Which system is better? Imperial or Metric?

Alolan_Apples · Jul 16, 2017

visibleghost said:
can u like ... say why .. other than that it's what youre used to, how is it better than metric

Hard to explain that. It's true that metric is easier to convert than imperial, but you're right that we were used to it for a while as the reason being.

It's kinda odd that in the most well-known countries in the world, there are a lot of things the United States does differently that was common in historic times, but retired in most of the world. I mean, we're still the only major country to use the electoral college to elect our presidents, we still use the imperial measurement system, we still have gun rights, we only speak one language to visitors, and more stuff like that. And unlike most of the world, the United States is hardly adaptable, especially when we stick to something for a while. We even tried to switch to Metric back in the 80's, but the ancestors disapproved of it, as they called it "un-American" (yes, I did some research on that and learned why we couldn't switch to Metric).

But there are two things so set in stone that I see no hope for a change. They are:

- Time Zones
- The Gregorian Calendar

visibleghost · Jul 16, 2017

Alolan_Apples said:
Hard to explain that. It's true that metric is easier to convert than imperial, but you're right that we were used to it for a while as the reason being.

It's kinda odd that in the most well-known countries in the world, there are a lot of things the United States does differently that was common in historic times, but retired in most of the world. I mean, we're still the only major country to use the electoral college to elect our presidents, we still use the imperial measurement system, we still have gun rights, we only speak one language to visitors, and more stuff like that. And unlike most of the world, the United States is hardly adaptable, especially when we stick to something for a while. We even tried to switch to Metric back in the 80's, but the ancestors disapproved of it, as they called it "un-American" (yes, I did some research on that and learned why we couldn't switch to Metric).

But there are two things so set in stone that I see no hope for a change. They are:

- Time Zones
- The Gregorian Calendar

being stuck in the past isnt that great tho.

and being adaptable is a bit of a choice, of course changing unit system is not going to work if everyone is preaching how great the imperial sustem is because it's the tru american way and refuse to switch.
the us is a big country but it's stupid to refuse to adapt to make interaction with other countries easier. usa isn't the entire world but a Lot of americans seem to think it is whiich is uhhhh interesting ,,

Barbara · Jul 16, 2017

Alolan_Apples said:
Hard to explain that. It's true that metric is easier to convert than imperial, but you're right that we were used to it for a while as the reason being.

It's kinda odd that in the most well-known countries in the world, there are a lot of things the United States does differently that was common in historic times, but retired in most of the world. I mean, we're still the only major country to use the electoral college to elect our presidents, we still use the imperial measurement system, we still have gun rights, we only speak one language to visitors, and more stuff like that. And unlike most of the world, the United States is hardly adaptable, especially when we stick to something for a while. We even tried to switch to Metric back in the 80's, but the ancestors disapproved of it, as they called it "un-American" (yes, I did some research on that and learned why we couldn't switch to Metric).

But there are two things so set in stone that I see no hope for a change. They are:

- Time Zones
- The Gregorian Calendar

Okay, you explained why the US didn't want to change in the past, and they still use the imperial system now. But why do you prefer the imperial system? I can understand that you are used to it, and for people like me that grew up with the metric system, it's an easy pick, but if you have a proper look into it, the metric system just makes so much more sense. I hardly understand the imperial system, but I imagine the metric system is fairly easy to learn once you know how long a meter really is et cetera.
By the way, as for Fahrenheit - it's based off of biology (human body is 100 F) while Celcius is based off of physics (water freezes at 0 C and boils at 100 C). That doesn't even need to be that bad, but what is 0 F? It also confuses me that you use a German term while Germans don't use that term. xD

rbell2915 · Jul 16, 2017

Why did you bring time zones and the Gregorian calendar into this? Do you want those to change?

Weiland · Jul 16, 2017

Hell yeah for metric.

Alolan_Apples · Jul 16, 2017

Barbara said:
Okay, you explained why the US didn't want to change in the past, and they still use the imperial system now. But why do you prefer the imperial system? I can understand that you are used to it, and for people like me that grew up with the metric system, it's an easy pick, but if you have a proper look into it, the metric system just makes so much more sense. I hardly understand the imperial system, but I imagine the metric system is fairly easy to learn once you know how long a meter really is et cetera.

I don't have to answer any questions if I don't want to.

rbell2915 said:
Why did you bring time zones and the Gregorian calendar into this? Do you want those to change?

I don't expect them to change. I'm just saying that there are some things that we stuck to for a very long time that by even changing them, it would confuse the world. And those two are examples of what will never change.

