If you aren't familiar with metre/meters and so on...

[WarpFactorZ]

But as I've already pointed out they have the authority to do so under the US Constition Article 1 Section VIII, I believe it is.

And the American citizens (the people who own the government) have the authority to throw any politician stupid enough to back a change to the metric system into the street at election time.

Yeah, the American people have a great track record of voting for their best interests.

 

[MacLeod]

But as I've already pointed out they have the authority to do so under the US Constition Article 1 Section VIII, I believe it is.

And the American citizens (the people who own the government) have the authority to throw any politician stupid enough to back a change to the metric system into the street at election time.

Plus there the possibility of a special election to throw them into the street.

Pity that tarring and feathering has drop from style.

Just as they have the right to throw out any politician stupid enough not to back a change to the metric system at election time. It works both ways.

Out of curosity when you buy a product in the US on the label does it only show Imperial units or both Imperial and Metric or do some do and don't?

 

[Lance]

the American citizens (the people who own the government)

People in this thread keep talking like this, as if these "liberties" are something which is somehow unique to the United States of America...

There's a reason why public servants are called 'public' servants. It isn't because they've got there through some hereditary connection (tho SOME of them have, but then again think of Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton, be honest and you'll find America's political class isn't exactly made up of Joe Averages with a blue collar job). Every duly elected individual has got there because we the people have put them there. And if we want them kicked to the curb, then we'll do that...

 

[The Old Mixer]

think of Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton

Outdated 2008 rhetoric...the last spot belongs to Obama.

 

[Lance]

think of Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton

Outdated 2008 rhetoric...

... not so much, given she ran against Obama, is going to run again (probably), and has got about as much chance of being the next in the White House as anybody else. Is it really democracy if the same two families have got the Presidency stitched up for two decades? And if Clinton does manage to get over the line, then that just makes Obama an exception rather than the rule. Still, we'll wait and see...

 

[maneth]

It's interesting to note that while Finland has been metric for the last 90 years at least, TV and computer screen sizes are given in inches, and that while the Netherlands is as metric as the rest of continental Europe, the measurements of newborn babies are given in lbs and inches rather than kilos and centimeters. And if the American medical TV dramas are anything to go by, the dilation of the cervix is announced in centimeters rather than inches. Perhaps because 10 centimeters is such a nice, round number.

 

[T'Girl]

Out of curosity when you buy a product in the US on the label does it only show Imperial units or both Imperial and Metric or do some do and don't?

Let's see, by my bedside there a empty Diet Pepsi bottle, it has ...

24 FL OZ
(1.5 PT)
710 mL

The primary measurement is American customary, the tertiary measure is metric. Many America products are exported (maybe not Pepsi), so it makes sense to have other countries measures on the labels. No problems.

I also have a bottle of La Victoria green taco sauce, it comes from Mexico, it has ...

NET WT.
15 OZ (425g)

Mexico has the metric system as the official system, but Mexican businesses apparently have no problem having labels printed up with the American customary system for the purpose of commerce and export. Other information on the same label is printed in English, even though Spanish is the official language in Mexico.

Again no problems.

Below your avatar it says Great Britain, when your merchants export products, do they label those product in English, or do they (most likely) have the label printed in the language of the country they're seeking to make a sale in?

 

[The Old Mixer]

think of Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton

Outdated 2008 rhetoric...

... not so much, given she ran against Obama, is going to run again (probably), and has got about as much chance of being the next in the White House as anybody else. Is it really democracy if the same two families have got the Presidency stitched up for two decades? And if Clinton does manage to get over the line, then that just makes Obama an exception rather than the rule. Still, we'll wait and see...

In actuality, though, getting two presidents from the same family has only happened once in modern times; Hillary didn't make it in 2008, and the lesson to take from that going into 2016 is not to count your Hillarys before they've won.

 

[scotpens]

If the government ever attempted to fine people for using imperial units, it would be unenforceable and career suicide for any politician who supported it and rightfully so. In cases where nobody's rights are being violated governments should affect change by education, example and encouragement, not by force.

That's essentially it. Under the Constitution, Congress has the authority to establish a system of weights and measures. But if the government ever tried to force a wholesale conversion to metric, there'd be rioting in the streets. (And that's not necessarily just a figure of speech.)

