US switching to metric system?

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Well, when you consider that the metric system is over two centuries old (and, as has been pointed out, has numerous inefficiencies in everyday use), let us wait for a newer, more efficient one to come along :-)




Now when was I singing praises? I simply stated well-known facts of economics: the European (and Japanese) economic resurgence after WWII was in large part due to the more modern replacement infrastructure. It may not be kind, gentle, or good, but life is often like that.

Oh, so you are willing to change after all. It is just that the metric system isn't good enough? What other system would be acceptable then?
Let me guess... Something like what you are used to?

You don't get the economics thing either, do you? We lost the tools to repair the damage and the people that were needed were either dead or starving by the end of the war. But we probably should not complain too hard, because the Eastern European countries have seen even worse atrocities and destruction.
And indeed we were thankful for the Marshall help, without that (and the benefits of the metric system, of course) it might have taken another decade extra.

[Fat Charlie]

As a creature made out of water and highly dependent on using water, I consider its freezing point to be about the most relevant temperature there is.

Aside from raw survival, it's a solid reference point. It's getting down into the 270s, you'd better watch the curves just doesn't convey what It's getting down to freezing does.

As to rebuilding Europe, no one is recommending general war as a renewal plan. But once it's happened, it's taking a constructive look forward- and it's not unrealistic to look back and see the war as having been the cause of the massive change.

[PaulB2]

We could always go to degrees Kelvin to get rid of negative temperatures...

I'm sure glad phone manufacturers settled on USB

Actually, the USB standard was screwed up as well. At the time it was adopted, integrated circuits almost without exception were powered with 5v rails. Now they aren't, mostly. It would have made more sense to have USB supply 12v rather than 5v, and just step down the voltage to whatever is needed with a voltage converter. That would have fit in better with the previous standard (car batteries, solar panels, etc. mostly being 12 v). Now we have two standards to deal with.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by P-hack

below freezing is hardly nonsensical, nor is boiling, I will assume you are kidding (I want a temperature system designed to have a 100 degree spread between the freezing and boiling point of water...

Why? That's always seemed nonsensical to me - again, for everyday use. Normal outdoor temperatures go from - oh, about -40 to 50 in centigrade - so large range of commonly-encountered temperatures need to be negative values, while at the upper end the 2-digit range goes well above what's encountered anywhere but cooking. Hardly convenient.

And on top of that, one end of the scale - boiling point - is variable, and just defined as 100 degrees by parochial folk who live near sea level. Hereabouts it boils around 95C.

I'm sure glad phone manufacturers settled on USB

I just wish they'd settle on one small USB connector. Every one of the half-dozen or so portable USB devices I have - phone, tablet, cameras, GPS - uses a slightly different shape.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Oh, so you are willing to change after all. It is just that the metric system isn't good enough?

Ah, you obviously didn't recognize sarcasm when you read it. The point I was trying to make was not about my willingness to change. I was just trying to point out that the metric system is equally irrational, just in different ways.

The only system(s) that could be called rational are those based on either fundamental physical constants (for science), or handy hunan-based measures (for everyday use).

[freebeard]

Degrees vs Radians. Discuss.

The only system(s) that could be called rational are those based on either fundamental physical constants (for science), or handy hunan-based measures (for everyday use).

Whatever units you settle on, the Cartesian coordinate system is fundamentally flawed. Universe is inherently tetrahedronal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synergetics_%28Fuller%29

[P-hack]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Hereabouts it boils around 95C.

Lol, it isn't like sea level is that arbitrary, well it is a bit, but not as arbitrary as "lets base it on where james is living", I think on degrees of irrationality, that might win... I mean the sea is over 70% of the earths surface, you can't pretend to be of that sort of significance.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by P-hack

I mean the sea is over 70% of the earths surface

By democratic vote the Earth's surface is at sea level, then

But when the polar ice will melt in a few years, sea level will rise. Will we have to redefine the Celsius scale by a fraction of a degree?

I'm surprised no one here is arguing about the superiority of the Fahrenheit scale... What if...

[CapriRacer]

Along these same lines of thinking:

I read a letter to the editor many years ago arguing against the metric system. where one of the arguments was clothes sizing - that pants come in waist and inseam measurements and how in the world are we going to buy a pair of pants labeled 71.12 X 76.2 instead of 28 X 30 - and not realizing that small, medium, and large are dimensionless and that doesn't seem to be a problem.

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by CapriRacer

Along these same lines of thinking:

I read a letter to the editor many years ago arguing against the metric system. where one of the arguments was clothes sizing - that pants come in waist and inseam measurements and how in the world are we going to buy a pair of pants labeled 71.12 X 76.2 instead of 28 X 30 - and not realizing that small, medium, and large are dimensionless and that doesn't seem to be a problem.

The rest of the world runs around naked, in pure frustration of the confusing size system