| General > General Technical Chat |
| why is the US not Metric |
| << < (243/291) > >> |
| BFX:
US is metric already. Why they are using some another metrics is only historical, like here in EU we also still using inches for tubes and so. It's all because of "do not disturb so much" existing system. But I think one system is better for all of as and metrics is already done. |
| KL27x:
Thread has already covered all this. America and Canada still use imperial for construction industry. That's major. Dunno about the rest of civil engineering in Canada, but the US still uses imperial for most of this stuff. City layouts, bridges, buildings. And building materials. This is not just lumber. It includes structural steel what comes out of the extrusion dies and roller press thingies. Plates, beams, rounds, angle iron, et al. No matter what units you use to describe them, we play with different legos. I think english units are still used in aerospace, here. NASA changed to metric for space missions, for all measurements and instrumentation. But in airplanes, I am pretty sure we still use foot-lbs of thrust to describe the jets engines, feet for the altitude, and imperial fasteners galore. |
| jmelson:
--- Quote from: Addicted2AnalogTek on February 09, 2020, 02:29:08 pm ---The only U.S. entity that has apparently adopted the Metric System is military R&D and manufacturing, which did so to comply with NATO standards. --- End quote --- The auto industry converted in the 1980's. The only imperial things on SOME cars are lugnuts and oil drain plugs. Oh, yes, the tire/wheel measurements are still based on imperial units, too. The aviation industry converted about the same time. Everything on aircraft structure is metric. The medical industry converted to metric a LONG time ago, and trashed all that drams and grains stuff. Everything in the grocery store is marked in both metric and imperial measure. Alcohol all went metric back in the '80s, too. A lot of other stuff is moving over to metric, a bit at a time. Sheet metal seems to have moved over to metric measure, although it may be marked in the closest imperial approximation. Jon |
| KL27x:
--- Quote ---The only U.S. entity that has apparently adopted the Metric System is military R&D and manufacturing, which did so to comply with NATO standards. --- End quote --- This is misleading. US gov and its contractors use metric, but many of the things are actually made to imperial dimensions. As described in my previous post, it's partly due to the legos we use, here. This has pervaded our vehicles and weapons platforms. So even if the blueprints are in metric, they often describe imperial sizes. In the US, it is often the case where it is cheaper to buy and use imperial-dimensioned stock materials. And changing to metric dimensions will only increase the cost. It is often cheaper for a machinist to buy the next size up in imperial and mill/turn it down to make it metric, compared to importing the stock pieces in metric. Again, our legos are different. And we decided to keep them, because they work fine and they're already "in everything," and it's not a major problem even if the numbers get weird when you state them in metric. This lego system is very good and very practical and very efficient and very comprehensive. It's just not in metric. It's practical to keep the system and just change the numbers. And it's also practical in some cases to say, the heck with it; let's just use the imperial system of measurement for this particular job or task. Or even an entire construction industry, as the case may be. The US military adopting metric for navigation/location/targeting is probably mostly for communication/coordination with NATO allies. |
| bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on February 10, 2020, 01:05:52 pm ---Bfees, I am glad you recognize that the Boltzman constant is an arbitrary number, chosen by agreement rather than unique physical properties of the universe. --- End quote --- Yes. Energy and temperature used to be based on different macroscopic standards. So the Boltzmann constant had to be measured. Now that the Boltzmann constant is only a scaling factor, temperature in the SI became defined in terms of energy, so that they are now both based on subatomic standards. --- Quote from: BFX on February 10, 2020, 08:29:48 pm ---US is metric already. --- End quote --- I find 10 km/h too slow for my taste. --- Quote ---The US military adopting metric for navigation/location/targeting is probably mostly for communication/coordination with NATO allies. --- End quote --- When I hear people saying that the military are using metric, this is what comes to my mind. When they say that they use imperial, I can't avoid this image. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |