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why is the US not Metric

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bsfeechannel:

--- Quote from: GeorgeOfTheJungle on February 06, 2020, 07:50:04 pm ---What's an ms? A metre second. What's this? https://ludens.cl/philo/measures.html A very good read!


--- Quote ---The new system was constructed in a logical way, as far as the fuzzy human mind allows this. There was to be just ONE unit of measurement for every physical  magnitude. For example, the unit for distance would be called the meter, and EVERY distance would be measured in it, regardless how large or small it was. Not like the stupid British system, where length could be measured in inches, feet, yards, furlongs or miles, to mention just a few of the many options! In the new system, for adapting to small and large distances, prefixes would be used that allowed to easily multiply the unit in decimal increments, from trillionths to trillions and much more! These same multipliers would be user for each and every unit. Only basic units, like distance, time, temperature would be freely defined. All derived units, such as speed, acceleration, inductance, would be built on top of the basic units. This is a fabulous advantage over every older system! You can simply multiply and divide any values in these units, to obtain the result in the correct unit of the resulting class. For example, one watt is the power that is required to free an energy of one joule in one second. This one joule is the energy required to push something with a force of one newton over a distance of one meter. The power of one watt means that the object will move that one meter in one second. This same one watt is the power defined by putting a current of one ampere through a resistor of one ohm, and the potential difference that will appear across this resistor is one volt! If instead you put this current of one ampere into a capacitor of one farad during one second, the capacitor will charge to one volt. Or if you apply this one volt to a coil of one henry, the current will rise by one ampere in one second. By the way, if the coil has one turn, then applying one volt to it for one second will result in a magnetic flux of one weber, and this flux distributed over one square meter of area is of course a flux density of one tesla! Everything is one by one by one! What could be easier than this? No other measurement system ever in history has been as practical! Every other system requires conversion constants in most or all of these calculations!
--- End quote ---

--- End quote ---

Manfred, a.k.a., Homo ludens, is the guy who got me to reject any other system, imperial, cgs, MKS, whatever, but metric (i.e. SI). He's absolutely right. After I stuck exclusively with the metric system, not only calculations and measurements became a lot simpler, but also understanding theory became easier, because the metric system is the result of the endeavor to understand nature.

Namely

https://ludens.cl/Electron/Magnet.html

There is one request I have: When you enter this page, you have to leave out all obsolete, absurd units of which most textbooks and catalogs are full: Most notably, inches, gauss and oersted. Delete these three words from your vocabulary! They have no place here. They are the principal culprits in confusing people attempting magnetic design to the point of driving them crazy. Now, that we have gotten rid of them, we can start.
(Bold letters are mine.)

bsfeechannel:

--- Quote from: tooki on February 06, 2020, 11:21:29 am ---Not all metric advocacy is patronizing and sanctimonious. But what's contained in this thread mostly is. It hasn't been the American metrication advocates in this thread who've been patronizing and sanctimonious, it's been the European ones.
--- End quote ---

The US is the only country that has a metric "advocacy". The other countries don't waste their time discussing the benefits of the metric system, because it has been tried and tested for at least two centuries and it proved beyond any doubt that it is the ideal system for the era we are living.

In the US people are still ridiculously debating whether to use it or not, and the arguments are the most stupid like the one by that guy James Panero, self entitled an "anti-metrite" in the second message of this thread (not to mention Tucker Carlson's opinions who's paid to play retarded).

What is alarming is to see exactly the same ideas, which were just exposed emphatically in that video, being held in the arguments in this thread, with less radical words, but carrying the same spirit. And I'm not talking about rstofer's arguments.

The truth is that this discussion is two hundred years old and settled long ago.

Talking about the metric system with some people in the US is sometimes almost like trying to explain the benefits of electricity to the Amish (some of them reportedly use very limited forms of electricity, by the way).

boffin:
It still amazes me that this is even an argument.
200 countries use Metric
3 countries use Imperial

You'd think those three countries would want to switch in order to better position their businesses for international trade.

Fundamentally the only thing is comes down to is arrogance.  We don't want to switch, why should we switch.

CatalinaWOW:

--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on February 07, 2020, 03:04:07 am ---
--- Quote from: tooki on February 06, 2020, 11:21:29 am ---Not all metric advocacy is patronizing and sanctimonious. But what's contained in this thread mostly is. It hasn't been the American metrication advocates in this thread who've been patronizing and sanctimonious, it's been the European ones.
--- End quote ---

The US is the only country that has a metric "advocacy". The other countries don't waste their time discussing the benefits of the metric system, because it has been tried and tested for at least two centuries and it proved beyond any doubt that it is the ideal system for the era we are living.

In the US people are still ridiculously debating whether to use it or not, and the arguments are the most stupid like the one by that guy James Panero, self entitled an "anti-metrite" in the second message of this thread (not to mention Tucker Carlson's opinions who's paid to play retarded).

What is alarming is to see exactly the same ideas, which were just exposed emphatically in that video, being held in the arguments in this thread, with less radical words, but carrying the same spirit. And I'm not talking about rstofer's arguments.

The truth is that this discussion is two hundred years old and settled long ago.

Talking about the metric system with some people in the US is sometimes almost like trying to explain the benefits of electricity to the Amish (some of them reportedly use very limited forms of electricity, by the way).

--- End quote ---

Metric certainly doesn't prevent imprecision or confusion.  The metric system you have been touting, the self consistent and easy set of units has NOT been tried and tested for over two centuries.  Although the two basic units, the meter and the kilogram (and the scaling prefixes) are that old, the system is much newer.  The MKS system was introduced in 1889 and SI, the well thought out system was first introduced in 1948. 

And even today could use some improvement.  The Kelvin and the related Celsius divide freezing and boiling point of water by 100 degrees.  Which may be convenient for something, but it results in a strange quantity for the temperature rise from putting a Joule of energy into a kilogram of water. 0.00263 degrees C.  It would be far more useful to have the metric temperature unit be chosen such that 1 joule into a kg of water resulted in one degree rise.  Call that unit a Degm and it would equal 380 degrees C.  Not necessarily a convenient size for deciding whether to wear a jacket or not, but the scaling prefixes come to the rescue here.  Daily usage would be in milliDegm.  Normal room temperature would be about 780 mDegm.  A day when you would start to think about ice skating would be 718 mDegm.  And for those in desert climates those scorching hot days would be about 850 mDegm.

Why isn't the whole world attacking such a logical improvement?

SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: boffin on February 07, 2020, 07:12:57 pm ---[...]
Fundamentally the only thing is comes down to is arrogance.  We don't want to switch, why should we switch.

--- End quote ---

I don't think that applies to most Americans -  they go to the store and buy milk in quarts because that's what's there.  If the milk was in liter sized containers, they would buy that instead without giving it a second thought, quickly getting used to it.

Basically, this is down to the government at some point deciding that America needs a modernisation effort - and metrification would be a great "flagship project" as part of a package of various STEM initiatives to make the country more competitive.

Politicians generally lack imagination everywhere (except when it comes to getting into the panties of their secretaries etc.).

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