Which system do you think will take over?

When I was in school I was told the metric system would eventually take over and destroy us all. Well that hasn't happened and with the internet here I am beginning to wonder if the opposite won't happen. So what do you think? Lets say 20 years from now which system do you think will be dominant?

When America inevitably takes over the world she will impose the english system on all the heathen masses.

Baring the complete destruction of science and rational thought, the United States and Britain will eventually come to their sense and adopt the metric system.

In all honesty, even american scientist aren't stupid enough to use the english system. those who are on the cutting edge of technology already use metric for everything. it's merely the ignorant masses who cling to the english system.

[size=13][color=white]

it's merely the ignorant masses who cling to the english system.

scratches butt

Hey paw, I reckon he talk`n bout us![/color][/size]

I voted for metric, but I feel it will never kill out the english (I believe its proper name to be Imperial) system. Its like languages, there will never be a true universal language.

I use Metric for everything, except for weight. When I weight myself.

All scientific documents are already in the Metric system. In fact, I think many universities, including mine, made it mandatory for all papers to be published using only metric units, except where absolutely necessary. Besides, it would make the world much simpler if we used the same systems.

I was under the impression that America is the only country now using Imperial. At least as a standardized unit of measurement. There are aspects of Imperial everywhere you go (just like American culture). But it is kind of annoying having two allen-key sets just because of slightly different units of measurement.

20 years ago they said the metric system would replace the english system in America, and we are closer than ever before! :rolleyes: You guys keep your kilometers.

:wink:

the question is "which do you think will take over?" guys NOT "which do you like best?" :rolleyes:

i think, or rather feel strongly, the metric system will win out, it leaves fewer decimal places to the right when used to figure with.. unlike the way the english version which might have 15 or so oddball numbers :biggrin:

anywho's, even if thats a poor example, and only makes you giggle, it still accurate enuff :smile:

metrics blows major chunks IMO, but as i read quite recently....

Vash said:

it's merely the ignorant masses who cling to the english system.

scratches butt

Hey paw, I reckon he talk`n bout us!

i couldn't have said it any better myself. although no one has called me ignorant to my face, in quite some time :biggrin:

Gorbachev said:
I was under the impression that America is the only country now using Imperial.

No, no, I distinctly remember that one other country uses Imperial. I think it was Libya or something; don't really recall.

Baring the complete destruction of science and rational thought, the United States and Britain will eventually come to their sense and adopt the metric system.

In all honesty, even american scientist aren't stupid enough to use the english system. those who are on the cutting edge of technology already use metric for everything. it's merely the ignorant masses who cling to the english system.

...I'm guessing that includes Nasa, since they use the English system for most all of their calculations (thus losing the Mars orbiter). Nasa worked with another company overseas, I don't remember which, but they both made assumptions. Nasa assumed everyone would use English measurments. The other company assumed everyone would use Metric measurments. Well I think you guys know what happened after that.

But yes, the english system literally only has a handful of measurments while metric has microscopic measurements. Ever wonder why rulers have inches and centimeters? an inch is the smallets length measurment for the English system, while metric can go down to yoctometers (for length), if you wonder how long that is:

1 yoctometer = 1x10^(-24) meters = 2.5381x10^(-26) inches

that's pretty small just to be clear. and obviously 1 is more precise then 2.53807106599x10^(-26).

I vote metric, since it's been used longer and because most technology we have is based on it, and not the english system. (Astronamy for example, planet alignment, so on so forth).

[EDIT]
Lybia doesn't use Imperial, they use metric. Where did you hear otherwise?
[/EDIT]

Imperial measurements were the cause of the seven times table.

Sim said:
Imperial measurements were the cause of the seven times table.

how?

My bad. Actually Googled the information up and apparently:

"In 1990 there remained only three nations that had not converted to the metric system, they were Burma, Liberia, and the United States."