I sort of brought it up because of how the US hardly changes anything we were set in stone with since 1789.

casual.kyle · Jul 16, 2017

The metric system is so much simpler, but I can't not use the imperial system because that's what I grew up with.

12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
Umm... that's all I remember.

10 millimeters = 1 centimeter
10 centimeters = 1 decimeter
10 decimeters = 1 meter
100 meters = 1 hectometer
10 hectometers = 1 kilometer
Sometimes I wonder why I don't use the metric system more often.

Gregriii · Jul 16, 2017

smh americans trying to be special snowflakes

piichinu · Jul 16, 2017

I think people saying the imperial system makes no sense or is confusing are extremely ignorant

Just goes to show how in America, not only do we know the imperial system but also we learn the metric system and are educated on both

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Fahrenheit is based on the human body
Month day year format is based on how we talk (it's January 2nd)

Feet are based on actual human feet lol
Inches are based on the width of a thumb
Yard is also based on the human body
And miles have been around for way longer than the United States, just with different scales. My personal opinion is that it's such a high number of feet because completing a mile with your feet is a milestone... if that makes sense?

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Wish people would get their heads out of their asses, it's not random and I'm sorry if the numbers are weird to you but it's not that deep???

Barbara · Jul 16, 2017

piichinu said:
I think people saying the imperial system makes no sense or is confusing are extremely ignorant

Just goes to show how in America, not only do we know the imperial system but also we learn the metric system and are educated on both

- - - Post Merge - - -

Fahrenheit is based on the human body
Month day year format is based on how we talk (it's January 2nd)

Feet are based on actual human feet lol
Inches are based on the width of a thumb
Yard is also based on the human body
And miles have been around for way longer than the United States, just with different scales. My personal opinion is that it's such a high number of feet because completing a mile with your feet is a milestone... if that makes sense?

- - - Post Merge - - -

Wish people would get their heads out of their asses, it's not random and I'm sorry if the numbers are weird to you but it's not that deep???

There is logic in it, but I just don't find it very easy to work with. Why is everything based off the human body? I can understand it being easy to measure an inch if it's as long as your thumb, and a foot if it's as long as your foot, but inches and feet are actually larger than those body parts so you'll still need a ruler. Although the metric system doesn't use self-measurable units like inches and feet, the convertion between units is much easier. Everything is the power of 10 of something, and that seems easier and more logical to me than 12 of something (inches) being 1 of something else (foot).

nintendofan85 · Jul 16, 2017

Alolan_Apples said:
Hard to explain that. It's true that metric is easier to convert than imperial, but you're right that we were used to it for a while as the reason being.

It's kinda odd that in the most well-known countries in the world, there are a lot of things the United States does differently that was common in historic times, but retired in most of the world. I mean, we're still the only major country to use the electoral college to elect our presidents, we still use the imperial measurement system, we still have gun rights, we only speak one language to visitors, and more stuff like that. And unlike most of the world, the United States is hardly adaptable, especially when we stick to something for a while. We even tried to switch to Metric back in the 80's, but the ancestors disapproved of it, as they called it "un-American" (yes, I did some research on that and learned why we couldn't switch to Metric).

But there are two things so set in stone that I see no hope for a change. They are:

- Time Zones
- The Gregorian Calendar

I had heard that if Jimmy Carter had gotten a second term, the US would be using the metric system.

LambdaDelta · Jul 16, 2017

piichinu said:
Feet are based on actual human feet lol
Inches are based on the width of a thumb
Yard is also based on the human body

Wish people would get their heads out of their asses, it's not random and I'm sorry if the numbers are weird to you but it's not that deep???

these all all arbitrary inconsistent things to base measurement on, so yeah they are still pretty random

localized random, but still random

and this doesn't even get into weight/volume measurements and all, with how you can't just slightly modify one type of measurement spectrum for another

but really, just **** the imperial system for **** like inches being divisible into 16ths and making that potentially a pain in the ass to put into a decimal form

Romaki · Jul 16, 2017

Obviously the metric system is much more easier, it was designed to make sense.
And why would you need to measure it in feet? You can recognize 10 cm after elementary school.

piichinu · Jul 16, 2017

LambdaDelta said:
these all all arbitrary inconsistent things to base measurement on, so yeah they are still pretty random

localized random, but still random

and this doesn't even get into weight/volume measurements and all, with how you can't just slightly modify one type of measurement spectrum for another

but really, just **** the imperial system for **** like inches being divisible into 16ths and making that potentially a pain in the ass to put into a decimal form

yeah i mean, for common things i think the imperial system is more practical, because the way that it's randomized is based on things you know. but definitely the metric system is good for science since it's more precise and you wont get all these messy decimals and fractions.

