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View Poll Results: Should America convert to the metric system
Slowly incoroperate metric and phase out imperial entirely over the next generation 47 61.04%
Keep imperial and only U.S. math/science ppl required to learn metric..Rest of America doesn't need it 7 9.09%
Keep impersial but teach metrics more thorouhly in school (not just introduce it but teach it to ALL junior high and up in depth) 14 18.18%
Who the **** cares? 9 11.69%
Voters: 77. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 11-14-2013, 07:10 AM
 
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
1,741 posts, read 2,607,024 times
Reputation: 2482

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Quote:
Originally Posted by StuffedCabbage View Post
[If Brits can still drive on the wrong side of the street, mph and fahrenheit are fine for us.]
Ha. I like this reasoning. It plainly illustrates why the U.S. shouldn't have to switch just to please the rest of the world. If getting everybody in the world on the same page is the goal then cases of differences such as this in the world should also have to be made more uniform and every country in the world should drive the same way on streets as well. Since most of the world already does drive on the same side we do then perhaps the U.S. might have a chance to save this way it does things.
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Old 11-14-2013, 07:13 AM
 
Location: Leeds, UK
22,118 posts, read 29,474,574 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StuffedCabbage View Post
Keep it the way it is. In my book, anything that honks off the UN is a good thing for the US to do.

Anyway, fahrenheit is way more accurately descriptive for weather.

[If Brits can still drive on the wrong side of the street, mph and fahrenheit are fine for us.]
We drive on the left because there is no reason to drive on the right - we are not located on the European continent. Most countries used to drive on the left, but once one country changed, the others followed - it makes sense. Can you imagine now annoying it would be having to change sides crossing from Germany to France or from Sweden to Finland?
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Old 11-14-2013, 07:46 AM
B87
 
Location: Surrey/London
11,769 posts, read 10,548,190 times
Reputation: 3094
Driving on the left originated from Roman times when they would march on the left (keeping their sword hand free). Driving on the left is also safer, technically, as most humans are right-eye-dominant, and so have a better view of oncoming traffic, with the dominant hand on the wheel during gear changes.

Trust the French to be different
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Old 11-14-2013, 07:48 AM
 
76 posts, read 96,838 times
Reputation: 40
Yes!! I hate imperial units.... Go metric!
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Old 11-14-2013, 08:01 AM
 
Location: Fishers, IN
4,967 posts, read 6,236,269 times
Reputation: 4935
We could just use and/or teach both. There's nothing really wrong with the system we use now so why bother with the expense and confusion of changing it. It was already tried once back in the late 70s and early 80s and failed miserably. And contrary to popular belief, we inherited our imperial system from England when America was just 13 colonies.
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Old 11-14-2013, 08:32 AM
 
76 posts, read 96,838 times
Reputation: 40
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariete View Post
Change mph to m/s for wind speed when you're at it.
Canada measures wind in km/h as do many other countries.
m/s is a Nordic thing I believe. Sweden has "mil" = 10 km
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Old 11-14-2013, 08:41 AM
 
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,938 posts, read 36,763,743 times
Reputation: 40634
Yes, but we won't. We hate change.
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Old 11-14-2013, 08:41 AM
 
Location: Rome
529 posts, read 552,171 times
Reputation: 543
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yasoou View Post
Canada measures wind in km/h as do many other countries.
m/s is a Nordic thing I believe. Sweden has "mil" = 10 km
m/s a Nordic thing? No, it' isn't.
Both m/s and km/h are fine (they are used for different things, of course).
If you want to measure wind speed knots (nautical miles per hour) are an option as well.
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Old 11-14-2013, 09:06 AM
 
Location: Not where I want to be
4,829 posts, read 8,698,595 times
Reputation: 7758
I remember them discussing this back in the early 70s.

I would like to see a dual system
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Old 11-14-2013, 09:11 AM
 
Location: Estonia
1,759 posts, read 1,873,057 times
Reputation: 1109
I wish they did.

I've become fluent in Fahrenheit, feet, pounds, inches etc to understand half of what's on the internet but it's backward and convoluted. We're not in the middle ages anymore. Only three countries in the world officially use imperial units, I think USA is one of them due to their "because we can" attitude.

Metric is superior because it's based on the same number our numeric system is and because everyone uses it.

I nominate stone as the most ridiculous unit of all, especially if people state their weight in it. Gain or lose 1 stone or 6,35 kg and you look like a different person. It's not nearly accurate enough.
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