General > General Technical Chat
why is the US not Metric
KL27x:
^This phenonenon is annoying about height in metric. The first "1" is nearly redundant. In feet, you have a pretty high usage of 4, 5, 6, and then finally the 3/7 for the extremes of nature.
Maybe 100 years ago, you could say the same thing about weight in imperial. But then we have people that weigh over 600 lbs, now. >:D
Regarding government mandatory implementation, I read something interesting about the Dutch. They don't even speak english, but they like the pound. Or "pond." Their government attempted to define the pond as 1 kg. But the Dutch people rejected that. They use the pond as 0.5 kg.
SilverSolder:
^Several Northern European countries have an informal 500g "pound", now that you mention it.
KL27x:
It's quicker to say a pound, though.
Quicker to say a half pound than a quarter kilo.
Quicker to say quarter pound than an eight of a kilo. Or 125 grams.
If the rest of the world liked the pound so much, I wouldn't care if America redefined it as 500 grams. I think US civil engineers will be disappointed, though.
It's fine, how it is, though. It's not like you would even care if there's a 10.2% translation error when you ask for a quarter lb of coleslaw at the grocery store deli. If that's too much or little, you might have to go down the nearest gram, next time. :)
KL27x:
^God help you, Gabinetex. I can hear your metric purist brethren sharpening their pitchforks. >:D
I think it would be cooler to ask for "a hector" = 100 grams.
SilverSolder:
--- Quote from: gabinetex on December 23, 2019, 11:41:58 pm ---
--- Quote from: SilverSolder on December 23, 2019, 11:32:22 pm ---^Several Northern European countries have an informal 500g "pound", now that you mention it.
--- End quote ---
Yes, it's called the "half-a-kilo". 7 "halfakilos" of potatoes please.
3 and a half "halfakilos" of tomatoes too.
--- End quote ---
In some places, people might say a pound of butter, meaning 1/2 kilo. Absolutely not uncommon.
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