Our system is as good as yours, so why change it?

loercase · 11 months

As a Canadian we:

Measure distances in meters, except when we're talking about human height, then we use feet/inches.
Use kilos for weight, except when referencing human weight, then we use pounds.
Advertise food at the grocery store in price per pound, then pay at the checkout in price per kilo.
Use celsius for everything but baking, where we use Fahrenheit.
Say miles but mean kilometers.
Exclusively use feet and inches in carpentry.
Use liters for everything but alcohol, where we use pints and ounces, except for bottles of wine and spirits, where the 750mL bottle is standard.
Are completely split on DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY. There is no consistency between people whatsoever, you just use whatever the fuck you want unless it's stated on your document how to write it.

Edit: I'll also add that short measurements are also completely crazy. For measurements less than a meter you can use feet, and for measurements less than a foot you can use inches or centimeters, and I swear to god, I have heard people say "like an inch and a few milimeters" before. Anything over three feet is measured in meters because we never use yards, except when playing football or golf. Also, you can spell it "meter" or "metre" and they're both fine.

DStroya · 11 months

plus liters of water and kilos also correlate. Same with tons.

hemperor · 11 months

The left diagram looks like it's giving me the finger.

Valendr0s · 11 months

100% agree on the metric system
100% agree on celsius
But it shouldn't be DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY, it should be YYYY/MM/DD. Computing has changed that for the world. Timestamps don't sort properly in any format other than ymd.

<EDIT>: Apparently an explanation is required. Say you're working in Excel or with a bunch of time-stamped filenames. Today's files or records are at the top, and the further down you go the further back in time you go.

If you sort them DD/MM/YYYY, then they sort like this:

03/MAR/2001 - Reporting Daily Spreadsheet totals.xls

05/JAN/1942 - Reporting Daily Spreadsheet totals.xls

24/DEC/2012 - Reporting Daily Spreadsheet totals.xls

That's fine when there's 20 records. But 1 record a day for 20 years... Ya fuck that. YYYYMMDD all the way, the future generations that need the logs or files you make will thank you.

<EDIT2>: The argument that 'we want to see the most important information first' is blatantly myopic. Lets say you write a blog entry.

If you need to check later today you care about what hour you submitted it.
In a week if you re-read it you'll care most about the day you wrote it.
Flash to 6 months from now you don't care about the day, you check out the month you wrote it.
3 years later you won't care what day or month you wrote it, you're looking at the year.
For the rest of recorded time people care about the year.

How often have you come across some news story with just "Submitted: March 4th" You read it and realize it was March 4th sometime 10 years ago? It's silly to think that 'the most important data first' because it's most important NOW, but that importance fades quickly, and the superfluous data of today is tomorrows most important part.

Also it transitions perfectly to YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-SS format. You can keep records with just days and records with times as well in the same folder and still be sorted properly. The pros vastly outweigh the cons here people.

righty · 11 months

The monthly "metric is better" submission.

borez · 11 months

UK here, we use both.

bitchkat · 11 months

They are both wrong on dates, ISO format YYYY-MM-DD is the best format since dates will naturally sort lexigraphically.

rubberbabybugybumper · 11 months

Has it been a month already since something like this was last posted? Wow, time is just flying by.

BobTheSCV · 11 months

I live in a metric country, on highways, the speed limit is 110, while the US speed limit is around 65?

Yet another reason to switch, fewer tickets, get to where you're going faster.

hivemind6 · 11 months

1) The US uses both metric and imperial. I'm American and I know how to convert between them pretty easily. In my job we use both. And I'm an avid shooter and I reload make my own ammunition so I know almost every popular caliber in inches and millimeters, both nominal and precise measurements.

2) The cost of changing everything in the US to metric would be unnecessary and costly.

3) Refusing to use the metric system exclusively is not holding the US back. This fact really irks the anti-Americans, so I'll probably be downvoted for this, but the US has the most technologically advanced economy in the world (gasp! blasphemy!). This would not be the case if using imperial units was some sort of handicap.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_tec_ind-economy-technology-index

Narzynth · 11 months

The logic of degrees Celcius being the base scale is wrong considering it's only based upon water. It should be Kelvin, but near no one uses it except in science.

ImTotallyNotYourMom · 11 months

Did I hear circlejerk-thread? circlejerk-thread!

papsmearfestival · 11 months

My car gets four rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!

banned_andeh · 11 months

Why exactly is it "logical" for a temperature scale for human beings to be based on water boiling? Doesn't seem very useful to me to be able to hear how warm it is outside and be like "shit, another 60 degrees and water would boil". A scale where 0 is "pretty fuckin cold" and 100 is "pretty fuckin hot" seems more useful when its primary function is for measuring human comfort levels.

reacher · 11 months

The metric system is a tool of the devil! My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!

MrInopportune · 11 months

Wow, I've never heard this one before. I am sure because of this post, we will change your units of measurement.

oshaneo · 11 months

I don't understand why the USA does not use the metric system.

Philaholic · 11 months

The American dating system is clearly superior because it allows for the possibility of Pi Day on 3/14

RobAlter · 11 months

The world still measures TV size in inches. The world still measures knife length in inches and tires are measured in mm and inches. 235mm/15in. Still crazy

saiyanhajime · 11 months

Would be cool if the rest of the world did that.

But it doesn't.

So really it should be like... Why the fuck aren't we ALL DOING THIS.

UK here.

Ocet358 · 11 months

Actually america adopted metric system looong time ago but never restricted usage of imperial one. As a beginner pilot and european i used to get really mad at imperial system, since it is used in aviation. Now i got kinda used to it though.

Auto_Optimus · 11 months

I thought this was about comparing roller coasters at first :(

igot8001 · 11 months

Here's the thing: do you need to know how many meters tall you are? Do you need to know the number of inches to the nearest grocery store? Is it a fault of the system when there is confusion about a XX/XX/XX date, or a localization fault (I mean, we don't standardize the value of our local currencies - where is the outrage over that)?

Congrats, rest of world, you have a more intelligent system of arbitrary measurments than the US. For your prize, please select four internets.

Radialshifter · 11 months

Please don't think most Americans actual WANT this system more than the metric system...... everyone just kinda shrugs and goes on with their lives.

SchadeyDrummer · 11 months

It just means that we have to be extra clever in order to learn things.

mookiee · 11 months

We are an empire so we use the imperial measurement.

xess · 11 months

So in America, the 4th of July is celebrated on July the 4th?

baegolas · 11 months

In defense of the foot:

While base 10 logically seems like the best system, there are some disadvantages. Obviously the significance of the number 10 comes only from the fact we have 10 fingers, and it was the easiest to count, but think about what sort of fractions you can neatly divide 10 into. Just 1/5 and 1/2. The 12 inches of a foot can be divided into 6ths, 4ths, 3rds, and halves. So if you were building something that was 1/3 of a foot long, you can easily measure that as 4 inches, but in a base 10 system, you'd need 3.333. This divisibility actually makes base 12 a lot easier in many cases, as you have so many more easy ways to divide up 12.

domyates · 11 months

I am English. I like Feet and Inches to measure height, Miles to measure distance, Celsius in the Winter and Fahrenheit in the Summer, Pounds & Stone to measure my weight (mass) and both to measure food in recipes.

It's not a USA v The Rest of the World, each country of the world uses both, and so it should be. Do what works.

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