have to do it in hands. If you tell me in inches, I can divide by four. If you tell me in centimetres, I'm not interested.

 

[DJ1990]

I love the Metric system, but the truth is conditioning says a lot. There is no way I can ever describe the weather in Celsius or talk about the amount of kilos I've gained over the holidays. If I witness a crime, I'm estimating the guy's height in feet, not meters.

The Metric system makes sense (mathematically it's golden, and I enjoyed using it for science) but it simply will never feel natural.

It would eventually feel natural if you were forced to use it.
If not..whatever. It would feel natural to the next generation.

 

[neruda]

I'm certainly more comfortable in the metric system
I can understand why the American's dont get it.
But then the poor dears don't get a lot of things.
And that's OK.

 

[mbamike]

Being an American I of course use inches, feet, pounds and miles. I studied engineering in college and learned the SI system.

I understand mentally that a liter is about a quart, a meter is a litter longer than a yard at 39 inches, a kilometer is 0.6 miles, and a kilogram is a little more than two pounds.

I have to do the math to convert mm and cm to inches even though I know one inch is 2.54 cm.

 

[EJMichaels]

I love the Metric system, but the truth is conditioning says a lot. There is no way I can ever describe the weather in Celsius or talk about the amount of kilos I've gained over the holidays. If I witness a crime, I'm estimating the guy's height in feet, not meters.

The Metric system makes sense (mathematically it's golden, and I enjoyed using it for science) but it simply will never feel natural.

I think new conditioning is possible - but it takes a while. I used to think I didn't like men. After years working for a pharmaceutical company, I'm able to look at something and estimate some of the characteristics in metric units. I'm not good with temperature yet, but I can think about size metrically.

 

[braex27]

The METRIC SYSTEM rules!!

YAY!!!!

 

[Lefty]

Out here, I learned early that a kilo is a key

And a key is a hell of a lot different if the baggie is filled with the local green

leaf or the more exotic ( and expensive) white powders. Other than that,

I know the equivalences but my visual acuity still sees non-metric.

 

[RoadBike]

Metric is fine. I learned it years ago and have used it on the job. If you work with it long enough, you don't need to convert; you just know the measurement that you're dealing with. A half litre is a good size drink when you're thirsty. 21C is a pleasant temperature for exercising. 50 grams of pot is a nice stash! Here are some easy conversions:

1 kilometre = .625 miles
88 kph = 55 mph
F = (C/5 X 9) + 32
C = (F-32) X 5 / 9
1 litre = 1.06 quarts
1 gallon = 3.78 litres
20 kilograms = 44 pounds
1 pound = .454 kg. = 454 grams

 

[birddog7]

I like metric better, but the U.S. isn't likely to change anyway soon.

 

[Lefty]

So whats the metric equiv for

1. pinch
2. mess
3. dash
4. pat
5. skosh
6. splash
7. bit
8. tad
9. shot
10. handfull
11. bunch
12, thru to....
19. the whole spoon thing and wet/dry ozs?

 

[morgaes]

So whats the metric equiv for

1. pinch
2. mess
3. dash
4. pat
5. skosh
6. splash
7. bit
8. tad
9. shot
10. handfull
11. bunch
12, thru to....
19. the whole spoon thing and wet/dry ozs?

Sense

....

 

[Autolycus]

oops I posted in the wrong thread

Even the English don't use the "English system" anymore. Only the dopey Americans do.

Surely you mean the British? The UK is not just England!

As a matter of fact, many of we Brits still use pounds and ounces - we have the OK from the European Union to do so. They tried to stop us but we won in the end.

Things are sold in Metric measures but we can still ask for items in Imperial weights and measures. The problem is we have a generation that grew up with the old measures and we do not readily understand the metric system, although we are learning, slow but sure. We still like to know the temperature in Fahrenheit. 30 may be warm in metric but it is bloody cold in Fahrenheit!

 

[thermodynamics]

I've used both. Different disciplines (even scientific ones) may go back and forth. Civil engineering uses the English system extensively (except in journal publications). In Mechanical engineering, we try to use metric, but it depends on what tooling we have available.

When doing mathematical operations on various units, the metric system generally doesn't save any steps, but it makes the steps a little simpler (10's), whereas the conversions between units in the english system are rarely 10. Once you have the conversion factors memorized, one isn't any easier or harder than the other.

 

[just_mills]

Oh yes we do.

The government and the wretched european union has tried to inflict some metric measurements on us, but if you ask an Englishman how much he weighs he'll tell you in stones and pounds, how tall in feet and inches and how far in miles. And long may it remain so!

Agreed. ^

 

[salgai]

Hi,

as a mainland European, I don't hate the Imperial System. I'm just not used to it, since my life goes in meters, degrees celsius, liters and so on.
What I'm always wondering about is the use of a caliper in the imperial system - maybe there's a technician here who can tell about that.
I mean OK, one knows there are wrenches in 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 1/2 inch and so on. But what about measuring something?
For example, I just have a part here which measures 39.4 mm - which is 3.94 cm or 0.0394 m.
But in inches?
I measure 1.5 inches, plus 7/128 - I mean, how do you guys convert such a dimension to something one can write down and calculate with?

cu,
salgai

 

[Lefty]

Come on salgai.......

thats why we have service people

 

[roadtripboy]

Most manufacturing in the US is metric. But, I still have trouble telling what the temp is in celsuis. I think the problem is the range between the numbers is too small. If it's 32 degrees instead of 70 degrees there's a clear difference. But, if it 20 compared to 25 it's harder to judge the difference.

 

[talbot57]

And we British still like our pints

And although we fill the car with litres, we still use mpg to calculate the cars economy