Going it alone!

[KvHagedorn]

it is now illegal - and punishable - to use imperial measures in commerce

Am I the only one that sees this as screwed up?

[cjolley]

Am I the only one that sees this as screwed up?

Would those be english or metric screws?

[Umfriend]

Am I the only one that sees this as screwed up?

I assume it is not that the use of imperial measures is forbidden but that any measure aside from metric is fobidden in commerce. Most likely, this will apply only in relation to retail consumers as well. *If* my assumptions are correct then no, I don;t think this is screwed up at all, in fact there is good reason to. Not that I need the law to convince that metric makes sense and a whole lot more than imperial at that but he, if you dig it, stay with it.

[Jon P. Inghram]

How often do you hear people use the terms decimeters? Dekameters? How come?

[schmosef]

I remember watching an episode of the game show Jeopardy many many years ago. The "answer" was something to the effect of "The official system of measurement adopted by the United States of America".

One by one the contestants buzzed in and said "what is Imperial?" After the first one got it wrong the other two tried to word it differently, but still used the word "Imperial".

Afterward Alex Trebek said "The question we were looking for was 'What is the Metric System?'" Then very slowly for effect he said again "Metric System".

I don't know why but I've never forgotten that moment.

[Wulfman]

decimeters?

I hear that all the time, really. quite common word.

mfg
wulfman

[Wombat]

We have a fascination with flying, hang-gliding is the closest we’ve got. There’s a cliff near where I used to go to school, in Beachy Head, and it’s a big, chocolate, 300, 400-foot, maybe a mile high, who knows? We certainly don’t, ‘cause we have no idea. Well, we’re metric now, so 30 cubic litres high, all right?

-Eddie Izzard

[Jon P. Inghram]

I hear that all the time, really. quite common word.

Ok, just never noticed it being used anywhere.

Honestly I couldn't care less about imperial weight and volume measurements being dumped, I can never remember how many cups there are to a quart or gallon anyway. I just find imperial distance measurments (inch, foot, yard, mile) to be more handy, especially when many roads in the US are layed out in a one mile grid already. I don't know how many kms there are to a mile off the top of my head but I do know the important conversion of 2.54 cm per inch at the very least.

[Sasq]

1.6 give or take a decimeter or two

quick mental calc, 50 mp/h = 80 km/h

[agallag]

quick mental calc, 50 mp/h = 80 km/h

More useful quick mental calc (for the way I drive at least)

100 mph = 160 km/h

[GT98]

More useful quick mental calc (for the way I drive at least)

100 mph = 160 km/h

100 km/h ~ 62 MpH

[Umfriend]

Dekagrams is not common at all here in the Netherlands. But I know it is used quite a bit in commerce in at least a part of the south-west of germany. I suspect it being used a lot in Austria, Czech, Slowakia and possibly more.

The good thing about metric is that although I do not use Deka-whatever, I know instantly what it means becuase of the way Metric works. It's an easy rule and it works everywhere and, moreover, for various measurements (weight, length, surface, volume). The fatc that it's superior to Imperial in efficiency is clear. I think the question here is: If a system has been officially accepted more than 100 years ago AND it is so much more efficient to use than the Imperial system, then WHY has it still not replaced Imperial completely (by a LONG shot)?

[Nowhere]

What's it to you?

You might perhaps not realise that, but you're imposing use of Imperial on others sometimes...take MURC fr example - it's clearly an internationall community, yet you use almost exclusivelly Imperial, that is used practically only at your place.

How often do you hear people use the terms decimeters? Dekameters? How come?

Decimeters - all the time. Same with dekagrams.

[Umfriend]

Yeah, I expected Poland to use Deka's as well actually. For volume, milliliters, deciliters, centiliters and hectoliters are used often as well. Oh, and liters of course.

Let's face it: The metric system has been the best measurment convention since the introduction of el.

[Nowhere]

Volume is usually measured in mililitres for small volumes and litres for the rest here...but yeah, the best part of metric system is ease of conversion.