General > General Technical Chat
why is the US not Metric
CatalinaWOW:
The repeated mention of the failure of Mars Climate Orbiter due to a units error and the footprints on the moon comment that also comes up everywhere caused me to actually look up some numbers. Unfortunately they are on my desk at home and I am on travel for a while, but the numbers were the total number of Mars missions and their successes or failures. Turns out that Mars has been a tough target. The country with the best record on getting a mission there is India who is one for one. The US is second and from memory is something like 15 for 21. The EU comes in third but the number depends on how you count (does the Joint EU/Russia mission count as half for each country or does each country get credit for a full successful mission). And either way the success rate is under 50%. All other nations are far worse, with Russia having notably poor success.
Among the countries that have done several missions the US success rate is far higher than all others.
All of those countries except the US are metric, so either metric doesn't really matter, or it is far from a dominant factor. Whether the dominant factor is a set of German scientists, the basic wealth of the country, a more practical approach to problems, a larger technical base or whatever it isn't the measurement system.
Which comes back to why the US hasn't switched. It isn't crucial. Metric is nice. Like a new car is nice. And from many points of view better. But if the old beater is still doing the job, there is not compelling reason to switch.
boffin:
--- Quote from: rstofer on February 03, 2020, 05:50:52 pm ---
Just remember: There are two types of countries, those who use metric and those who have left footprints on the Moon.
--- End quote ---
Actually there is only one type of country, those who used metric to leave footprints on the moon.
All of NASA's calculations were in metric
https://ukma.org.uk/why-metric/myths/metric-internationally/the-moon-landings/
Cubdriver:
--- Quote from: boffin on February 05, 2020, 06:45:33 pm ---
--- Quote from: rstofer on February 03, 2020, 05:50:52 pm ---
Just remember: There are two types of countries, those who use metric and those who have left footprints on the Moon.
--- End quote ---
Actually there is only one type of country, those who used metric to leave footprints on the moon.
All of NASA's calculations were in metric
https://ukma.org.uk/why-metric/myths/metric-internationally/the-moon-landings/
--- End quote ---
Well then apparently the US is metric enough, proving this whole discussion even more pointless than it already was.
-Pat
bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: rstofer on February 04, 2020, 02:37:39 pm ---My contention is that ordinary people, folks who aren't scientists or certain types of engineers do now, and always will, use imperial units. We're never going to change for all the reasons I posted earlier. You can see that after 47 pages of useless interaction, nothing has changed. Nor will it ever! But keep on posting...
--- End quote ---
C'mon, man, you're not serious about this are you? You don't expect that after this thread the people in the US put on sackcloth, sit in ashes, fast for 40 days and then change to metric in repentance, do you?
We are just discussing the issue. And yes, after 47 pages, you are right. People in the US know metric is superior in every aspect to imperial and they have the resources (and had many opportunities) to metricate the country and bury imperial for good, but they don't do it simply because they do not want to.
Imperial is like country music. People in the US love that thing. But, man, it sucks.
bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: Cubdriver on February 05, 2020, 06:48:46 pm ---Well then apparently the US is metric enough, proving this whole discussion even more pointless than it already was.
--- End quote ---
We are not discussing whether it is crucial to use the metric system to land on the moon. We are discussing why the US does not adhere to the metric system to the point of deprecating old systems of measure.
It is clear that some in the US feel uncomfortable when people discuss what, in the modern world, seems to be an odd cultural trait.
So, to try to shut up the discussants, the moon landings or other equivalent event are mentioned, implying that the imperial system is not only an alternative to the metric system, but also probably even better, since it helped a nation that apparently doesn't give a toss about metric achieve something the other nations couldn't.
When it is shown that the US actually used metric to achieve something, debunking the above argument, then it is said that the US is "metric enough", "metricated where it makes sense" or the like. But this is exactly the moon-landing argument, only that you replaced imperial with metric. However the issue we are discussing is left unanswered.
In short, this kind of argument is a fallacy and this thread is still going on because we are not falling for it.
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