Honest question to all Americans used to live or living right now in metric countries

[Kshahdoo]

What system of measurement is better, metric or US customary one?

Click to read more...

 

[Moose Head]

Metric for Olympics. Imperial for normal stuff

6’ sounds so much better than 182 cm or whatever I am

 

[TheGreenTBer]

In terms of a "better" unit? We are not computers, our number system is Base 10, so metric. Easily.

That doesn't mean I'd be willing, or able, to switch to metric.

 

[Phil McKraken]

Metric for Olympics. Imperial for normal stuff

6’ sounds so much better than 182 cm or whatever I am

Colloquially we say "one eighty-two" rather than "one hundred and eighty-two" though. Might not seem like a big difference, but it flows better.

 

[Maple Leaf]

No one uses imperial

 

[Butch 19]

No one uses imperial

The US construction and farming industry uses Imperial

 

[Dr Pepper]

No one uses imperial

Not usually, no......but I still can't remember how many centimetres tall I am, even when it's listed on my driver's license.

Nor do I have any earthly idea how many kilograms I weigh.

I do know my height in feet and inches, and my weight in pounds though.

 

[Bumpus]

Speaking for ‘Merica … We don’t care what you wanna use. Now hush, and go fetch me a beer.

 

[Markster]

There are two categories of countries in the world -- those that use the metric system and those who have sent men to the moon.

 

[Moose Head]

There are two categories of countries in the world -- those that use the metric system and those who have sent men to the moon.

NASA uses Metric

 

[Djp]

NASA uses Metric

USA official measurement system is metric.


one of the mars mission contractors operated on the non metric system and killed a mars probe

 

[Markster]

NASA uses Metric

The current garbage NASA does. But listen to the Apollo-era Mission Control recordings. Pounds, miles, feet per second.

 

[cupcrazyman2]

Either way you're still getting ripped off at the pumps.

 

[Moose Head]

The current garbage NASA does. But listen to the Apollo-era Mission Control recordings. Pounds, miles, feet per second.

To put it in simple terms, It was done in metric, but converted for the audience.

 

[Hammettf2b]

Freedom Units FTW!!!

 

[Killer Orcas]

No one uses imperial

For weight and height most everyone I know use imperial still in Canada.

 

[McGarnagle]

They both have their strengths and being black-or-white about their uses is unfair.

Mathematically, metric is better. Nobody's debating that, if we're doing complex scientific equations and such, milligrams and kilograms is easier to deal with. No need to convert between units, less chance of things going wrong, etc. I do find it annoying when I'm cooking and have to google to convert ounces to tablespoons, etc.

Imperial was based pragmatically on the usage of real world things. Feet and inches are more accessible and easier to do practical estimations and daily tasks with. You can look at a box on a table and do an estimation in your head that it's 18 inches, a round number that the brain attaches to. It's chunking. Maybe people raised in metric countries have different experiences, but I doubt it's as easy to look at a box and say it's about 457 centimeters - there's a much wider berth in the ranges you'd chunk by IMO which makes it less ideal for routine small tasks. A gallon of milk just makes sense to me, where as if I had to buy per liter 3 wouldn't be enough but 4 would be too much, etc.

Something I wonder and I'm sure studies have been done on is that due to the brain's natural propensity for rounding numbers, if in metric countries people buy more quantities of produce on average than in the US. I'm inclined to go to the store and get a pound of bananas and a pound of oranges. But I don't think a Frenchman is going to go looking for 454 grams or bananas and oranges, the brain would want to round up to a half kilo, no? Which would result in them leaving with 1/10th of a pound more than I would. Either that or they round down to 450 which kind of betrays the fact that the imperial pound is approximately the natural practical quantity of weight for solid things to be measured by.

 

[Tarantula]

Another consideration with imperial is the tendency to divide by 2, an inch gets divided down to half, quarter, eighth, etc. Probably a natural way for measurements to develop back in the day as a standard before actual manufactured measuring tapes as the mind understands a half, quarter much better then picturing a tenth of something.

 

[Markster]

To put it in simple terms, It was done in metric, but converted for the audience.

It may be shocking and hard to fathom today, but 1960s America specified, built and operated Apollo/Saturn in inches, feet, pounds and gallons. All branches of Science definitely used metric but Engineering (which of course is what Project Apollo mostly was) in the USA did not.

And who are you referring to anyway? The "audience" working the consoles in the MOCR? The "audience" of the three guys in the spacecraft? Or do you mean the "audiences" on the factory floors who built the hardware?

Not a single flight controller nor a single astronaut referred to kms, kgs or liters during flight. They operated and piloted in feet (vehicle velocity or the LM's altitude above the moon), miles (orbital parameters or distance from the Earth) and pounds (consumables like water and fuel, or total vehicle weights). If you want to criticize them a bit, note that weight isn't really correct in spaceflight -- they should have been referring to mass rather than weight. F = MA and all that.

And when they looked at a gauge reporting temperature, that was in Fahrenheit.

The did talk in terms of watts and amps though......those indeed are metric units.

You are correct that the guidance computer software used metric units in its calculations. And that's it. Not on blueprints, not on any display or in the flightplan the astronauts had in the cabin, etc.

Any references to metric you might read in books were translated from Imperial for the benefit of international audiences.

So if you want to argue that NASA used metric, you can hang your hat on that one part, the guidance computer.

 

[Markster]

Imperial was based pragmatically on the usage of real world things.

As I once read someplace, my foot is nearly exactly one foot in length. I have a foot. I do not have a meter.

 

[TheAngryHank]

As I once read someplace, my foot is nearly exactly one foot in length. I have a foot. I do not have a meter.

and you can stride a yard and count steps on a golf course to measure distance.

 

[Richard]

I can't figure out everyday distance and weights in the metric system. Like, saying place x is 25 miles from my house puts a number (say 45 minute drive) in my head. Metric really doesn't do it for me.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

No one uses imperial

Have you been to home depot?

 

[Kairi Zaide]

I can't figure out everyday distance and weights in the metric system. Like, saying place x is 25 miles from my house puts a number (say 45 minute drive) in my head. Metric really doesn't do it for me.

50 km = 30-45 minutes
100 km = 60-75 minutes
Etc.

 

[LarryFisherman]

imagine willingly choosing imperial over metric as an educated american