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Better change the U.S. monetary system to something less "sissified" then. The USD is metric!
So in keeping with the "macho" imperial system, what would a non-metric dollar be like? Let's see, maybe we could have something known as the "mile dollar." It would be broken up into, ow, 5,280 one-dollar increments. We'll call each a "foot dollar." Each of those could then be broken up into 12 equal denominations delivered as coins, the "inch dollar." Each of those would then further be broken up into 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 "inch dollars fraction" coins. To simply things, let's throw in a "yard dollar" worth 1,760 "foot dollars." Wouldn't that be a nice "manly" (bone-head) system? Perfect match to miles, gallons and pounds.
Better change the U.S. monetary system to something less "sissified" then. The USD is metric!
So in keeping with the "macho" imperial system, what would a non-metric dollar be like? Let's see, maybe we could have something known as the "mile dollar." It would be broken up into, ow, 5,280 one-dollar increments. We'll call each a "foot dollar." Each of those could then be broken up into 12 equal denominations delivered as coins, the "inch dollar." Each of those would then further be broken up into 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 "inch dollars fraction" coins. To simply things, let's throw in a "yard dollar" worth 1,760 "foot dollars." Wouldn't that be a nice "manly" (bone-head) system? Perfect match to miles, gallons and pounds.
Actually there is a monetary system that is NON-DECIMAL, the duodecimal (base-12) pounds, shillings, and pence system. 1 pound=20 shillings; 1 shilling=12 pence so 1 pound=240 pence. There are also coins of various names that represent denominations of this system. It was used in America during Colonial times.
Yes but many of the official metric measurements have A LOT more zeros in it than your system. Not the best example of this, rain is measured in millimeters. Lets saw you get hurricane-like rainfall and instead of 10 inches forecast you have 254 mm. I think 10 inches is a lot easier to visualize. In a very rainy climate, annual rainfall is still measured in millimeters and your number is in the thousands. Deserts typically recieve at least 100 mm. Sounds like awefully big numbers don't they?
I've seen official measurements (non weather related) with 10 or more zeros before the decimal point and it can sometimes be tricky counting them all.
It's a silly argument. The visualization part. You get used to a different unit of measure and fairly quickly.
When I was in Italy for instance, I figured out that 29 degrees meant that it was hot, and 30 was almost unbearable.
When I was in Italy, before the Euro, I got used to spending 30,000 L for dinner. You just get used to the units and you don't need a calculator after a short while. You just understand it, "in your bones".
Final example:
When my baby was born, I couldn't tell you what four or eight ounces looked like in a bottle. Now I can do it without looking, because I know what that much liquid looks like.
Written vs. spoken, ok, that's true. But still, when we see it written, "$1.54," we automatically know to say, "one dollar and 54 cents" not "one point 54 dollars" or "one hundred and 54 cents." Other Metric measurements are the same, as in 1.54 m. After a while you don't even think about it, "one meter and 54 centimeters." Either way, to me it's still easier than inches and feet, gallons and pints, ounces (wt) and ounces (vol).
Actually, we say one fifty four. But in non-monetary units we could say one mark fifty four.
On Friday, April 21 (O.S.)/May 4 (N.S.) I was driving to my father's house. I noticed that the road construction sign said:
The "S" was scratched off because it was used once before to warn of construction of a mile or less. That got me to thinking that if we used kilometers, that problem of the plural would have not occured.
The sign would have said instead:
and the sign would have stayed pristine!
Why wouldn't it just say 22 km? It seems ridiculous to believe that every piece of construction would be exactly one full mile (rather than an x mile plus some feet or yards.)
The one big obstacle to converting is of course the expenses of changing production equipment/machinery. Some companies are converting over (with new machinery purchases). But, I think that this should be one of the priorities in this country - It is certainly more important (for the long term good of this country) than some of the other government supported projects (such as the pork projects).
When I was a kid, all soda was in the Imperial system. Now it uses metric. I didn't feel any pain during the transition.
Metric is the next issue in 2009. Right now, Congress is concentrating on the dollar coin. They're probably practicing how to implement metric with the dollar coin legislation.
The French actually tried to make time metric in 1795. If "metric time" had succeeded, we would have 100 metric minutes in a metric hour. There would be ten metric hours in a metric day. Ten days a week, and so on. Pretty weird to think about.
I don't really like that idea, even though logically it may be less confusing than the system we currently use (ABT). At least we Americans don't insist on keeping time differently from the rest of the world. That would really drive everyone nuts.
When I was a kid, all soda was in the Imperial system. Now it uses metric. I didn't feel any pain during the transition.
Actually it was the U.S. Customary system (I prefer calling it with the more succinct "Colonial System."). Imperial was a reform of the U.S. Customary system in 1824 and used in the other English-speaking countries like Canada and Australia.
Metric is the next issue in 2009. Right now, Congress is concentrating on the dollar coin. They're probably practicing how to implement metric with the dollar coin legislation.
If the government wants to implement a dollar coin, they're going to have to pull the dollar bill out of circulation. Time and time again the American public has shown that when given the choice between a dollar bill and a dollar coin, they will choose the bill every time.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread topic: the metric system.
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