| General > General Technical Chat |
| why is the US not Metric |
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| rstofer:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on October 29, 2019, 12:39:01 pm --- Extend that for the rest of the world. The various old, incompatible and cumbersome unit systems must be forgotten, relegated to the annals of history as a mere curiosity from the past. Today the US customary units are of only parochial relevance, devoid of global importance. --- End quote --- US customary units were the law of the land back in '69. You remember, July 20th, when we walked on the Moon? How many metric only countries have done that? Oh, wait, NONE! The greatest achievement in all of history accomplished by those 'backward' Americans. Were they even using metric way back then? The work our shop did in support of NASA was all in customary units. Yes, I know we snagged up the German scientists during and after the war and their contributions to the program are well known. Germany always has had a superior educational system. To cut to the chase, metric is eurocentric and the US doesn't do eurocentric. Worse, the standards are French and we definitely don't do French. We will never convert on a national basis. The scientists and certain engineers will use metric, other engineers and the commoners will continue to use customary units. There is no push to change that and static inertia will keep us from converting any time soon. You could also explain the issue as a matter of elitism. The elite use metric and the last thing they want is for the commoners to understand what they're talking about so there is no real push to convert. Those who need to use metric can and will. Those who don't need it will never convert. |
| Monkeh:
--- Quote from: rstofer on October 29, 2019, 03:27:12 pm --- --- Quote from: bsfeechannel on October 29, 2019, 12:39:01 pm --- Extend that for the rest of the world. The various old, incompatible and cumbersome unit systems must be forgotten, relegated to the annals of history as a mere curiosity from the past. Today the US customary units are of only parochial relevance, devoid of global importance. --- End quote --- US customary units were the law of the land back in '69. You remember, July 20th, when we walked on the Moon? How many metric only countries have done that? Oh, wait, NONE! The greatest achievement in all of history accomplished by those 'backward' Americans. Were they even using metric way back then? --- End quote --- Yes. The computer operated on metric and converted units for display and input. I've mentioned that before, but it doesn't suit your narrative. They worked in 'customary units' (those ones you borrowed from us..) for mechanical stuff because that's what existing tooling and engineers used. Today, they do pretty much everything in metric, because they're not in a desperate race to show how superior they are to those pesky Russians and could afford the time to retool. --- Quote ---To cut to the chase, metric is eurocentric and the US doesn't do eurocentric. Worse, the standards are French and we definitely don't do French. We will never convert on a national basis. --- End quote --- "It's not American therefore it's bad" - right. --- Quote ---You could also explain the issue as a matter of elitism. The elite use metric and the last thing they want is for the commoners to understand what they're talking about so there is no real push to convert. Those who need to use metric can and will. Those who don't need it will never convert. --- End quote --- Seems to me the elitism is in the other direction. |
| SerieZ:
--- Quote from: rstofer on October 29, 2019, 03:27:12 pm --- --- Quote from: bsfeechannel on October 29, 2019, 12:39:01 pm --- Extend that for the rest of the world. The various old, incompatible and cumbersome unit systems must be forgotten, relegated to the annals of history as a mere curiosity from the past. Today the US customary units are of only parochial relevance, devoid of global importance. --- End quote --- US customary units were the law of the land back in '69. You remember, July 20th, when we walked on the Moon? How many metric only countries have done that? Oh, wait, NONE! The greatest achievement in all of history accomplished by those 'backward' Americans. Were they even using metric way back then? The work our shop did in support of NASA was all in customary units. Yes, I know we snagged up the German scientists during and after the war and their contributions to the program are well known. Germany always has had a superior educational system. To cut to the chase, metric is eurocentric and the US doesn't do eurocentric. Worse, the standards are French and we definitely don't do French. We will never convert on a national basis. The scientists and certain engineers will use metric, other engineers and the commoners will continue to use customary units. There is no push to change that and static inertia will keep us from converting any time soon. You could also explain the issue as a matter of elitism. The