As an old, retired engineer I preferred Metric. However, being as it never became as universally accepted in the US as the the old SI Campaign had hoped, I am more accustomed to Imperial.
@FritzCat I’m not sure where the blame lies (congressional inaction? was that already a thing?)
I was in grade school in the 70’s and we learned the metric system and were told that we would all be switching to it within a few years. Some other things I remember of that time:
some local cities put up road signs in both mi and km.
since we had a 55mph national speed limit it sounded faster in km.
gas pumps briefly went to liters instead of gallons. One reason was that existing gas pumps only had cents digits (plus the .9 — why do we still have that?). when gas went over $1 gallon for the first time, it was either this or retrofit all existing pumps; eventually that happened anyway with the move to electronic pumps.
liquor prices essentially went up because a 750ml is slightly smaller than a “fifth” and a 1.75 slightly smaller than a half-gallon, but prices per bottle didn’t go down.
What I always find puzzling is why the US (with “confusing” non-metric measurements has a “decimal” currency, while the British use the metric system but have a convoluted currency.
@Mark_L What’s convoluted about pounds and pence? Sure they have random words for other smaller denominations, but otherwise there’s no difference than with Euros. The oddest thing about North American vs European money is that we cling to somewhat random denominations while everywhere else you get values of 1, 2, and 5 within each decade. And there’s no $2 bill or coin here either.
@klezman@Mark_L Modern pounds and pence are decimal…I’m old enough to remember a guinea being 21 shillings, a pound = 20 shillings; a shilling = 12 pennies (pence); 5 shillings = a crown; 2 shillings = a florin; with pennies further subdivided into 2 halfpence or 4 farthings… a Sovereign being gold 1 pound coin…
@davirom Yup, I’ve got a couple of those hanging around, too. @rpm those are some rather ridiculous equivalencies. No wonder @Mark_L thought it was confusing! Thankfully they’re decimal now.
I prefer the logic of the metric system. As someone who grew up with imperial measurements, I have tried to become “bilingual” but I don’t have the knack of being able to gestalt distance, volume, or temperature in metric. If the country switches I’m sure I would adapt, but I guess I am insufficiently motivated.
@davirom Being Canadian, we kind of grew up with both. And since my parents had the switch during their earlier years, we had to effectively learn both. The odd thing is that because of what we used for different things, I naturally think of some things in one system and some in others. Temperature is particularly odd: swimming water temp in F, air temp in C, cooking/meat temp in F or C depending on the situation, oven temps in F, and so on. Altitude/elevation in feet but most hiking distances in metres. Shrug. I got used to converting a long time ago.
I prefer metric, but fun fact: the US does not use the Imperial system. The Imperial gallon is 32 ounces larger than the gallon used in the US Customary system, and by extension, quarts (40 ounces) and pints (20 ounces) are larger too.
Ounces are very slightly different, too, but so slightly that for most purposes it does not matter.
You can learn the metric system is five minutes. Nobody ever fully learns the imperial.
Even the Imperials are on the metric system! (with the exception of pints of beer, but they are bigger than “our” pints of beer, so I am OK with that)
clearly this was a scam to sell us twice as many wrenches and socket sets.
As an old, retired engineer I preferred Metric. However, being as it never became as universally accepted in the US as the the old SI Campaign had hoped, I am more accustomed to Imperial.
Metric System all the way. Another failure by Jimmy Carter…still my favorite President.
@FritzCat I’m not sure where the blame lies (congressional inaction? was that already a thing?)
I was in grade school in the 70’s and we learned the metric system and were told that we would all be switching to it within a few years. Some other things I remember of that time:
What I always find puzzling is why the US (with “confusing” non-metric measurements has a “decimal” currency, while the British use the metric system but have a convoluted currency.
@Mark_L What’s convoluted about pounds and pence? Sure they have random words for other smaller denominations, but otherwise there’s no difference than with Euros. The oddest thing about North American vs European money is that we cling to somewhat random denominations while everywhere else you get values of 1, 2, and 5 within each decade. And there’s no $2 bill or coin here either.
@klezman
@klezman @Mark_L Modern pounds and pence are decimal…I’m old enough to remember a guinea being 21 shillings, a pound = 20 shillings; a shilling = 12 pennies (pence); 5 shillings = a crown; 2 shillings = a florin; with pennies further subdivided into 2 halfpence or 4 farthings… a Sovereign being gold 1 pound coin…
@davirom Yup, I’ve got a couple of those hanging around, too.
@rpm those are some rather ridiculous equivalencies. No wonder @Mark_L thought it was confusing! Thankfully they’re decimal now.
@klezman @rpm My thinking was along the line of what @rpm said.
I prefer the logic of the metric system. As someone who grew up with imperial measurements, I have tried to become “bilingual” but I don’t have the knack of being able to gestalt distance, volume, or temperature in metric. If the country switches I’m sure I would adapt, but I guess I am insufficiently motivated.
@davirom Being Canadian, we kind of grew up with both. And since my parents had the switch during their earlier years, we had to effectively learn both. The odd thing is that because of what we used for different things, I naturally think of some things in one system and some in others. Temperature is particularly odd: swimming water temp in F, air temp in C, cooking/meat temp in F or C depending on the situation, oven temps in F, and so on. Altitude/elevation in feet but most hiking distances in metres. Shrug. I got used to converting a long time ago.
I prefer metric, but fun fact: the US does not use the Imperial system. The Imperial gallon is 32 ounces larger than the gallon used in the US Customary system, and by extension, quarts (40 ounces) and pints (20 ounces) are larger too.
Ounces are very slightly different, too, but so slightly that for most purposes it does not matter.