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Riedy said:
Obviously the metric system is much more easier, it was designed to make sense.
And why would you need to measure it in feet? You can recognize 10 cm after elementary school.

there are 30 cm in a foot, i dont want to count 3 10 cms lmao

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Barbara said:
There is logic in it, but I just don't find it very easy to work with. Why is everything based off the human body? I can understand it being easy to measure an inch if it's as long as your thumb, and a foot if it's as long as your foot, but inches and feet are actually larger than those body parts so you'll still need a ruler. Although the metric system doesn't use self-measurable units like inches and feet, the convertion between units is much easier. Everything is the power of 10 of something, and that seems easier and more logical to me than 12 of something (inches) being 1 of something else (foot).

youre not supposed to actually use yr foot and stuff, that's just what it was originally based on so people could easily estimate things without getting out a giant stick or something

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tldr i think imperial is better for everyday activities but metric is better for science (which is the field im interested in!)

theyre both not very hard to understand IMO

visibleghost · Jul 16, 2017

piichinu said:
I think people saying the imperial system makes no sense or is confusing are extremely ignorant

Just goes to show how in America, not only do we know the imperial system but also we learn the metric system and are educated on both

- - - Post Merge - - -

Fahrenheit is based on the human body
Month day year format is based on how we talk (it's January 2nd)

Feet are based on actual human feet lol
Inches are based on the width of a thumb
Yard is also based on the human body
And miles have been around for way longer than the United States, just with different scales. My personal opinion is that it's such a high number of feet because completing a mile with your feet is a milestone... if that makes sense?

- - - Post Merge - - -

Wish people would get their heads out of their asses, it's not random and I'm sorry if the numbers are weird to you but it's not that deep???

i know what it's based on but the foot, stone, inch etc. are incredibly annoying to work with and converting is a nightmare. i get that it's great to use feet to measure stuff if you don't have anything but actual feet (for a rough estimation lol) but, like... in other situations it's just so weird and unnecessary when there's a better system to use.

and yeah it is pretty random and it is an old system that worked just fine for a long time, but now that we have a better system that's a lot easier to use is it just stupid to keep insisting on using the old unit system.

you can say 7th of june too even tho june 7th is more common to say in the us. most other places in the world use date/month/year and i think it is just unnecessarily confusing for everyone if like one country does it another way
u also say minutes before hour a lot (half past, quarter to, five to etc.) but that doesnt mean you write it 30:04 instead of 04:30 :/

we learnt imperial units in english class, it's not that special to learn both

i dont rly care that much about fahrenheit, i prefer celsius because i'm used to it but for everyday use i really don't think fahrenheit is worse than celsius (but i would never use it because i have a Very tiny idea of how much a fahrenheit is, 50? f sounds hot to me (even tho i know it's not) and apparently 80? f is summer heat and 10? f is super cold but i just . don't understand how cold/hot it is unless i convert it to celsius and i guess it can be the other way around for ppl who are used to f instead of c)

Alolan_Apples · Jul 16, 2017

Metric makes a lot more sense when it comes to science (and there's no denying that). However, we Americans use imperial a lot in the following:

- Architecture
- Art
- Geography
- Human anatomy (like measuring weight)
- Weather
- Cooking
- Industry

You can see why we still use imperial units.

xSuperMario64x · Jul 16, 2017

Alolan_Apples said:
Metric makes a lot more sense when it comes to science (and there's no denying that). However, we Americans use imperial a lot in the following:

- Architecture
- Art
- Geography
- Human anatomy (like measuring weight)
- Weather
- Cooking
- Industry

You can see why we still use imperial units.

But even in those terms it's still much easier to convert units when using the metric system. For example, in cooking, with the imperial system you have all kinds of random measurements like teaspoon, tablespoon, pint, cup, quart. With the metric system everything is liters so it's a lot easier to convert units.

Ichiban · Jul 16, 2017

Metric is just easier.

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Also using imperial for weather is strange, the only thing we use imperial for up north is cooking.

And weather IS science, is it not?

Alolan_Apples · Jul 16, 2017

FreeHelium said:
Metric is just easier.

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Also using imperial for weather is strange, the only thing we use imperial for up north is cooking.

And weather IS science, is it not?

You're right. It is science. However, when we check the daily weather, we use the imperial units.

GreatUsername · Jul 17, 2017

Prefer the metric but use imperial
Metric is good because it's based off of increments of 10's, but it's hard to transition over

Which system is better? Imperial or Metric?

Which measurement system do you prefer more?

Metric

Imperial

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