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| why is the US not Metric |
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| bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: tooki on October 28, 2019, 06:33:27 pm ---Oh yeah, I just remembered another US unit that's used worldwide: the foot, in aviation. Flight levels are practically always* in feet, because having a consistent system is far more important than which system it is. Switching would likely lead to some crashes during the transition period. With there being essentially no advantage to switching, the risks involved in switching just don't make sense, which is probably why aviation has stuck with feet, despite ICAO recommending a switch to metric since 1979. (Given the altitudes in question, the unit used is essentially totally arbitrary, since one's "feel" for a unit in everyday life can't translate to the huge altitudes involved. And the actual amounts don't really matter, insofar as it's air traffic control telling a pilot what flight level to use.) *Except China, Mongolia, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Russia actually used to use metric flight levels, but in 2017, actually switched from meters to feet. --- End quote --- But in countries where metric is already the "customary" system, when addressing the passengers, the pilot converts the altitude to meters, because no one has absolutely any clue what 27.000 feet means. That goes for seat screens: speeds in kilometers per hour and altitude in meters. |
| james_s:
I'm surprised people wouldn't have a rough idea of what feet is. For all the crap Americans get for supposedly not knowing other units, I think most of us have a pretty good idea of what a meter is. It's close enough to say it's about 3 feet. |
| CatalinaWOW:
As if the passengers really care if they are at 10000 vs 11000 meters. Ant most folk have a fair approximate idea of what a foot is. Just look at where your body touches the ground. For passengers evaluating flight altitude even 30 or 40 % errors are not a problem. |
| boffin:
--- Quote from: james_s on October 29, 2019, 12:47:07 am ---I'm surprised people wouldn't have a rough idea of what feet is. For all the crap Americans get for supposedly not knowing other units, I think most of us have a pretty good idea of what a meter is. It's close enough to say it's about 3 feet. --- End quote --- I'd guess that more people from Europe would understand "33,000 feet", than Americans would understand "10,000 metres" |
| bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: james_s on October 29, 2019, 12:47:07 am ---I'm surprised people wouldn't have a rough idea of what feet is. For all the crap Americans get for supposedly not knowing other units, I think most of us have a pretty good idea of what a meter is. It's close enough to say it's about 3 feet. --- End quote --- This is because distances and lengths are consistently measured in meters all around the world. And people actually use these units for everything. Trying to memorize how many feet are in a meter is absolutely useless. Nothing is measured in that unit in those countries. |
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