The USA is great but whats with the Metric system?

[Rockheart]

As much as i love Americans, its about time they get with the program.
Military, medicine and other industries use metric in the US, why won't anyone else change?
It is not like there is a bunch of complicated forumulas?

[reeyees]

Because we're stupid, that's why. They did try to change the system and it didn't work. Over half this country have no clue as to how to estimate a meter or what a celcius reading is. If you asked the question what is boiling point in celcuis, many americans can't answer you. The good news is, the young generation is being taught metric in school, so maybe it will eventually happen in years to come. Till then, this ignorant generation is still stuck in standard and will be measuring in feet and inches for years to come. Don't you know we're the most ignorant nation on earth?

[krystacummins]

"8 inches" just sounds better than "approx 40 cm"

[Shyla Wild]

"8 inches" just sounds better than "approx 40 cm"

Just a little heads up. 1 inch is 2.5cm. Therefore, 8" is 20cm. Not 40. Stereotype confirmed.

[kokinme]

Jeopardy - Hardest question ever!!

Just a little heads up. 1 inch is 2.5cm. Therefore, 8" is 20cm. Not 40. Stereotype confirmed.

25.5 cm. Who is Shyla Wild?

[toban]

Scientific update of the day!

There are 2.54 cm/in rather than 2.5 so that 8" would beecome an impressive 20.32 cm rather than just 20 cm. in Metric measure.

[toban]

It is so easy!!!

As much as i love Americans, its about time they get with the program.
Military, medicine and other industries use metric in the US, why won't anyone else change?
It is not like there is a bunch of complicated forumulas?

If you are a doubter I suggest you check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units to see how much of the current system you really know! The metric system is so easy to use with only a handful of units for the average person to need to remember e.g. length (metre), volume (litre), mass (gram) and then all units smaller or larger are simply based on multples of 10 e.g. milli, centi, deci, deka, hecto, kilo. A millitre (ml) is 1/1000 litre, a centilitre (cl) is 1/100 litre, a decilitre (dl) is 1/10 litre while a dekalitre would be 10l etc..

A good example of how easy Metric is to use might be remember that our monetary system is also based on 10's rather than the old English.

A confession:
I still think in m.p.g. and can't wrap my head around the metric l/100 Km.

[merelypink]

I remember as a kid when we in the us were all bein taught the metric system and how the us was going to change to it... I bet the whole reason we didn't was the NFL

[drdrdr]

I remember as a kid when we in the us were all bein taught the metric system and how the us was going to change to it... I bet the whole reason we didn't was the NFL

The real reason was cost. In Canada we have not changed every thing. From shoe size to cock size there is still a lot of industry not using Metric. This also includes the Canada Football league.

[Kisa]

Oh it still one of the hardest part for me to switch to U.S. units from metric. Say am 190cm tall which is 6.2336 but is it 6'2 or already 6'3? @_@

[Ray]

6'2" Mia. If it's less than 5 you round down and more than 5 you round up. If it's exactly 5, I'm not really sure what to do, LOL.

[idleflow]

5 you would round up.

[toban]

6'2" Mia. If it's less than 5 you round down and more than 5 you round up. If it's exactly 5, I'm not really sure what to do, LOL.

There actually is a convention (not a rule) that tech type folks use for that situation Ray. It really doesn’t matter much for most everyday purposes so it is satisfactory to round up a 5 but for certain statistical and scientific tasks it depends upon whether the preceding digit is odd or even. e.g. If you were averaging thousands of results and you always rounded 5’s up then you would skew the final results upwards and that could have a negative influence other factors.

It is up to the individual to decide whether to go one way or the other. I always find it easier to remember that I should round Uneven digits Up and round even digits down.

So in Mia's case the 2.336" would round down to 2.34, > 2.3, > 2" so that would be quite an acceptable term to use.

[Ray]

Glad you guys cleared that up, I think.

[Kisa]

6'2" Nice! Thank you so much Ray and toban!