Libya, Liberia, same thing. :razz:

Besides hundreds of kilometers and governments. Oh and a desert

Crono said:
I vote metric, since it's been used longer ...

just to be disagreeable :rolleyes: , i'll point out that the metric system was devised sometime in the late 1800's, by some french dude. he didn't get it quite right, and it was subject to a bit of tampering a few years later.

the english/imperial system, however, is much much older.

even american scientist aren't stupid enough to use the english system. those who are on the cutting edge of technology already use metric for everything.

That is definately true. The mars probe thing went wrong because one team was working in metric, and the other in imperial, and they didn't take the units into account when exchanging data, or something like that, not because nasa only works in imperial. At the current levels of complexity in some fields, trying to use imperial measurements is just a joke. For example magnetic field measurements - american scientists gave up using imperial units, because they just made everything too hard.

It seems pretty inevitable that at least in the realms of science and technology, everyone will adopt metric, because as technology advances, imperial gets more and more unwieldy. Having said that, I can't see us in britain changing every single road sign to kilometers, just to be metric, as using miles doesn't cause any problems, and it would cost a lot to change them all.

I imagine that nothing will change within any reasonable timescale, and heres why: in most people's mind, the very nature of any "measurement" is tied to how it relates to fundamental units of that measurement that they learned when they were young.

Without even thinking about it I have a natural understanding of how heavy a pound is, or how long a mile is.

However, despite the fact that I have used the metric system in all my math and science classes since forever, I still don't naturally understand how much a kilogram weighs, or long a kilometer is. Sure, with a little thought I could reason, "there are about 2.6 km in a mile, so x km is about y miles", but then I don't really understand the length of a kilometer naturally - I only can understand it in terms of the length of a mile (my natural unit of measurement for mile-like distances).

And thats the problem. We all learned these ideas when we were very young - before school probably, and so the units are ingrained deep in our minds.

---

Also, on a different note, a lot of (non-christian) people have argued that weeks have 7 days because on average 7 is the largest number that people have a natural understanding of.

eg: you probably know the "threeness" of the number three, but not the "549ness" of the number 549. One would expect that somewhere inbetween there is the largest number that the human mind can comprehend not as a function of other numbers. Studies have shown that for most people this number is 7.

mazemaster said:
Also, on a different note, a lot of (non-christian) people have argued that weeks have 7 days because on average 7 is the largest number that people have a natural understanding of.

didn't this also have to do with the 7 holes in ones head theory?

also, i have to concur with you on the learned way back when theory, i can use metrics, to a point, but my noggin always thinks in S.A.E., always.

it doesn't help that our american cars go in MPH, our highways are measured in miles, we buy fuel in gallons, we buy beer in 30 packs cough

anywhos, america is dedicated to its separatism, and we all value S.A.E., it will not go away, any time soon, prolly not within our life times.

I definitely think that metric will completely take over and I rather hope it does it soon! I much prefer the metric system over English/Imperial system.

I think for some things the imperial system will always be used (height, weight etc) but for measurment I think that metric is the way to go.

I dont see why imperial should be used at all, rather than the fact that its already in use.

Crono said:

Baring the complete destruction of science and rational thought, the United States and Britain will eventually come to their sense and adopt the metric system.

In all honesty, even american scientist aren't stupid enough to use the english system. those who are on the cutting edge of technology already use metric for everything. it's merely the ignorant masses who cling to the english system.

...I'm guessing that includes Nasa, since they use the English system for most all of their calculations (thus losing the Mars orbiter). Nasa worked with another company overseas, I don't remember which, but they both made assumptions. Nasa assumed everyone would use English measurments. The other company assumed everyone would use Metric measurments. Well I think you guys know what happened after that.

But yes, the english system literally only has a handful of measurments while metric has microscopic measurements. Ever wonder why rulers have inches and centimeters? an inch is the smallets length measurment for the English system, while metric can go down to yoctometers (for length), if you wonder how long that is:

1 yoctometer = 1x10^(-24) meters = 2.5381x10^(-26) inches

that's pretty small just to be clear. and obviously 1 is more precise then 2.53807106599x10^(-26).

