Sir Wearer of Hats Posted June 8, 2019 #1 Share Posted June 8, 2019 Some talking head called Tucker Carlson has called the metric system a tyranny. https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/06/05/tucker-carlson-almost-every-nation-earth-has-fallen-under-yoke-tyranny-metric-system/223874 please tell me this is some sort of joke that hasn’t translated well outside America. 1 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piney Posted June 8, 2019 #2 Share Posted June 8, 2019 12 minutes ago, Sir Wearer of Hats said: Some talking head called Tucker Carlson has called the metric system a tyranny. Because he's a complete idiot....... 4 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HandsomeGorilla Posted June 8, 2019 #3 Share Posted June 8, 2019 We have a very schizophrenic relationship with the metric system and it bothers the hell out of me, sometimes. I'm American as you get, but a decimalized system just makes far more sense to me. Plus, my background is industrial engineering, so metric is preferred, all the way around. It pains me to know so many of my fellow Americans are totally lost with it, though. Give a measurement in centimeters or liters and everyone just scratches their heads. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaphappy Posted June 9, 2019 #4 Share Posted June 9, 2019 Three hundred feet come out to three hundred feet exactly, not with the Metric system which makes it wrong, so Standard is more accurate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted June 9, 2019 #5 Share Posted June 9, 2019 49 minutes ago, Slaphappy said: Three hundred feet come out to three hundred feet exactly, not with the Metric system which makes it wrong, so Standard is more accurate 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiXilver Posted June 9, 2019 #6 Share Posted June 9, 2019 America uses the metric system, just not common in daily life, mostly it's used in manufacturing international exports for the rest of the world that does use metric. I work in construction in film and tv in the US and we use it. It's just not taught in schools. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted June 9, 2019 #7 Share Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) 2 minutes ago, quiXilver said: America uses the metric system, just not common in daily life, mostly it's used in manufacturing international exports for the rest of the world that does use metric. I work in construction in film and tv in the US and we use it. It's just not taught in schools. Metric is very much taught in schools. Perhaps just not as much as it should be. Edited June 9, 2019 by Imaginarynumber1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted June 9, 2019 #8 Share Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Not Your Huckleberry said: We have a very schizophrenic relationship with the metric system and it bothers the hell out of me, sometimes. I'm American as you get, but a decimalized system just makes far more sense to me. Plus, my background is industrial engineering, so metric is preferred, all the way around. It pains me to know so many of my fellow Americans are totally lost with it, though. Give a measurement in centimeters or liters and everyone just scratches their heads. Anyone who works in a trade that needs exact measurements uses both. Some people can't read a ruler of any kind and we have sets of tools dedicated to both systems. Edited June 9, 2019 by Michelle 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaturtlehorsesnake Posted June 9, 2019 #9 Share Posted June 9, 2019 i'd be interested to see some information on how widely the metric system is taught in us schools now. i know i learned it. i mean, i'm terrible at anything with numbers so they all confused me but metric definitely confused me less 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Wearer of Hats Posted June 9, 2019 Author #10 Share Posted June 9, 2019 2 hours ago, Slaphappy said: Three hundred feet come out to three hundred feet exactly, not with the Metric system which makes it wrong, so Standard is more accurate 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted June 9, 2019 #11 Share Posted June 9, 2019 56 minutes ago, seaturtlehorsesnake said: i'd be interested to see some information on how widely the metric system is taught in us schools now. i know i learned it. i mean, i'm terrible at anything with numbers so they all confused me but metric definitely confused me less It's definitely taught and is used in any of the sciences Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Commander Travis Posted June 9, 2019 #12 Share Posted June 9, 2019 Well it is a form of tyranny! It was invented by Nopleon as a way of bringing the countries he'd overrun under his yoke! and it isn't true anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Commander Travis Posted June 9, 2019 #13 Share Posted June 9, 2019 One thing though I've never been able to get my head round is these measurements like kilojoules and kilopascals. I mean what the heck is a kilopascal? and expressing power of engines etc in kilowatts. Watts is what you measure the output of kettles in. If you look, nearly all car manufacturers, even European ones, express power outputs in Metric horsepower (PS), which differs very slightly from brake horsepower but is near enough to give the same idea of what it's worth. But kilowatts is a completely different figure that needs mental arithmetic to work out what it means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Commander Travis Posted June 9, 2019 #14 Share Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) Kylo grams! Well, actually the UK expresses distances and speeds etc in miles, and I think most people if you asked them how tall they were, for example, would say six foot something rather than 1.99 metres (although they might be lying of course), even though I believe that yards were sneakily recalibrated as metres some time back but sneakily are still expressed in yards. Edited June 9, 2019 by Dumbledore the Awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Wearer of Hats Posted June 9, 2019 Author #15 Share Posted June 9, 2019 20 minutes ago, Dumbledore the Awesome said: Kylo grams! Well, actually the UK expresses distances and speeds etc in miles, and I think most people if you asked them how tall they were, for example, would say six foot something rather than 1.99 metres (although they might be lying of course), even though I believe that yards were sneakily recalibrated as metres some time back but sneakily are still expressed in yards. Because we like to think big. When it’s cold It’s minus -10 degrees