My metric: rant

[Strahd]

We use the metric system here pretty much for everything but height and weight. It's pretty much 50-50. Height in meters means nothing to me. Weight in Kilos I'm getting a wea bit better.

[Dr Mordrid]

A kilogram is 2.2 pounds. Real tough.

A kilometer is about .65, or roughly 2/3, of a mile. Also tough; just take 2/3 of the miles to get kilometers or multiply the kilometers by 1.5 to get miles.

Dr. Mordrid

[Umfriend]

Sure, but 1 km is 1,000m, which is a lot easier than to find how many inches are in 13.5 miles.
Worse, 2 square km is 2 x 10^6 square meters, but how many square feet go into 3 square miles?
And how the hell does one buy shoes for square feet?
Umf
edit: How many cubic inch is a gallon?

[ZokesPro]

http://convert.french-property.co.uk/

[Umfriend]

Why convert when we can use metric?

[Strahd]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
A kilogram is 2.2 pounds. Real tough.

Nothing tough. But if you have to do the conversion each time it becomes time consuming.

I am perfectly billingual in French and English. Have been since I was 5. Neither language has ever given me any problems.

Now I could learn German or any other language. But until I can speak German without having to translate each word from English or French it's really not effective.

If you must do the conversion from Kilos to pounds when having a conversation with someone, it's a bit of a pain. 25 / 2.2 let's see, carry the 1...

Edit: Correcting spelling mistakes. SO much for having a handle on the English language.

[Greebe]

edit: How many cubic inch is a gallon?

231

edit: U.S. Gallon

[Umfriend]

That is just one question ansswered, and you probably new this by head. The poiint is that in converting from one unit to the other, u need to calculate with figures which are not equalk to 10 to a power (that is whole, bad English, but you know what I try to say (don't you))?

I only need to know that 1 liter is 1 cubic decimeter, which is 1,000 cubic centimeter and all the rest flows easily.

[Gurm]

I'm with Strahd. It's a pain. You don't THINK in a foreign unit, just like you don't THINK in a foreign language... until you have used it for a long time.

- Gurn

[Novdid]

But Umfriend has a point, the metric system (which also should be called the standard as almost every country in the world uses it) makes a lot more sense. Let's face it, the standard system is the inferior system we used in Europe before we converted to the metric system.

[Wombat]

Inferior? That depends. I have shoes that are just about 12" long. I can measure distances in feet very easily. Do you walk around with a meterstick all the time?

[dZeus]

If you get used to using the metric system it's just as easy to estimate quantities in metric values.

As it's the same with everything else, be it currency, etc.

[Gurm]

Heh.

There's a REASON the standard system was made.

Ancient systems are even MORE commonsense. You can estimate cubits pretty easily.

- Gurm

[Guru]

Originally posted by Wombat
Inferior? That depends. I have shoes that are just about 12" long. I can measure distances in feet very easily. Do you walk around with a meterstick all the time?

What's your point with that wombat?
Lets say my feet are 33cm long so I can measure distances in meaters very easily!

[GNEP]

The UK has managed the transition (apart from on the roads, and when measuring people) - it really all stems from the education system. 20 years or so of using 2 systems is not really that bad. My sister (3 years older) was educated in the imperial system; I was taught everything in SI (metric) units. Both of us can work fine with either, but I am more comfortable with SI, and vice-versa. If the UK can do it, anyone can (and OK, we still drink imperially, but then who's doing calculations other than the number of beers?

No pain no gain I say - the US should convert and the UK should go the rest of the way. And we should all use Euros worldwide

No one uses cubits anymore, do they?

Gnep