General > General Technical Chat

why is the US not Metric

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bsfeechannel:

--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on November 19, 2019, 03:55:16 am ---I said nothing about fashion.  It was suggested that if you don't like Imperial, or what we call in the US, Standard units just buy from a metric country or don't live in a non-metric country.  Your response was "too late".  Implying that you either live in a non-metric country or own non-metric equipment.  Both of those problems can be solved without the US going metric, though it would involve some expense on your part.
--- End quote ---


I said too late because we are not discussing my preferences. We are discussing why the US is not metric. Your suggestion that I don't buy products made in the US or that I don't touch the US ground will not explain the issue.


--- Quote ---I am sorry I added all of the fluffy adjectives because it clearly caused you to miss the point.
--- End quote ---

The point is moot. I like fluffy adjectives, though.


--- Quote ---Which is that you seem to be completely dismissive of the costs to the US of changing, but unwilling to incur any costs to cure your own discomfort.
--- End quote ---

It'll cost the US some money to change to metric. So what? The rest of the world spent the required money to adapt. Aren't you the least bit interested in understanding why they did that?


--- Quote ---By the way, in another post you suggested that the world could raise several billion dollars to get the US to change.  If you were to actually do this you might find yourself surprised and needing to find a way to write the check.  No guarantees, but here as in most of the world money talks.
--- End quote ---

The world's economy minus the US is $65 trillion. $7 billion is pocket change.

Cubdriver:

--- Quote from: soldar on November 18, 2019, 06:28:54 pm ---
--- Quote from: Simon on October 26, 2019, 08:44:46 pm --- litres per 100km alwoys confused me. I mean why?
--- End quote ---

Because that is how normal people think. A normal person thinks "hmmm, I would like to go visit my aunt Arleen who is 56 Km away; knowing the car uses 7.2 liters per 100 km then I can know I need 0.56 * 7.2 liters to go to her house". 

Very few people think "hmm, I have 4 liters of fuel, how many Km can I travel with that and who lives at that distance so I can visit them".

In other words, when doing calculations the distance is given and the fuel is the quantity desired, not the other way around.

--- End quote ---

No, I think "I need to go to the airport, and it's 54 miles away.  My car gets about 30 miles per gallon.  I can make it if I have at least two gallons in the tank."  When I'm going somewhere, I'm not looking to put the minimum amount of fuel in the tank to get there, I want to be able to guesstimate my range to know if I'll need to plan to get gas or not.  If for instance the tank holds 12.6 gallons and the vehicle gets 30 mpg, a full tank gives me a range of about 360 miles (to leave some reserve so as not to run out).  If I know how far I'm going, and about how much fuel is in the tank, I quickly see if there's enough or not.

Two different ways of computing the same thing.  I'm used to my way, so yours seems at a glance overly complex to me.  You're used to yours, so mine seems bass-ackwards to you.

-Pat

KL27x:
^This thread made me realize that in the game/app Day R Survival, the fuel consumption of the vehicles was listed in a typical metric fashion of L per 100km. I thought it was just a random design choice by the game maker. Or that maybe that is how they do it in Russia (where the game takes place).

I'm sure this is easier to those that are used to it. But to me I actually thought maybe they did it to make the game more difficult. I never had an epiphany that it was better or more convenient.

bfseechannel:

--- Quote ---I'll invert the question. What exact economic benefit did all other countries in the world see in measuring their roads in km instead of miles?
--- End quote ---
Great question. We all want to know the answer to this. So far I have heard vague answers about metrification reducing costs for trade. But since you seem to have the correct answers, let's hear 'em from the horse's mouth. I think it makes it easier for travellers passing through a small country in Europe that people drive across in 1 hour. Maybe it makes Garmin's life easier. But maybe you are sitting on some secret game-changers?

I cannot imagine how this would change my life. Let alone how this would change the life of someone who doesn't even live here. If this is all about "being on the same page with the rest of the world" and "progress" then I'll pass. This is feel-good buzz words. If this is about a warm fuzzy feeling in the vagina, that's wonderful. As long as someone else pays for it.

Cubdriver:

--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on November 19, 2019, 03:40:30 am ---

--- Quote from: forrestc on November 15, 2019, 11:50:57 pm ---What is the exact economic benefit of changing the units we measure our roads by from miles to km?   

