Why Canada and the U.S. Should Merge, Eh?

[garbon]

2. Have the US fully adopt the metric system.

Fuck No!

Eh we pretty much already have.  Anybody who uses measurements professionally uses the metric system.  Only amateurs use the English system for anything, it being a horrible system and all.

I mean I have used it all my life and I still am like 'ok how many cups in how many quarts and how many pints and how many gallons?' 'how many feet in a mile again?'  I mean fuck that shit.

I'd say the opposite that we pretty much haven't. I don't know why what is used professionally should be a gauge. In daily living, in the US, encountering the metric system is not a common occurrence.

[Eddie Teach]

2. Have the US fully adopt the metric system.

Fuck No!

Eh we pretty much already have.  Anybody who uses measurements professionally uses the metric system.  Only amateurs use the English system for anything, it being a horrible system and all.

I mean I have used it all my life and I still am like 'ok how many cups in how many quarts and how many pints and how many gallons?' 'how many feet in a mile again?'  I mean fuck that shit.

I'd say the opposite that we pretty much haven't. I don't know why what is used professionally should be a gauge. In daily living, in the US, encountering the metric system is not a common occurrence.

2 liter bottles of soda are pretty common.

[Grey Fox]

I use both daily.

I use metric for air temparature, weather, but when talking pool water I use Imperial.

I cook & measure in imperial. Carpentry is obviously done in imperial. Distances & speed are in metric.

[garbon]

2. Have the US fully adopt the metric system.

Fuck No!

Eh we pretty much already have.  Anybody who uses measurements professionally uses the metric system.  Only amateurs use the English system for anything, it being a horrible system and all.

I mean I have used it all my life and I still am like 'ok how many cups in how many quarts and how many pints and how many gallons?' 'how many feet in a mile again?'  I mean fuck that shit.

I'd say the opposite that we pretty much haven't. I don't know why what is used professionally should be a gauge. In daily living, in the US, encountering the metric system is not a common occurrence.

2 liter bottles of soda are pretty common.

I can't speak to their commonality, but are you saying that one example refutes what I've said?

[garbon]

I use both daily.

I use metric for air temparature, weather, but when talking pool water I use Imperial.

I cook & measure in imperial. Carpentry is obviously done in imperial. Distances & speed are in metric.

And I would suggest that for most people in the US, metric isn't used for any of those.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Blah blah blah blah blah.

Listening to someone argue that the metric system isn't really better is like listening to someone argue that people really did ride dinosaurs, or that the moon landings never happened, or any other pseudo-science BS.

It doesn't even rate an actual argument in response anymore.

Fuck you very much, maybe try eating a cock and dying, mkay?

It may be better.  But I'm not convinced it's that much better to be worth the trouble of making the switch.

An added benefit is that it annoys the Euros.

Yup, this is my point. The metric system is better designed, because essentially it is a designed system of measure. The customary system grew out of random past practices that were eventually standardized, it's messy because when it was standardized there were all kinds of measures people had taken to using over the years that really made little sense unless you were using them and didn't fit well into any sort of unified system (see: hectares, the whole pints/gallons/quarts thing etc.)

The real argument against a "switch" to metric is any situation you care to think of where it actually makes economic sense to switch to the metric system by and large...we've already done it. Most people's interaction with the measurement system comes down to three scenarios: 1. weighing yourself, 2. guesstimating how far it is from point a to  point b, 3. measuring things for cooking/baking.

For #1, there is no societal difference between me thinking of my weight in pounds, stones, or kilograms. None. It  has no impact. Even in metric Britain people still think of themselves in stone, and it has no larger societal impact at all. Most digital scales you buy even in the U.S. have settings for kg/stone/lb.

For #2, again, it doesn't really matter if Valmy is thinking "San Antonio is 560 mi away" versus 900 km away.

