jlg1000 Loc: Uruguay / South America

Using the imperial system is a cruel and unusual punishment.

Specially when you consider that the empire that invented it, switched to metric

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

Well said. And outside the US everybody else hates using ounces. If I am following a US recipe I have to redo the recipe and convert everything in it to metric first (as well as find substitutes for all the US brand names). It is very unfortunate indeed to find that it is only the US citizens who even bother to post recipes flawed though they are.

Actually following this whole thread I am starting to have an appreciation of just how insular the US is as a whole. Following your current govt shenanigans it is becoming increasingly obvious that the US functions in spite of not because of.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

Interesting that you use 'I'm' rather than 'we are'.
2 thousand years ago there may not have been too many options re bearing a cross but these days there are many more options so I might query whether there is any need for 'you' to bear any cross.

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

I find it interesting that Mt Palomar, (Caltech) is still using inches, however they have made attempts to include the strange metric system for all you above average thinkers.

Palomar Observatory, located atop Palomar Mountain in north San Diego County, California, is a center of astronomical research owned and operated by Caltech. The Observatory is home to three active research telescopes: the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope, the 48-inch (1.2-meter) Samuel Oschin Telescope, and the 60-inch (1.5-meter) telescope. Research at Palomar Observatory is pursued by a broad community of astronomers from Caltech and other domestic and international partner institutions.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

Well said also. A point is raised by this -
The empire that invented it saw the error of their ways and changed. Does this mean that the US has an inability to be able to handle change ?

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

I try, (though sometimes fail) to speak for others, everyone here in the USA has the right to their own opinion and use whichever system they feel comfortable with. That's why we told George to stuff it.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

I’m just glad we aren’t using cubits, furlongs, fathoms and hogsheads. Don’t forget mark and twain. And then you have those darned sailors who want to use knots to measure speed. And even worse is those horse people that want to measure their animals in hands. Every horse owner in the US should be forced to measure their animals in meters, centimeters, mega meters, equine meters or something like that. I wonder how many metric proponents have no problem with horses and hands? Since it’s a traditional measurement it’s ok? Hmmm, maybe the US uses imperial measurements because it’s traditional.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

As a point for or against Imperial/metric measurements the size of Palomars mirrors being in inches is irrelevant. So nothing interesting at all about this. The telescopes were planned many years before completion so planning would have started then. BEFORE the issues of Imperial v metric became important. If it was planned in inches then it should continue that way. If historically it was inches then it should remain inches. If they build a new one and planning hasn't already started then it should be metric. If the casting mould (or whatever they used) still exists AND they will use it again then it stays as inches.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

Time to break with tradition. Tradition is the polite way of saying 'we can't be bothered to change because this is the way we have always done it'. Note here that the rest of the world has been 'bothered'.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

Yes, earthwork construction in the US goes by feet except every standard foot is divided into tenths, not twelfths. I use it every day at my in town job. No inches, but tenths.

And just recently the US switched to a standard foot, which is a few hundredths shorter (or is it longer?) than the foot we’ve used for hundreds of years. Don’t ask me why or how, but on long distances it will make a tiny difference.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

As I said before, if the US switched to the metric system, what would be gained? Lots of money would have to be spent changing all the speed a road distance signs, private businesses would need to spend money changing their billboard ads, gps electronic voices would need to be reprogrammed, recorded home and land surveys would be unusable (hectares instead of acres, meters instead of feet) and there would be a lot of confusion. And we couldn’t switch completely all at once because there is still too many machines that were built using imperial measurements. A 1/4” 20 thread per inch bolt is going to be the same regardless of the oddball metric measurement it would be described as. And a 6mm 1.25 metric bolt isn’t going to fit. We export grain by the metric ton already and exporters have no problem converting bushels to tons.

Again, what is there to be gained by switching to metric?

And what will likely rub your fur the wrong way is that the little threaded hole in the bottom of your camera for a tripod? 1/4” 20 thread per inch. Yes, every camera with that hole is using an imperial measurement. Maybe if all the camera manufacturers change that to metric, then we can all buy a new tripod. And if you take your new and old camera out you will need to carry two tripods. Yep, I can see where changing to metric is going to benefit the tripod manufacturers but photographers ain’t gonna like it at all!

cwp3420

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

👍👍👍

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

I already commented earlier on tripod and camera holes. Metric and Imperial can exist together. A metric ton is actually called a 'tonne'. Private businesses don't need to change their billboard ads (depends on what they are selling though). My property is measured in acres (although new places are sold by the sq m). My house is in sq feet or sq metres. You use the 'were' built for machines and that's fine. But new machines don't need to be in Imperial. The change will happen slowly but it needs to start somewhere and in the case of the US it has started. It's just so damn much slower than the rest of the world because you guys are so much slower to accept change. And since most of your new machines now live in other countries (declining American manufacturing) this isn't a very valid point either.
There is enough anti US sentiment around the world without you guys highlighting it by being the only one who won't change. This is verging on arrogance and the rest of the world does notice things like that. That would be a gain for starters. I am not anti American but I am anti refusing to change from stubborness.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

Ha ha. I wondered when somebody would bring that up. And you might have been there a little quicker if you had embraced metric earlier.