--- End quote ---

I'll invert the question. What exact economic benefit did all other countries in the world see in measuring their roads in km instead of miles? Did they think they'd save on tires or fuel with that change?

--- End quote ---

Sorry, it doesn't work that way.  You're trying to convince us to spend unknown (but surely ridiculous) amounts of money to replace every sign that indicates a speed or a distance, on every road in the entire United States.  I don't need to justify NOT doing it, YOU need to convince me why we should.  All the drivers here think in miles and feet.  Speedometers are primarily marked in miles per hour. Odometers register miles, not km. In addition to replacing all the signage, do you suggest that everyone get their odometers replaced?  Re-gearing them won't work as that will bugger up the speed indication.  (Not that re-gearing them is really any more sensible) Granted in many newer vehicles with electronic indicators it may just be a code change, but it's still a trip in for an otherwise unnecessary service, and there are more than 270 million cars in the US.  Do you expect every driver to pay an additional $50+ dollars per vehicle to get this done, too?  In my opinion at least (and, from what I gather, the opinions of at least several others here in this thread), you have utterly failed to present a worthy reason.  "Because everyone else is" is not a very convincing justification to spend unknown billions of dollars to change something THAT IS WORKING JUST FINE FOR US!!



--- Quote from: forrestc ---It doesn't matter what the number system is, as long as everything matches.   The distance could be miles, or kilometers, or furlongs or kilosmoots, it wouldn't matter.   I'm not doing engineering with those figures.
--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: bsfeechannel ---So you drive a motorized vehicle along a road and you think you're not doing engineering.
--- End quote ---

Are you suggesting that drivers ARE doing engineering?  If not, what do you even mean by this statement?


--- Quote from: bsfeechannel ---Well, whoever builds and maintains the road is.
--- End quote ---

So?  What difference do the units used when the road is constructed make to the end user?  I drove up to Canada a few years ago.  I really didn't notice any difference in the roads, and my American vehicle had no issues whatsoever traveling on them.  Millions of people around the world plug their appliances and radios and computers into receptacles in the walls of their houses, and use those items as a matter of routine.  How many of them do you think have the foggiest notion of where the electricity comes from or how it gets to them?  Lots of engineering there, but no one really needs to know it in order to utilize the product.  Knowing the engineering involved in many things is completely unnecessary to USE said things.  Roads are among those things that don't require engineering knowledge to drive upon.


--- Quote from: bsfeechannel ---When I build a road in the US, I can use the meter. But then I have to give the distances in miles and clearances in feet and inches because the drivers will not understand that they can use the same unit that was used to build the road.
--- End quote ---

Yeah, and?  So what? 


--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on November 15, 2019, 11:58:59 pm ---
And here we have the heart of the problem.  While the cost of replacing all of the non-metric street signs in America is trivial, the cost of replacing his brain dead, useless, totally antiquated US sourced products that he bought with beautiful metricated products, or the cost of moving back to some enlightened, forward thinking, economically advantaged part of the world is totally unreasonable.

Pardon me while I shed crocodile tears.

--- End quote ---

 :-DD   :-+


--- Quote from: bsfeechannel ---Maybe you think that, because the US still uses imperial units, they are automatically fashionable. But I can assure you they are not.
--- End quote ---

Nor is that what we think, as has been pointed out to you REPEATEDLY in this thread.  Are you truly incapable of grasping this, or are you being intentionally obtuse in order to continue making your arguments?


--- Quote from: bsfeechannel ---Outside the US, imperial is seen as deprecated, old-school, obsolete and, in many cases, a nuisance.
--- End quote ---

Then, once again, feel free not to buy or use any of our 'deprecated, old-school, obsolete, nuisance' things.  I think I can assure you that we will not shed many tears.

-Pat

Cubdriver:
Oh, and let's not forget that there were not quite as many road signs and other infrastructure back in the mid-late 1800s when Europe went metric.  If my knowledge of history serves, it took place before the widespread use of the motor car, and modern industrialization.  It's easy to say 'well, EUROPE did it' and dismiss the costs involved while ignoring that Europe's transition took place more than a century ago. There is a bit more to change in the US in this modern world...

-Pat

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