 

[J.T.B.]

Pity that tarring and feathering has drop from style.

Yeah, what a shame people can't freely commit assault and battery against people they don't agree with.

 

[scotpens]

Pity that tarring and feathering has drop from style.

Yeah, what a shame people can't freely commit assault and battery against people they don't agree with.

Sarcasm and hyperbole. It is a difficult concept.

 

[J.T.B.]

Yeah, what a shame people can't freely commit assault and battery against people they don't agree with.

Sarcasm and hyperbole. It is a difficult concept.

I get the concept. I get that some people can mean it at face value, too, so advocacy of violent vigilantism isn't something I find productive in a discussion. But that's me.

 

[Timo]

Let's see, by my bedside there a empty Diet Pepsi bottle, it has ...

24 FL OZ
(1.5 PT)
710 mL

And there's something the United States of America does very right and most metric countries fumble. The SI symbol for liter is "l", which in most of the usual fonts is (idiotically but deliberately) identical to the numeral "one"; a great deal of confusion is caused by this choice of symbol (in addition to the original idiocy of having fonts like that). Yet using the far more recognizable capital letter "L" is a capital offense under the SI rules, as liter isn't named after a person like watt or ampere is.

I say to hell with it - if everything else fails, let's retroactively insert a Marc-Auguste Litré in the history books or something.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[scotpens]

. . . The SI symbol for liter is "l", which in most of the usual fonts is (idiotically but deliberately) identical to the numeral "one"; a great deal of confusion is caused by this choice of symbol (in addition to the original idiocy of having fonts like that).

Blame the Bauhaus.

In some modern sans-serif fonts like Trebuchet and Tahoma, the capital "I," lowercase "l" and numeral "1" all look distinctly different from one another.

 

[Shat Happens]

(too long, didnt read 10 pages before)

As a metricker(*) from birth I feel the need to convert (in my head, which takes too long if I dont have a piece of paper handy, and anyway takes me off the movie) everytime I hear a temperature in F.

For example, in "Spock's Brain" Kirk orders some control set for 70 degrees. He doesn't say degress Farhenheit which would help. I reflexively think "why so absurdly hot?" then "oh, that's F. Must be some reasoneable temp."then I hit pause button and go look for a pen and paper.

Other units, miles for example, not very often cause the need to convert. But Fahreheit, oh man, that's a problem every F time.

(*) I invented that word.

 

[MacLeod]

(too long, didnt read 10 pages before)

As a metricker(*) from birth I feel the need to convert (in my head, which takes too long if I dont have a piece of paper handy, and anyway takes me off the movie) everytime I hear a temperature in F.

For example, in "Spock's Brain" Kirk orders some control set for 70 degrees. He doesn't say degress Farhenheit which would help. I reflexively think "why so absurdly hot?" then "oh, that's F. Must be some reasoneable temp."then I hit pause button and go look for a pen and paper.

70F is about 20C, my quick mental conversion method if I didn't need it exact is subtract 32 and half it. But you get that even on these boards, when tempature is talked about people will say like 50, and when the scale is given more often or not it'll be C rather than F. So the question then becomes why is that?

 

[T'Girl]

70F is about 20C, my quick mental conversion method if I didn't need it exact is subtract 32 and half it.

Mine is a little simpler, subtract 30, and divide in half. Not exact but close enough for everyday.

If I need exact I use my phone to convert, there's a app for that (and most everything else).

Just as they have the right to throw out any politician stupid enough not to back a change to the metric system at election time. It works both ways.

And really this is the way it should be. Retaining our current system or switching to another is an important decision and in all honesty is one that doesn't have to be made in a hurry.

So there's time for the citizens to be presented with information, there to be a open debate and then for a nation wide consensus to develop.

Whether people elsewhere agree with the decision is irrelevant, ultimately it's our decision to make.

Just as it was in the late seventies.

 

[MacLeod]

Didn't the USA start or at least tried to start the change in the 1970's? Forty years is surely long enough isn't?

 

[The Old Mixer]

And that was pretty much the last we heard of it. The Reagan Administration shut down the department that was responsible for it.

 

[MacLeod]

What would the majoirityy leaders of the US congress say re: a bill to adopt metric. "I don't have the votes"?