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| why is the US not Metric |
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| bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on November 02, 2019, 10:11:40 pm ---One the same general subject, what does the world use for evaluating food intake? Calories are thoroughly entrenched here in the US. Does the rest of the world use ergs or Joules? I might just agree with rstofer on how long it will be before American women give up calories. --- End quote --- Yes. The cheap-arse ketchup bottle says literally that for a 12-g serving (one table spoon) you will have 12 kcal = 51 kJ, 2.7 g of carbohydrates and 100 mg of sodium. |
| mansaxel:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on November 02, 2019, 07:12:23 pm --- --- Quote --- --- Quote from: KL27x on November 02, 2019, 06:44:33 pm --- --- Quote --- Do cooks resort to scales or balances for these? --- End quote --- Yes, that is weird to imagine, weighing all your ingredients to the gram, lol. --- End quote --- --- End quote --- Nope. People have a good idea of what 100g butter or 500g flour means. Some of those quantities are the exact value, multiples or submultiples of what you find in the groceries. But if you need to weigh your food, that's what kitchen scales are for. --- End quote --- You need scales when baking. Or it won't turn out right. Flour is only accurate by weight, since it varies in volume with how it's been handled. I weigh my coffee too, first by necessity since I broke my measuring spoon, and then I continue due to the increased repeatability of the brew. We always get it right now that we're pretty close to 6 1/4 6,25g per 1 1/2 1,5dl cup. Of course we're brewing in multiples, so usually 8 (50g) or 10 (~63g) cups is the dose. |
| vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: Cerebus on November 02, 2019, 04:12:55 pm --- --- Quote from: bsfeechannel on November 02, 2019, 03:33:34 pm ---4' 11" and 1/16 is exactly 1.5 m. 3/8" is approximately 10 cm. Piece of cake: 1.7 m - wide minimum blind. --- End quote --- Want to try that again? :) You're trying to work out: 4' 11 1/16" - (2 x 3/8"). 3/8" is approximately 1 cm, not 10 cm and the talk of clearance ought to make it clear that the blind is meant to be narrower than the window (recess) not (considerably) wider. The exact answer is 4' 10 5/16". It's remarkably easy to do in your head as long as one knows 1" = 16/16" and 3/8" = 6/16"; just re-cast it as: 4' 11 1/16" - (2 x 3/8") => 4' 10 17/16" - (2 x 6/16") => 4' 10 17/16" - 12/16". Junior school 'fractions' practice basically. . --- End quote --- I am the one who needs to "Try again!"---- see edit below:- I, personally like the look of blinds that are a bit wider than the windows, rather than a bit narrower. Obviously both are common, so it is an eady enough mistake to make. It is, however, a mistake in communication, & would have the same effect with metric. Anyhow, looking at the original figures For the wider blind case:- Window is 4'11and 1/16" They want 3/8"either side. 3/8" is 6/16", so adding that to the original, you get 4'11" and 7/16" -- It's a little harder for the "blind narrower" case, in which you need to subtract 6/16", giving you 4'10"and 11/16" (because 4' 11" and 1/16" can be re-expressed as 4' 10" and 17/16") All done in my head, & I haven't seriously worked with Imperial sizes since the late 1970s! It's really the easiest problem you could get, as all the fractions just fall out---probably why old style tapes were all marked in halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, etc. Edit:- Well I blew that--- rabbiting on about how easy it was, when I made the elementary mistake of not doubling tne 3/8" :palm:p |
| rstofer:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on November 02, 2019, 10:14:25 pm ---So I think we can pretty much answer the OP's question. The US are not fully metric because their industry betted on the wrong horse. They didn't see the obvious advantages of a system of measures based on the latest technological and scientific achievements and decided to cling to tradition. --- End quote --- What advantage does metric offer to the average person walking down the street? Not a darn thing! Some of our industry has converted, some more might convert, some never will. So what? Second, despite our backward system, we have walked on the Moon and nobody else has and we did it 50 years ago. Some of the work was calc'd in metric, most of it was built in customary units. Call back when you leave footprints! In the meantime (probably another 100 years or so), keep working on the project, you'll get there someday, but we'll be on Mars before you get to the Moon! --- Quote ---While the other nations are now reaping the benefits of this move, the US will have to pay a high price to switch to modernity. That's why they are doing it peacemeal. The whole world is über patiently waiting for them to take the plunge but, meanwhile, can only shrug and go on with their lives. --- End quote --- Why do you care what we do? Why is this all so terribly important to you? We don't care what you're doing, we certainly don't criticize your use of the metric system but we're not staging protests demanding change. We simply don't care! If we need metric, we use it. If we don't, well, we don't. It isn't important in our everyday lives. And do be aware that, as backward as we are, we're still the largest economy in the world. Been to the Moon, largest economy in the world, Imperial units... See a pattern here? --- Quote ---My hunch is that the US will be metricated to a satisfactory extent in the next 50 years, or when California decides to change. What happens first. --- End quote --- Satisfactory to whom? It is already satisfactory to us and we're the only people that matter. We haven't converted at the population level in the last 50 years, why do you assume we will to it to your satisfaction in the next 50 years? Do you imagine that we care what the world thinks? Your only option is to redefine your idea of "satisfactory" and imagine that what you see today meets your new standard because what you see is all you'll ever see. Industry may change, science and medicine have changed or always were metric but the person walking down the street isn't going to change - ever! And certainly not just to meet your "satisfaction". I know, every time I bring up the Moon thing people frame it as American Exceptionalism. Well, yes, it's true. But if it wasn't for AE, the French people would be speaking German and the standards would be in Berlin. The Germans always did have the superior scientists. |
| jmelson:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on November 02, 2019, 10:14:25 pm ---So I think we can pretty much answer the OP's question. The US are not fully metric because their industry betted on the wrong horse. --- End quote --- Well, the US auto industry has been fully metric since about 1980, except that the wheel lug nuts and oil pan drain plug were kept imperial for a number of years. Aircraft have been metric since at least that far back. Anything you buy in the grocery store has metric weights, and many of them are sold by rational metric weights or volumes, ie 500 g (1.1 Lbs) or something like that. Our hardware stores now have as much metric nuts and bolts as the old imperial sizes. Lots of other things bought in stores are made to metric sizes. So, really, we are a LOT more metric that many people realize. Jon |
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