elite use metric and the last thing they want is for the commoners to understand what they're talking about so there is no real push to convert. Those who need to use metric can and will. Those who don't need it will never convert. --- End quote --- Your first point is absolutely Irrelevant to the Question at Hand. A great Achievement nonetheless, Congratulations. Your second point is just plain wrong. In a Unit System Nationality is Irrelevant. Or do you believe typing in Latin Letters (Romancentric) or typing in our numeric System Arabcentric? Americans should make their own Letters and Numbers... USA being the first letter and Number. :-DD It is quite frankly Idiotic to even bring that up unless in a measurement of Pride Contest. Plus we are in the year 2019, not '69. Engineers are slowly but steadily switching to Metric in many many fields as it just is plain more easy and convenient to work with, unless of course you grew up being born in the USA. The Elite do what? Are we in the 18th Century? I think our Elites just practice their Golf Game and hardly do any work with Units (hey last time I checked out Golf they were measuring in Yards lmao). If using Customary Units is part of your Identity as American that is fine to me :palm: Sorry if I cringe a lil tho. |
| tooki:
--- Quote from: SerieZ on October 29, 2019, 03:57:19 pm ---Your first point is absolutely Irrelevant to the Question at Hand. A great Achievement nonetheless, Congratulations. Your second point is just plain wrong. In a Unit System Nationality is Irrelevant. Or do you believe typing in Latin Letters (Romancentric) or typing in our numeric System Arabcentric? Americans should make their own Letters and Numbers... USA being the first letter and Number. :-DD It is quite frankly Idiotic to even bring that up unless in a measurement of Pride Contest. Plus we are in the year 2019, not '69. Engineers are slowly but steadily switching to Metric in many many fields as it just is plain more easy and convenient to work with, unless of course you grew up being born in the USA. The Elite do what? Are we in the 18th Century? I think our Elites just practice their Golf Game and hardly do any work with Units (hey last time I checked out Golf they were measuring in Yards lmao). If using Customary Units is part of your Identity as American that is fine to me :palm: Sorry if I cringe a lil tho. --- End quote --- As an American, I agree with you 100%. (Possibly even more, as the kind of nonsense in rstofer’s post is embarrassing to other Americans like me. I cringed when I read it.) |
| tooki:
--- Quote from: Monkeh on October 29, 2019, 03:47:04 pm --- --- Quote from: rstofer on October 29, 2019, 03:27:12 pm --- --- Quote from: bsfeechannel on October 29, 2019, 12:39:01 pm --- Extend that for the rest of the world. The various old, incompatible and cumbersome unit systems must be forgotten, relegated to the annals of history as a mere curiosity from the past. Today the US customary units are of only parochial relevance, devoid of global importance. --- End quote --- US customary units were the law of the land back in '69. You remember, July 20th, when we walked on the Moon? How many metric only countries have done that? Oh, wait, NONE! The greatest achievement in all of history accomplished by those 'backward' Americans. Were they even using metric way back then? --- End quote --- Yes. The computer operated on metric and converted units for display and input. I've mentioned that before, but it doesn't suit your narrative. They worked in 'customary units' (those ones you borrowed from us..) for mechanical stuff because that's what existing tooling and engineers used. Today, they do pretty much everything in metric, because they're not in a desperate race to show how superior they are to those pesky Russians and could afford the time to retool. --- Quote ---To cut to the chase, metric is eurocentric and the US doesn't do eurocentric. Worse, the standards are French and we definitely don't do French. We will never convert on a national basis. --- End quote --- "It's not American therefore it's bad" - right. --- Quote ---You could also explain the issue as a matter of elitism. The elite use metric and the last thing they want is for the commoners to understand what they're talking about so there is no real push to convert. Those who need to use metric can and will. Those who don't need it will never convert. --- End quote --- Seems to me the elitism is in the other direction. --- End quote --- Eh, I think it’s not elitism you’re detecting from rstofer, just ordinary arrogance regarding American exceptionalism. (My rejection of which is why folks in USA call me “eurotrash”, since I refuse to be a flag-waving, pledge-reciting, data-rejecting blind-faith “patriot”. To me, true patriotism is not blind following, but rather doing what’s actually good for the country, which begins with taking an honest look at where we stand. The belief in American exceptionalism is, IMHO, incompatible with honesty.) |
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