Online petition for the U.S. to convert to the Metric system (parties, Walmart)

[Jaggy001]

Originally Posted by Glitch

I believe he was referring to how they pronounced it, for example, that town is 12 "Kays" away.

The US military calls kilometers "clicks."

Correct.

I think the OP is getting a little too anal about this.

[Nonarchist]

Originally Posted by OneLess

Kilometer is shortened to km
Meter is shortened to m
Centimeter to cm
Millimeter to mm
Liter to L

Try, just try, fitting your shortenings into this:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost

[Nonarchist]

Originally Posted by OneLess

metric is much easy... Believe me

Yeah, kilomuch easy!

[weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by Nonarchist

"Kilometer" has four syllables.

"Mile" has one.

Are Americans really getting that lazy?
Too many syllables?

[Jaggy001]

Originally Posted by weltschmerz

Are Americans really getting that lazy?
Too many syllables?

Nah ... they just don't want to change and too many syllables is one of the many excuses.

[Nonarchist]

Originally Posted by weltschmerz

Are Americans really getting that lazy?
Too many syllables?

Life is short, and I have miles to go before I sleep.

I ain't got time to be no Object German Socialist Schnitzentwellerbergendofler!

Even the German word for name is "name" because they can't stand themselves!

A rose by any other schlickenmopper is still a rose.

I've always been against merging adjectives with nouns. THAT'S WHAT LAZY IS!

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by Nonarchist

Life is short, and I have miles to go before I sleep.

I ain't got time to be no Object German Socialist Schnitzentwellerbergendofler!

Even the German word for name is "name" because they can't stand themselves!

A rose by any other schlickenmopper is still a rose.

I've always been against merging adjectives with nouns. THAT'S WHAT LAZY IS!

LOL!

I think being able to concatenate an entire sentence into a single word is pretty cool.

For example, you can compress "Fahren des Vergnügens" into a single word - "Fahrvergnügen."

[Gungnir]

Actually it's kind of ironic that the thread has taken a turn towards language...

Because measuring systems are a form of language when you consider it. When you speak you're conveying information that the listener interprets and because of a common lexicon, the information is understood (sometimes not entirely accurately).

With measuring systems when you pass of a list of dimensions you're conveying information that the reader interprets and because of a common system, the information is understood (however it should be accurately).

Thus if you speak fluent German to someone who understands German, you can have a conversation. There's nothing you cannot convey in German that you need to use English for (although there are English words that are used in German Language, much as there are many German words used in English).

Conversely there's nothing you cannot convey in English, that can be conveyed in German.

The same principle applies to Metric and Imperial, they're two different measurement languages. Both can do exactly the same job as the other. Neither one can do something the other cannot (which is why I find it funny that people think metric is better, to me "better" implies it can do something the other cannot). Which is why I'm entirely agnostic on the argument. However I am amused by it because it's a lot like arguing whether one language is better than another.

[mkpunk]

One issue I see with a change is the miles per hour. I google searched the average mph for road signs, here is what they are in kilos.

25 mph (average school zone speed) is 40.23 kph
30 mph (average residential area speed) is 48.28 kph
45 mph (average road speed) is 72.42 kph
55 mph (average parkway speed) is 88.51 kph
65 mph (average highway speed) is 104.6 kph
75 mph (maximum highway speed) is 120.70 kph
88 mph (speed to make a Delorean go back into the past or future) is 141.62 kph
FYI, the five mph window for speeding would turn into a 8.05 kph window

As you can see, this would DRASTICALLY change the US road system if this was used. Not only will tax payers need to pay for more road signs (if not removal of old signs) we will now need to know the new speeds and the windows.

Personally, the way things are while not great are simpler to understand because that is the way that it is. Could something better come along, yes. I don't see the metric system as the answer to a kind of messed up American system.

And FYI, to OneLess, normally Americans when using the Imperical System do not swap between miles and feet. The only thing Americans will do is swap between feet and inches just because of the size issues.

How many Americans could tell me without using calculator/research....

58 ft = ? Miles
875 in = ? yards
80 lbs = ? Oz
120 Oz = ? gallons

I will try, let's see the first is a bait for calculations or research.
36 inches in a yard (12 inches per foot, three feet per yard) 36 goes into 87 about 2 times, leaving 15 to become 155 (after dropping the 5), 36 goes into 155 about 4 times leaving a remainder of 11. so you get more than 24 yards.
80 lbs into ounces, at 16 ounces per pound you get 1280.
120 ounces is less than 1 gallon (128 ounces per gallon) (NOTE: had to double check that)

While yes, it is easier to convert say litres into kilolitres, the issue is the changes to the system as we have many situations that would be altered such as the speed limits and the distance to exits. Am I saying Americans are "dumb," no. You just to realize a quick change is going to fail, just look at metric conversion under Ford/Carter compared to the UK's method.

[OneLess]

Originally Posted by weltschmerz

are americans really getting that lazy?
Too many syllables?

:d