I vote metric, since it's been used longer and because most technology we have is based on it, and not the english system. (Astronamy for example, planet alignment, so on so forth).

[EDIT]
Lybia doesn't use Imperial, they use metric. Where did you hear otherwise?
[/EDIT]

The ignorant masses was a joke. I still use inches, pounds gallons and fahrenheit for every day uses just like the rest of you...

I beleve the NASA screwup was the other way around. NASA had contracted with Lockheed (an american company) for the thrusters on the probe. Lockheed reported the thrust in pounds, but NASA assumed it was in newtons, hence there was actualy a factor of two discrepency.

The "number" of units makes no difference whatsoever. the only thing which makes the metric system better is the fact of how easy it is to convert everything. you could just as easily say 10^-12 inches ans 10^-12 m. just because there isn't a name for the imperial version is no reason not to use it. you could afterall call it a picoinch to paralell the picometer...

Was it an American company?? Weird, no news item seems to be correct then ...

Anyway, there are discrepencies though. Since, there really is no english unit for mass, there's weight/force which is pounds, but ... is there a unit for mass? I'm honestly asking here. Obviously SI is Kilograms.

There are other systems I can thank God no one uses anymore, or at least not widely. What system was it that the slug was used in?

To all metric haters:

The metric system is just plain easier to use and calculate with, all metric measurements are based on one unit (one metre, one gram, one volt, one farad, one byte, whatever) with standard prefixes for one thousand (kilo), one million (mega), one hundreth (centi), one one thousanth (sp?) (mili), one millionth (micro) and so on. It just makes things easier, and you can do calculations and stuff without worrying if your units match up properly. On the other hand, in imperial, you have a load of different measurments for every quantity all in seemingly unrelated proportions to one another, for instance, simply for distance and area in imperial you have miles, furlongs, leagues, inches, feet, hands, acres, hectares, perches, roods, links and chains, all of which are most peculiarilly linked to each other. Wheras in metric we have metres for distance and metres square for areas.

Now tell me that dosent make more sense.

hate is to strong a word for this..

my tired old brain refuses to make the transition.. its not hate at all.

also, as i said, almost everything in the US supports S.A.E.

any of us would not debate the accuracy of metrics in calculating stuff.. it is by far superior, but how damned many of us, need that level of accuracy in everyday things???

i think, i will stick to S.A.E.

DAN200 said:
To all metric haters:

The metric system is just plain easier to use and calculate with, all metric measurements are based on one unit (one metre, one gram, one volt, one farad, one byte, whatever) with standard prefixes for one thousand (kilo), one million (mega), one hundreth (centi), one one thousanth (sp?) (mili), one millionth (micro) and so on. It just makes things easier, and you can do calculations and stuff without worrying if your units match up properly. On the other hand, in imperial, you have a load of different measurments for every quantity all in seemingly unrelated proportions to one another, for instance, simply for distance and area in imperial you have miles, furlongs, leagues, inches, feet, hands, acres, hectares, perches, roods, links and chains, all of which are most peculiarilly linked to each other. Wheras in metric we have metres for distance and metres square for areas.

Now tell me that dosent make more sense.

It doesn't. It's not that much harder to divide by 12 (or what have you) instead of 10. Plus outside of science there is little need to readily convert units around all the time. I don't need to know how many feet I traveled if I went 15.2 miles, and if I did I could easily divide by the correct number. That's why we invented calculators. Besides, English units are generally bigger, and we all know that bigger = better, especially in America!

Yak_Fighter said:
Besides, English units are generally bigger, and we all know that bigger = better, especially in America!

looks at big pile of diapers in corner

yeah right :rolleyes:

Actually the simplest divisions are multiplications by 1 or 10 or 100 so on so forth because you simply move the decimal place left or right; it requires no real calculations or thought (When using the metric system you really only multiply unless except in your value calculation, after all multiplication and division are pretty much the same thing once you get down to it).