For #3, for infrequent cooks or bakers it is indeed not all that intuitive as to how you go from teaspoons to tablespoons to cups to quarts to pints etc. But, if you're an infrequent cook then what's the real societal cost to just looking that information up? For that matter, most people should be weighing their ingredients because for most things volume measures aren't all that useful. And dealing in ounces is pretty easy and most people know 16 oz = one pound. Further, last I checked you can buy a metric measurement set for cooking. So if you dislike using teaspoons, cups etc your salvation is a mere $5.99 away.

Where using metric has actually mattered, people use it. I believe most manufacturing already uses metric, and despite the press the Mars probe got, NASA actually typically works purely in metric. For the Apollo program (almost 50 years ago) NASA was working entirely in metric.

What metric advocates are really arguing for is changing all the road signs and banning the sale of customary measuring cups and scales, a move that actually doesn't affect much at all and is unnecessary. The argument that doing this will create "metric literate students" who can then more easily go into the STEM fields is bunk. Any kid smart enough to be in the STEM fields who is pursuing that path is going to know metric like the back of their hand.

Where metric makes sense we should use it, but for the minor areas of day-to-day life where regular people interact with the measurement system there is no reason to use legislative fiat to get rid of customary measurements--they don't hurt anything there.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I would guess also temperature would be another daily use of the measurement system for most people. But again, whether an individual thinks of "32" as "cold" or "hot" is not really that important.

As grumbler says, when doing calculations is where metric really shines. But most people do not do calculations involving the measurement system on a day to day basis. Where they do, those fields often use metric and even when they don't we're talking people who use these measures every day (like construction trades), so I doubt they struggle much with the concept of 12 inches to a foot or etc.

[viper37]

Isn't there something of a gun culture among rural Canadians?

Not as in the US.  Hunters who don't want to be treated like criminals just to practice their sport, yes.  But people having 3 dozen firearms at home with enough munitions to sustain a zombie apocalypse, no, not really, I mean, not in a significant number.

[derspiess]

I guess I think of beer in terms of ounces for a single serving, but liters/milliliters for larger measures.  At this point it doesn't feel unnatural to shift between the two.

[viper37]

Lots of contractors and people in the construction trade also use the standard measurement system professionally. In fact it's one of the areas where a base 10 system isn't necessarily any easier because it's not realistic to be dividing by ten all the time on a real job, and when you start needing to cut a six foot 2 x 4 into thirds or fourths the metric system is no more friendly with its measures than the customary system and arguably it is less friendly.

In the offices, we work almost exclusively with the metric system.  On site, though, things are of a different matter.  As you explained, a 2x4... well, the pieces of wood are already in imperial system, so it's a lot easier to use imperial measures for the rest.  Except when dealing with Wal-Mart or other american companies, then they deliver their plans in english and imperial measurements.  I have to translate all the fucking notes on the plan and try to make Excel work with their silly measures 12'-1" 3/4 X 15' 3 1/2".   

But most of our steel comes from Europe or Canada, so anything dealing with that is already in metric, so it's easier to use the real measures than an approximation.

I think the last bastion of the imperial system is the soft lumber industry.  Once we have conquered that, we will be able to isolate those evil worshippers of non base 10 systems.

[The Minsky Moment]

If America and Canada merged, does that mean Americans wouldn't know who their own leaders are?

[viper37]

The imperial system is better for the everyday stuff, because it is based in the human body.

how is it based in the human body?

[Valmy]

The imperial system is better for the everyday stuff, because it is based in the human body.

how is it based in the human body?

One foot is actually the length of garbon's foot.

[viper37]

I guess I think of beer in terms of ounces for a single serving, but liters/milliliters for larger measures.  At this point it doesn't feel unnatural to shift between the two.

I think of beer in terms of bottle, the rest is irrelevant.  Who wants an ounce of beer anyway??

[viper37]

If America and Canada merged, does that mean Americans wouldn't know who their own leaders are?

It means Justin Trudeau would be your next Democrat President.  Think of it, then decide if it's a good idea or not.