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  • dmpizza
    dmpizza Posts: 3,321 Member
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    I am educated enough to work in both systems, but I think your premise is wrong.

    In my travels, people often use pounds, miles and yards to describe things.
  • KaleidoscopeEyes1056
    KaleidoscopeEyes1056 Posts: 2,996 Member
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    But, if we start using the metric system, then we'll be more like godless Europe! Eww, and France...

    Ok, sarcasm out of the way, I agree that we do need to switch to metric units. And, there are a few other things that we need to do more like "godless" Europe.
  • katemme
    katemme Posts: 191
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    Can you imagine buying milk in one of those soda LITER bottles? Nope.

    And like in Canada, where you THINK you are getting a deal on gas but its really like, half a gallon, or whatever, cause its a liter? f that.
  • JBsCrazyGirl
    JBsCrazyGirl Posts: 337
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    it is good to know both.
    yay for knowledge! :laugh:
  • firesoforion
    firesoforion Posts: 1,017 Member
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    Plus, if we get rid of the imperial system, what happens to the song "I Can See for Miles"?! ;)
  • KaleidoscopeEyes1056
    KaleidoscopeEyes1056 Posts: 2,996 Member
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    Plus, if we get rid of the imperial system, what happens to the song "I Can See for Miles"?! ;)

    OMG!! It's a conspiracy against The Who!
  • Kymmu
    Kymmu Posts: 1,650 Member
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    Australia converted from imperial to decimal in 1964.... I wish it was a world wide change.
  • heyitsmegxx
    heyitsmegxx Posts: 444
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    I agree! I'm currently in Australia, and I seriously hate having to convert everything. Ugh!
  • Anaconda62
    Anaconda62 Posts: 181
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    Take it up with the President. We've considered it, agreed to it, and backed out of it enough times already. Apparently, we are not ready for measurements that are sensible. Cars yes, measurements no.

    Besides, what would that do to the Aerosmith song, "Big 10 Inch"?

    Nope, sorry, not til the band is gone.

    Oh -- they're gone!!
  • bluefox9er
    bluefox9er Posts: 2,917 Member
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    How many pounds are in a stone?

    14
  • rextcat
    rextcat Posts: 1,408 Member
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    The United States of America
    Doing what we damn well please since 1776!

    :smokin:

    lol i about pee'ed when i read this:drinker:
  • JessiC1984
    JessiC1984 Posts: 97 Member
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    yes, please! I <3 ml, L, km, kg
  • rextcat
    rextcat Posts: 1,408 Member
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    The metric system makes me curse. I'm actually pretty sure everyone should switch to my special measurement system. It's the one where you just compare whatever it is to something else. How big was the hole in the floor? Oh, about 3 grapefruits. How heavy was that dead hooker? Oh, about 7 bowling balls. See? It works.

    My favorite measurement would have to be when one of my friends was buying his new car. He would always say, "and how big is the trunk?" they'd give some sort of measurement and he'd so "no, in dead hookers . . . I generally like my trunk to be at least large enough to fit 3 dead hookers." He finally bought the car from the sales person who asked "now are we talking whole or in pieces, because that does make a difference in how they fit."

    :laugh: my dad used the system for his cars to only he prefurs at space for at least 6
  • bregalad5
    bregalad5 Posts: 3,965 Member
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    Upper level math and science classes are probably the only place in my life I ever actually did use the metric system, and I promptly forgot most of what I learned post-math and science classes. I'm not what one would call "left brained" so to speak lol

    I substitute teach Pre-K through 4, and have had to review metric with students more than once. Having traveled Europe quite a bit, and lived there for around 6 months twice, I have a decent working knowledge of the system. It's pretty easy to do rough conversions, too, like just divide by 2.2, so 110 lb is ~50kg
    I'm in Canada and to really confuse people (including ourselves) we regularly use both. It's especially hard when working out and losing weight. So, I'm 5'3" and 149lbs - don't have a clue how many centimetres or kilograms that is. I measure my distance ran/walked using metric (kilometres) which is confusing since my treadmill uses imperial. Anything I drink is in millimetres or litres, but food portions are by cups. Body temperature is imperial, but outdoor temperature is metric (Celsius) LOL!

    Ha, yes! I grew up about 45 minutes from Niagara Falls and could never figure out which measurement to use for what when I was over there :laugh:
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    Here in America, we like to be "different" and "special"
  • superstankazz
    superstankazz Posts: 193
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    The United States of America
    Doing what we damn well please since 1776!

    :smokin:

    Now I feel patriotic. It's our right to bastardize measurement systems to fit our needs.
    YES and YES!
  • mikewpg1ca
    mikewpg1ca Posts: 86 Member
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    At least the rest of the world and the U.S. don't have an identity crisis. As other have said, in Canada we regularly mix metric and imperial. Milk, Juice, Pop, Water, Beer - Metric, Hard liquor, people usually talk about buying a 40 or 26, as in oz. Buying meat, metric. Cooking and recipes, that's all over the place mixing both. Driving and distances, metric. Well unless you live in rural Canada where all of the country roads are mile roads. People talk gas mileage in miles per gallon, which is ironic since we drive in KMs and buy gas in litres. Running, the majority of runners I've ever encountered (quite a number), run in miles and talk about their pace 8 min. miles, or 10 min min mile pace. For height and weight, if I went up to the majority of Canadians and asked them if they knew their own height and weight in metric I'd be surprised if 10% could get it right without having to think about it and even then most people wouldn't have a clue. Needless to say, the mass majority of people talk about their height and weight in feet and pounds. We've been teaching the metric system in school since I was in kindergarten 35 years ago, but yet certain measurements of the imperial system are still used regularly.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    I don't get why you use a mixture - like macros are measured in grams but food and human weight is in ounces.
    And runners talk about pace in miles but then say they ran 5k race.
    Odd!
  • TheBraveryLover
    TheBraveryLover Posts: 1,217 Member
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    Overly patriotic [Americans] annoy me and always have, but this is one of the instances where I see no need to change what we do. We're fine with this system, so why are you bothered by it? I convert things all of the time. It's called google. :-)
  • TJamesChristensen
    TJamesChristensen Posts: 47
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    I can't stand our system, metric is so much easier. My motorcycle is metric which means I have to have two sets of tools. While we are at it could be end the time change also, it hasn't been relevant in my life time.

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