Celsius, but when it’s hot it’s 45 degrees farenheit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Essan Posted June 9, 2019 #16 Share Posted June 9, 2019 34 minutes ago, Dumbledore the Awesome said: One thing though I've never been able to get my head round is these measurements like kilojoules and kilopascals. I mean what the heck is a kilopascal? and expressing power of engines etc in kilowatts. Watts is what you measure the output of kettles in. If you look, nearly all car manufacturers, even European ones, express power outputs in Metric horsepower (PS), which differs very slightly from brake horsepower but is near enough to give the same idea of what it's worth. But kilowatts is a completely different figure that needs mental arithmetic to work out what it means. In meteorology we use hectopascal (hPa) and it's exactly the same a millibar ...... I grew up in the UK with metric. But I still use feet, inches, miles. And millimetres (but only when less than an inch) However I do prefer centigrade for temperature, rather than fahrenheit. Fahrenheit only gets used here (except, bizarrely, by the Daily Mail) when it's hotter than usual, in summer. Higher numbers sound more impressive! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toast Posted June 9, 2019 #17 Share Posted June 9, 2019 "Customary measures took us to the Moon." Wrong. It was Wernher von Braun, 1,85 meters tall. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Commander Travis Posted June 9, 2019 #18 Share Posted June 9, 2019 Certainly the military going back to WWII mixed up metric and Imperial quite happily. The British used 2 pounders, 6 pounders and 25 pounders, and 0.303 inch and 3.7 inch, while the Americans had 75 mm and 76 mm. And feet (and knots) is still the international unit of measurement in aviation, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the13bats Posted June 9, 2019 #19 Share Posted June 9, 2019 my first car was an opel gt, and before that import cycles, i self learned basic metrics out of need, i do usa standard measurements when i have to but i pretty much perfer mertic, i collected and fixed/restored a lot of pachinko machines, the balls are 10mm, so 10mm stuck in my head as my starting gauge, like some old arcade machines used 25mm tokens just a hair bigger than usa quarter which wont work in those machines, tucker carlson? never watched him i compare his show to the AM deejays who spew tripe and then laugh insanely at their own stupid joke, those type shows have the same appeal to me as a cleaning all my cat boxes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmk1245 Posted June 9, 2019 #20 Share Posted June 9, 2019 While being from metric country, we still refer to wafers (semiconductor) as 2-inch, 3-inch, etc. Inch to cm is ingrained in my head. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Smoke aLot Posted June 9, 2019 #21 Share Posted June 9, 2019 I guess that he has ''scientists'' and ''peer reviewed'' papers to back his claims. He usually does 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmk1245 Posted June 9, 2019 #22 Share Posted June 9, 2019 4 minutes ago, Sir Smoke aLot said: I guess that he has ''scientists'' and ''peer reviewed'' papers to back his claims. He usually does Probably our good ol' friend Weitter Duckss... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alchopwn Posted June 9, 2019 #23 Share Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) 10 hours ago, Not Your Huckleberry said: We have a very schizophrenic relationship with the metric system and it bothers the hell out of me, sometimes. I'm American as you get, but a decimalized system just makes far more sense to me. Plus, my background is industrial engineering, so metric is preferred, all the way around. It pains me to know so many of my fellow Americans are totally lost with it, though. Give a measurement in centimeters or liters and everyone just scratches their heads. The USA was supposed to translate over to the metric system under Jimmy Carter's presidency, but other events got in the way of the roll-out, and he wasn't popular enough to make it stick, so the USA took the lazy path and we rolled back into our hybrid British Imperial system, which is pretty pathetic. It has also cost the country billions over the years when we assume Imperial or assume metric incorrectly and our equipment fails as a result. Given that it is only the USA, Myanmar, and Liberia still using the Imperial system, it is WAY past time that the USA went metric imo. But then again, I am a citizen of the world, not just a citizen of the USA, and I am inclined to avoid being a parochial fuktard whenever possible as a result. For that and other reasons, I am happy to be in disagreement with Tucker Carlson, and is determination to stand up for a system of measurement that was never truly American in the first place. Edited June 9, 2019 by Alchopwn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmk1245 Posted June 9, 2019 #24 Share Posted June 9, 2019 Kinda funny when metric system clashed with pounds Quote NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin engineering team used English units of measurement while the agency's team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday. (link) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmk1245 Posted June 9, 2019 #25 Share Posted June 9, 2019 15 minutes ago, Alchopwn said: The USA was supposed to translate over to the metric system under Jimmy Carter's presidency, but other events got in the way of the roll-out, and he wasn't popular enough to make it stick, so the USA took the lazy path and we rolled back into our hybrid British Imperial system, which is pretty pathetic. It has also cost the country billions over the years when we assume Imperial or assume metric incorrectly and our equipment fails as a result. Given that it is only the USA, Myanmar, and Liberia still using the Imperial system, it is WAY past time that the USA went metric imo. But then again, I am a citizen of the world, not just a citizen of the USA, and I am inclined to avoid being a parochial fuktard whenever possible as a result. For that and other reasons, I am happy to be in disagreement with Tucker Carlson, and is determination to stand up for a system of measurement that was never truly American in the first place. Well, I'd say remembering few conversion units (inch->cm, pound->kg, yard->m, etc) is quite healthy for your brain. BTW In early years (university) I had problems with converting CGS units to SI... Even nowadays I do make mistakes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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