Unmentionables

[way2fractious]

(coarsest to finest resolution)

For those of us who don't know (chiefly, me), does the ISO standard mention which units of measure we are to use? "English" feet and inches as found in your "location" entry, or metrics, which are supposedly derived from reference to the planet we inhabit?

[Andrew Breecher]

Look how long it took the whole world to convert from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar (1582 to 1927). And the metric system.... Change comes slowly.

Andrew.

[McClef]

Yes Andrew, we are still struggling with it over here especially when it comes to weights!

So far we have managed to keep our miles and our pints!

Even tartan weights are now expressed in gsm (grammes per square metre)!

[cessna152towser]

Thread going off topic here but I have to admit I still don't really comprehend metric measures whether in distances or weights, and I wish everybody would just stick to good old Imperial Measures. If I really need to understand something that's expressed in metric, I always end up looking up the tables to convert metres to yards or kilogrammes to pounds or whatever.

[Kilted Archer]

Also slight off-topic, but being an American I had to grow up with the standard measures and convert late in life to metric primarily because of occupation. Doing anything with animals, particularly reptiles and amphibians means you have to think and express your self in metrics - cm, mm, grams, kgs, meters, etc. I still find, particularly with weight that I have to make a mental conversion to pounds, however at this point I'm pretty good at thinking distance in metrics. You have to slowly train your mind, but it's still weird.

[arrogcow]

That's why metrics never caught on in the US, everyone keeps trying to convert. If you just think of yourself as 170 cm tall and your car holds 48 liters of gas, you'd get used to it. And technically pounds and grams are not interchangeable.

Adam

[wsk]

... And technically pounds and grams are not interchangeable.

Sure they are. I hand over a X pounds (₤) and in return I get Y gram/meters of tartan. The interchange was between me and the weaver and we both of us are happy. QED.

If the US had done it right we'd have gone cold-turky metric like Canada did. But no, we put up two versions of speed limit signs etc and called that good. Where did that get us?

[ccga3359]

If the US had done it right we'd have gone cold-turky metric like Canada did. But no, we put up two versions of speed limit signs etc and called that good. Where did that get us?

As a Canadian I for one am not completely metric. When it's cold I deal in celsius, but when it's hot I deal in fahrenheit. We are all pretty much fluent in distance and weight. We use pounds and kg, km and miles interchangeably. I measure in inches not centimetres. Change seems to take generations.

[A Hay]

Lived in the USA for my first 40 years and mostly in Germany for the last 20.
Once I became accustomed to using metric, I find it much easier. All my projects around the house are measured in millimeters, centimeters, and meters. (How do you divide 13 5/8th inches into three parts?). Cooking takes some practice, however.
It helps I'm an engineer by profession and I know the conversion factors for most things. But I could easily live without English units of measure.
Just my two cents.

Tom

[Andrew Breecher]

When I'm hiking I do all sorts of weird conversions. My hiking partner asked me once how far away something was. I replied, "Two miles and five minutes." She knew exactly what I meant (we hike at a fairly steady, standard pace). Our water bottles were almost always one-litre soda bottles, but then if we ever got a one-quart bottle we'd still call it a litre.

Andrew.