US measurement system

[Scaredgirl]

I found this picture in imgur.com and thought I'd post it here because it's important.



I'm hoping someone here will step up and devote his or her life to changing that system so that in 10 years or so, US will join the rest of the world and I can stop using those silly online converters.

So lets make it happen, ok?

[dragonsdemesne]

What do Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States all have in common?

http://able2know.org/topic/121197-1

They are the only countries still using Imperial measurements.

[furballdn]

SI units ftw.

[ddevans96]

*stops reading after title*

Apparently Burma, Liberia, and people in other countries who still use the imperial system don't exist

*reads the rest of the thread*

I wouldn't mind a worldwide switch to the metric system - If entire countries can switch to driving on the other side of the road in a matter of days, why can't we officially switch to the metric system? But I like the imperial system just as much because it involves more math than just multiplying and dividing by 10

Our system for temperature is definitely messed up though.

[jmdt]

The title is somewhat misleading...its the 'imperial' measurement system and not the 'US' measurement system.  It was the British folk's idea.

As an engineer, I use both systems interchangeably.  As a user of both, while the metric system makes for nice conversions and is generally great for scientific work, the imperial system is not without its own merits.  The imperial system has some wierd conversions, but its individual units were generally chosen due to the practicality of their size.  Pint, quart, gallon; each is a usable size in every day use.  Much more useful IMO than 0.55 liter, 1.1 liter, and 4.4 liter.  Since everything is based on factors of 10, 1000, etc. the metric system leads to some wierd numbers from time to time.

IMO, it really does make more sense to list the month before they day.  Mentally, it narrows things down much more having the month listed first.  It really does not make that much of a difference not like other unit's difference.

[darkrobe]

in general, its a matter of difference in approach. SI units are units focused on easy math. multiples of ten, just move the decimal place, makes everything easy to get a solution. The imperial system on the other hand is focused on easy measurement. 

whats the distance from here to there? make a chain between here and there, the distance is 1 chain. or it is 20.1168 meters. whats the distance between these two places.  half a chain or 10.0584 m.

so in general math it is often easier to learn metric. but in specific industries you see that each industry will have its own units dependent on how it measures things.

for example in petroleum industries you can measure permeability in cm2 or ft2 but a lot of time a company will ignore that and use a measurement called a darcy. what the hell is a darcy? something that is in a scale that the company can easily measure and understand. and  it is neither an si unit not a imperial unit but some weird industry specific unit.

[furballdn]

[dragonsdemesne]

IMO, it really does make more sense to list the month before they day.  Mentally, it narrows things down much more having the month listed first.  It really does not make that much of a difference not like other unit's difference.

In the pre-computer era, this made little to no difference, but with computers, using day-month-year makes it a bit easier to sort lists of dates and things like that in tables, because then alphanumeric sorting puts them in actual date order.  Alphanumerically sorting month-day-year puts April first, for example.  There are of course ways to deal with this in software, but if you use day-month-year, you don't need them.

[EvaRia]

I remember when we went to a road to trip down to the states...

I swear the first thing I thought when we got back into Canada was "Yes! Metric!"

[furballdn]

I remember when we went to a road to trip down to the states...

I swear the first thing I thought when we got back into Canada was "Yes! Metric!"

People with the name "Miles" have to change their name to "1.6Kilometers" when they enter Canada.

[OldTrees]

IMO, it really does make more sense to list the month before they day.  Mentally, it narrows things down much more having the month listed first.  It really does not make that much of a difference not like other unit's difference.

In the pre-computer era, this made little to no difference, but with computers, using day-month-year makes it a bit easier to sort lists of dates and things like that in tables, because then alphanumeric sorting puts them in actual date order.  Alphanumerically sorting month-day-year puts April first, for example.  There are of course ways to deal with this in software, but if you use day-month-year, you don't need them.

Wouldn't Alphanumerically sorting day-month-year put April 1 first just like month-day-year?
Why use Alphanumerically sorting rather than Numerically sorting? AKA 01/01/xxxx before 04/01/xxxx or 01/04/xxxx

[dragonsdemesne]

Wouldn't Alphanumerically sorting day-month-year put April 1 first just like month-day-year?
Why use Alphanumerically sorting rather than Numerically sorting? AKA 01/01/xxxx before 04/01/xxxx or 01/04/xxxx

You're absolutely right.  I screwed up my explanation.  The months are normally treated as numbers, and so putting them after day makes them sort properly.  I had the right idea above but completely wrong reasoning behind it.  Dunno what I was thinking... :p