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why is the US not Metric
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KL27x:

--- Quote ---You've just totally missed the point haven't you? Y'all have spent the last two pages bitching backwards and forwards about whether the US should or should not change their road signs, and I'm saying that it's inconsequential whether they should or not
--- End quote ---
I agree. Most of the americans here agree. So did I miss your point? This is what we have been saying for two pages.
Cubdriver:

--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on November 21, 2019, 12:50:37 am ---
--- Quote from: Cubdriver on November 20, 2019, 11:34:30 pm ---You're still not getting it, are you?

--- End quote ---

Of course I get it. I'm an engineer. Given the choice between metric and imperial, I wouldn't hesitate to choose metric, not even for a yoctosecond.

Those who don't get it are our beloved Jack and Jenny. The benefits of metrication for them are diluted and a technical explanation incomprehensible. They don't understand that their customary way of doing things is a hurdle to progress.

--- End quote ---

Hmmm...  As an engineer, have you ever done any sort of cost-benefit analysis?  Again - what benefit would the United States see from the extensive cost of changing all the road signs from imperial to metric?  Remember, this is not a clean sheet choice, but a choice to change an extensive infrastructure that already exists and is perfectly functional in its current state.

-Pat
KL27x:

--- Quote ---Except that "a #6-32 machine screw" is meaningless in most ex-Imperial Countries.
We know it isn't Whitworth, BA, or UNF--- we've tried them all!
North America has its own separate set of "customary" sizes, which is why it was a major annoyance when someone in  say, Oz, lost a screw out of some US or Canadian made equipment.
--- End quote ---
I'm going to try to explain this.
To 99% of Americans "#6-32 machine screw" has absolutely no meaning. To 99% of Americans "M6 bolt" has absolutely no meaning, but they would probably have a better guess to the latter. Most Americans who go to college and who have yet to take their first job will identify a fastener as one of the "4 long screws in bag A," that comes in their Ikea furniture. OTOH, all their coursework to that point other than geography or history will have been in metric. They will have learned probably zero about fasteners in school.

An American will learn what a #6-32 machine screw is when he needs to use one. It's not otherwise important. People use what is the most efficient at the time, what is at hand, what compatibility requirements are anticipated.

And if you think former colony's of Britain don't still use imperial fasteners, you are wrong. It's just a different standard and history is already done. You can't undo it by having a parade.
bsfeechannel:

--- Quote from: Cubdriver on November 21, 2019, 01:24:17 am ---Hmmm...  As an engineer, have you ever done any sort of cost-benefit analysis?  Again - what benefit would the United States see from the extensive cost of changing all the road signs from imperial to metric?  Remember, this is not a clean sheet choice, but a choice to change an extensive infrastructure that already exists and is perfectly functional in its current state.

--- End quote ---

Going metric pays off.
Knock yourself out.


KL27x:

--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on November 21, 2019, 02:27:38 am ---Going metric pays off.
Knock yourself out.

--- End quote ---

These are companies. Most of them are American. They changed because of real benefits. Wow, Americans are so dumb, they change to metric where it has a benefit.

Here's an excerpt from Deere companies change:
"Training in the metric system was essential, although not overdone. Engineers were trained first, then foremen, and others as the need arose. Training was proportional to the use of metric measurements, and workers were already familiar with decimal measurements—Deere had changed from fractions of inches to decimal inches in the 1930s, as precision manufacturing increased and they realized that decimals were much easier to add—so the transition from decimal inches to millimeters was relatively easy."

It's not 1970's, anymore. Jack and Jenny America use metric where it suits them, no special training required other than going to school and shopping at the store. They learned the parlor tricks of the cube root length of a liter being exactly a decimeter, and the density of water being 1 gram per cc. They know a degree K is the same as a degree C (but with different calibration point).  Well, most Americans who have a high school diploma learned this at some point (or were passed anyway).

What then do you want? UK didn't change its road signs. And up to this point, it seems like you even agreed that this was part of your plan of "progress." What's left? To put the Meter, Liter, and Holy Kilogram on a pedestal so that stupid Americans can stop worshiping false idols? :)

You know this is the same America whose first response to new technology is to figure out if it can be used to make a better bomb? Maybe Jack and Jenny don't care to make these bombs, but the Americans who do are using metric just fine, and America can drop a nuke to any spot it wants on frikkin Mars. So I think America is pretty ok with science and metric, don't you?
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