Since Dan brought up the prefixes. I thought it'd be great to have a YottaByte of RAM or 1Yb. Look up how big that prefix is and you'll want it too.

Crono said:
Actually the simplest divisions are multiplications by 1 or 10 or 100 so on so forth because you simply move the decimal place left or right; it requires no real calculations or thought (When using the metric system you really only multiply unless except in your value calculation, after all multiplication and division are pretty much the same thing once you get down to it).

What do you think I am, a first grader? I know that. :razz:

Crono said:
Since Dan brought up the prefixes. I thought it'd be great to have a YottaByte of RAM or 1Yb. Look up how big that prefix is and you'll want it too.

a googol of ram would be nice :wink:

Yes, a GoogolByte of ram would be better. But ... does your house have enough storage space for that amount of ram? and can you afford the electricity bill? not to mention can you handle that amount of heat??

Interesting how this turned out. I think most people would agree that the metric system is better. It was designed for ease of use whereas a foot was simply a measurement of a foot and so on. Personally, the reason I use the imperial system is because that is what everything 'common' here is measured in. Really someone in the US who didn't know it would be somewhat helpless on some things. And I agree about it being because of what you learn when you are young. I think metric will eventually win out, but prolly not until the US works on its crappy schools.

Campaignjunkie said:
My bad. Actually Googled the information up and apparently:

"In 1990 there remained only three nations that had not converted to the metric system, they were Burma, Liberia, and the United States."

Libya, Liberia, same thing. :razz:

The US is the only real big "world factor" of those, the other two are just kind of 3rd world. I guess I had intended to say that even England wasn't using Imperial. As well as all the other developed nations. Although here in Canada we end up with a butchery of both since we get so much American content mixed with our own. So all cars have both M/hr. and Km/hr. I know my height in m as well as feet, although I only know my weight in lbs. Doing anything with a ruler though I work in metric.

Read me sig and learn who I am; then you'll relize my disposistion with learning the Metric System.

Being 15; my mind is full of Mapping, and sex.

Read me sig and learn who I am; then you'll relize my disposistion with learning the Metric System.

Being 15; my mind is full of Mapping, and sex.

It should be more developed then that

I who am 18 have a mind of sex, hockey and mapping. That roughly covers it, I guess computers and overclocking or tweaking anything with moving/tweakable parts can go in there too.

Come on, let's face facts here - if the US starts using the metric system, then the terrorists have won.

Gorbachev said:
I who am 18 have a mind of sex, hockey and mapping. That roughly covers it, I guess computers and overclocking or tweaking anything with moving/tweakable parts can go in there too.

wait till you get older, bladder control moves up that list considerably.

looks over at large pile of diapers

indeed, in amerca you got one big pile of **** in a ugly white house.

here in holland we cnat do big. we got 16.000.000 people on 250x250 km. we are the most dense populatoed country in europe

and we use the best measuring systme in the wordl, the metric system

pepper said:
indeed, in amerca you got one big pile of **** in a ugly white house.

here in holland we cnat do big. we got 16.000.000 people on 250x250 km. we are the most dense populatoed country in europe

we pile our s**t in the white house, you take yours and build dikes around your country, how is this better exacly? :biggrin:

/runs

"The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets 80 furlongs to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!" (Grandpa Simpson)

Gorbachev said:
I who am 18 have a mind of sex, hockey and mapping........tweaking anything with tweakable parts can go in there too.

isn't that already covered in the 'sex' catagory? :biggrin:

Working in a builders merchants is always frustrating, us shop guys work with the computer which records all materials like wood etc in mm and all the Yard monkeys who write out the Yard tickets work in imperial. As i was brought up with Metric only, I had no idea of the 2" by 4" equivalent. (Although I pick it up quickly.)

fishy said:

Gorbachev said:
I who am 18 have a mind of sex, hockey and mapping........tweaking anything with tweakable parts can go in there too.

isn't that already covered in the 'sex' catagory? :biggrin:

OWNED