Imperial or Metric system?

[phoneyLogic]

@Marthos

I don't get you any more :pinch:

 

You: there is no problem

Me: there is a problem (rounding, different lists with different values), metric is more common + comfortable

You: no, there is no problem

Vagrant0: there are various conversion and rounding problems

You: yes, there is a problem

 

Okay, now comes me again^^:

That's exactly why it's more convenient for all to have one system (don't matter how's it called). Its just because the more different measure systems you have, the more complicated it gets. So did I understand you right, that there are dozen of different imperial systems?

Err, this needs to be changed anyway :whistling:

 

So your main reasons against a law are the costs of replacing machines etc.

Such things can be done, almost all countries managed it. Someone just needs to start. It doesn't happen from alone. It can be reasonable to make a law ...

 

 

Total converstion to Metric in every industry and sector would beggar global economy and take generations to impliment and some Eurotwit MP is worried about eggs and balls of wool and a bag of sweet peanuts being sold by the gram :rolleyes:

We have trained precision chickens. :biggrin:

[ginnyfizz]

But we don't have a problem with converting things, and we aren't forcing anyone to stop using metric, so why do we need a law to force us to stop using Imperial measures? I suspect this is a case of wanting to try and make those naughty British and Americans do as they are told for the sake of getting one over on them.

 

*Lobs an extra large egg at Eurotwit MP clamped in the stocks...*

[phoneyLogic]

@ginnyfizz

Okay, there is no problem ... xD

But theoretically could make a law.

(I for myself wouldn't start adopting a whole production line into metric while everyone else decided to stay with imperial.)

[Marthos]

@ginnyfizz

Okay, there is no problem ... xD

But theoretically could make a law.

(I for myself wouldn't start adopting a whole production line into metric while everyone else decided to stay with imperial.)

 

 

Do you think that all your industry in Germany uses Metric for everything ?

[phoneyLogic]

Do you think that all your industry in Germany uses Metric for everything ?

No, I think it's fair to say maybe for 98%.

Lots of countries are not 100% metric. But this doesn't change the fact that they are based on the metric system, whether they use one or two non-metric units or not. This is possible cause even the metric system is not that "totalitarian" like one may think. But picking one exception is no excuse for denying everything what might be reasonable. :wink:

[Vagrant0]

Okay, now comes me again^^:

That's exactly why it's more convenient for all to have one system (don't matter how's it called). Its just because the more different measure systems you have, the more complicated it gets.

 

So your main reasons against a law are the costs of replacing machines etc.

Such things can be done, almost all countries managed it. Someone just needs to start. It doesn't happen from alone. It can be reasonable to make a law ...

The problem is that nobody wants to start, and nobody is entitled to make such a law. In these cases, money speaks far louder than greater practicality, and while companies who do international business might eventually benefit from consistent units, companies who do only local business have no need for any unit change in and of itself. A good portion of domestic production is rather content with using imperial measure, and any such action to force a change, even slowly, would only create problems for them. Which is why this sort of thing won't be happening any time soon.

[Surenas]

These things happened soon - everywhere but in the Anglo-American enclave. What makes these people different from the remaining 95% of the world population. Tell me what's biting you :wacko:

[bben46]

I actually worked in the US measuring tool industry for a while back in the late 1980s. Our primary product was an optical comparator - sometimes called a shadowgraph. At one time almost every machine shop had at least one. Even then there was a gradual movement toward metric. When I started the company offered a choice of either metric or imperial measurement instruments, usually micrometer based. All imperial measuring in the machine tool industry was read out in tenths of an inch, not in fractions (tenths hundredths, thousandths, ten-thousandths etc) This is just as accurate as metric and most machinests work in ten-thousandths of an inch for most tolerances. When a US machinest talks about 'within a couple of tenths' he is talking ten-thousandths of an inch, not tenths of an inch

 

Most (but not all) US customers chose Imperial. However as computerized instrumentation came into use, the machines became customer configurable - just throw a switch to change. And as we acquired more foreign built machinery in our own plant, we found that it was mostly built using metric components (screws etc). Today, almost all new machine tools are made outside of the US and are metric. However, the programming can be set to produce parts that are imperial. There are still a lot of machines in use that were built in the 1940s or even earlier. They are so well built that the owners see no reason to buy a replacement - these machines are mostly imperial. Almost any machine shop will have machines that are both standards, and any competent machinist can change back and forth. And make metric parts on an imperial machine or vice versa. They make what the market demands, not what some bureaucrat decrees. So for all practical purposes, the US machine tool industry is already on the metric system.

 

The US military has been metric since the late 1950s, so everyone who has served knows the metric measurements for distance at least.

 

The big bottleneck is in consumer measuring, and even that is gradually changing - now larger soft drinks, liquor and some other products are sold exclusively in liters. Most products sold in stores have the measurement in both, with sizes moving toward the metric. As long as grannies recipes are in teaspoons and cups housewives will use imperial. But every measuring cup I have seen lately has both.

 

How much is a dash of salt in metric anyway? and for you guys, what's metric for a jigger of rum?

 

Changing the way everyone measures stuff cannot be done by a government fiat in a free country, Any politician who insists that people make such a drastic change will find himself looking for a new job. However the government can encourage a change through policies such as insisting that after a certain date all new made products have both measurements given on the label. And later (ten years later, not six months) insisting that the measure must be in metric, with imperial being optional. It will take generations to change, but the change will come.

[Surenas]

Why then takes something generations in the Anglo-American world that takes only a few years elsewhere?

I tell you: It is the high level in the understanding of personal freedom - inter alia the freedom to do the totally wrong things at the wrong time... :woot:

 

How much is a dash of salt in metric anyway? and for you guys, what's metric for a jigger of rum?

You tell me, bben46, for I don't have to convert... :laugh:

[JimboUK]

Why then takes something generations in the Anglo-American world that takes only a few years elsewhere?

I tell you: It is the high level in the understanding of personal freedom - inter alia the freedom to do the totally wrong things at the wrong time... :woot:

 

How much is a dash of salt in metric anyway? and for you guys, what's metric for a jigger of rum?

You tell me, bben46, for I don't have to convert... :laugh:

 

Because they're perfectly happy using imperial, I can use metric if I want but don't bother normally because I prefer what I'm used to.