General > General Technical Chat
why is the US not Metric
SilverSolder:
^We could do an exchange!
How about deci-foot, kilo-pound, milli-inch, etc.! :-DD
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: coppercone2 on December 04, 2019, 03:09:23 am ---can we get the bridges pre assembled and certified in china to lower costs? if we can get rid of the test and inspection phase after construction we can bring project costs WAY down
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I thought that was what they did now! ;D
KL27x:
The shipping makes it too expensive. To build our railroads it was way more efficient to import the chinese workers and limit their rights. Even at pure physical labor, chinese workers were twice as productive as white people. And we got Treez thinking UK can compete with China at electronics manufacturing. It's cheaper to just keep our first world workers on unemployment and welfare. Put them in an Asian electronics manufacturing factory, and they will cost their employer millions a year in low productivity and fuckups.
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: KL27x on December 04, 2019, 06:35:19 pm ---^What argument? Your position has been that the common person in America uses imperial because they are ignorant and arrogant. And that is costs a significant amount of money, but you can't seem to even comprehend what this means.
You don't accept that Americans learn metric and use only metric in school. They know everything about metric that you do. Every single American. Knows everything you do about metric. And they also know what a quarter pounder is. The reasons they use imperial is mostly for convenience in places where none of the advantages of metric apply. They know this, because they know the advantages of metric. And they know what their daily lives are. You seem to be stuck on just the advantages of a measuring system with no idea how that relates to your own life.
You would also never accede that history has given the best unit names to imperial. Imperial has the mile, foot, inch, thou, tenth, yard, cup, pint, ounce, ton, quart, grain. Maybe something to do with imperial being evolved from the measuring system used by humans for millennia since at least the beginning of known history and possibly for millennia before known history. (Maybe you prefer the term megayears?)
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Not really, millennia refers to "thousands of years", not "millions of years".
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In contrast, most metric units are 3-4 syllables, other than the gram and liter. Like Spanish, it sounds like you're talking faster, but you are saying the same amount of information. Also it happens to kinda suck that centi and centa would be pronounced essentially the same, at least in American english. Hence hecto rather than centa.
Do you wonder why centi seems to only ever be used for centimeters... hecto only ever seems to be used for hectares; all this versatility, and not that much of it actually useful in practice? If you use centiliters or hectograms in your communications, do you think people would thank you for saving them the hassle of a couple zeros? Or would your friends tell you to stop being a dumbass?
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You can blame all that upon the SI system.
The previous versions of "Metric" did use the centimetre, (& indeed, centilitre), but in the SI system, they like to mainly have 1000x multipliers between each level of preferred units, hence, centimetres are "deprecated".
The Metrication Board in Oz got a "bee in their bonnet" about the possibility of error due to missing of a decimal point, so also discouraged the use of metres & decimal parts of metres, so that you will probably measure a space as "2.5m", then if you want something to fit that space, you buy a 2500mm "something".
You then pay in Dollars & decimal parts of a Dollar.---go figure!
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Do you ever wonder why metric users use the word "ton" rather than megagram? Re-using "ton" you always have to specify "metric ton," anyway. :-//
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As far as I know, only Americans use the term "metric tons", these days.
The Metric term is "Tonnes"--------before you ask, ex Imperial countries don't try to pronounce it differently, & just say "ton".
After all, the difference between the Imperial ton & the Tonne is that the latter is about 1.6% smaller----"bees dick" territory! ;D
Everything which comes by large weight (actually mass to be be pedantic) is expressed in the same "Tonne" -----there are no "Long Tonnes" or " Short Tonnes".
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Is it because at some point metric prefixes become stupid, outside of specific uses or comparisons? (You know what a zettameter and a petaliter are without looking them up, right? Kinda like how a rod or a perch were only ever used within certain industries, and 99% of imperial user base didn't ever care what those things are but somehow got on with life, anyhow?) Or are the people using metric just dumb?
Do you think China ATC gives planes clearance to ascend from 8 hectometers to 1.5 kilometers? Or do you think they stick with the one unit that makes the most sense for the scale?
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Like, maybe, metres?
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BTW, do people in your metric countries say "clicks" or is that completely douchey? Maybe some people say "kay ems," too? Or do common folks just say kilometers to preserve the extra scienceness? "Kilos" seems to be used for weight, already. If americans used metric in daily life, we would probably come up with something better suited to our version of English for km. "Killems?" Maybe in another 30 years that would turn into "kims?" Our military might say "clicks," but maybe I saw that in a movie.
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To my understanding"clicks"was a Vietnam Veteran "thing"-----I've heard a few people in Oz use the term, but most people just say "ks".
Context is everything in using shortened forms, & nobody would think you were referring to kHz or kg, if you said:-
"Fred lives a coupla "k" down the road."
KL27x:
^^^ thought re: vk6zgo
--- Quote ---Not really, millennia refers to "thousands of years", not "millions of years".
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Yeah, thanks. It's kiloyears, I take it.
--- Quote -------there are no "Long Tonnes" or " Short Tonnes".
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Agreed. Bringing up long tons and tower oz is a strawman argument. It's 2019.
In the normal metric form you ought to call it a megagram, though. "Ton" was and is still in usage. The fact you use the word ton instead of megagram shows an example of the metric benefit that doesn't hold up to real world language and usage. In the multiple kiloyears of usage of what I still call imperial (American Customary?) the names of units somehow became quite efficient.
"Ton" is a good start for metric. And if you say a "ton" is a metric ton without qualification, then I welcome you to it. Majority rules, right? I hope that holds up and becomes even legally recognized in America. I would have thought it might require occasional clarification even in formerly imperial countries, and I hope it is as you say. When you're buying/selling tons, the $$ is usually pretty important. Now, since I can do that, can you stop bringing up long tons? The long ton now really, really doesn't matter anymore, to me, seeing as I have essentially agreed never to use the word "ton" again in my own country, and I'm totally fine with that. For the sake of world progress. I hope the world can enjoy metric's second halfway decent unit name, unmolested by the ghosts of the short ton and long ton. (Gram is awesome).
--- Quote ---Like, maybe, metres?
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Of course they use meters in China's ATC. That was my point. And in the majority of the world, they use feet. The fact there is such a weird number of 6075 feet in a nautical mile doesn't matter to a pilot, because they only use feet for altitude. Same as they only use meters in China. The "decimal point shift" is one of the supposed advantages of metric that looks great on paper but actually doesn't mean a lot in the real world in this particular context.
--- Quote ---You can blame all that [the lack of say centiliter and hectogram in common usage] upon the SI system.
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I wonder now if a unit such as centiliter would be allowed in legal documents? Even if it weren't for "SI" or legal acceptance, I still think your friends would call you a dumbass. The imperial units are mostly 1 or 2 syllables for a reason. There are only so many 3-4 syllable unit names you want to use/recognize to avoid confusion, and there are only so many good shortened versions that you will come up with. This is why SI made its recommendations. The lego plug n play works great on paper, in text, in computer programs, in emails. Not always so good in real time conversation, though.
--- Quote ---To my understanding"clicks"was a Vietnam Veteran "thing"-----I've heard a few people in Oz use the term, but most people just say "ks".
Context is everything in using shortened forms, & nobody would think you were referring to kHz or kg, if you said:-
"Fred lives a coupla "k" down the road."
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Yeah, that works. Like "quart" is a quarter of a gallon. You have "kay" for kilometer, and I would assume "kee'-low" for kilograms. And that pretty much covers it. Cuz you probably don't need kilo-anything else for common language.
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