Thread: Why Don't We Use the Metric System?

  1. #1
    People Love Me
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Posts
    412

    Why Don't We Use the Metric System?

    Who's the smart-ass who decided that our units of measurement should stay different from that of the rest of the world? Why use units that seem completely arbitrary? For example, who decided that a foot is 12 inches and that a mile is 5280 of those feet? Aren't those numbers a little arbitrary? Who decided to measure weight in pounds, which is made up of 16 ounces, and that 2000 pounds shall be called 1 ton? Again, the numbers seem arbitrary.

    As humans, we've learned to count in base 10. We have 10 fingers. We're usually best at counting and representing numbers in powers of 10s. The metric system uses multiples of 10 to work. A kilogram is 1000 grames. Kilo means 1000, 1000 is a power of 10, so there you go. They didn't pick some arbitrary number like 16275 or something stupid like that.

    Our tempetature scale is retarded too. 32° is freezing and 212° is boiling? Don't be a smart-ass. Just use 0° and 100°. And whoever thought up Kelvin as a temperature scale was a real smart-ass too. "It's like Celcius, but you add 273°! And when you have 0° Kelvin, it's Absolute Zero." Don't be a smart-ass. That'd be like me inventing a temperature unit called Krak. It's like Farenheit, but you subtract 212. When it reaches 0, the temperature is boiling. That'd make me a real smart-ass.

    So my question is: if the rest of the world uses the metric system, and it ultimately makes more sense for us to measure things in terms of 10s, then why do you continue to use our stupid system of inches, miles, pounds, ounces, tons, etc.?
    Last edited by Krak; 07-08-2005 at 12:12 AM.

  2. #2
    Sweet
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Tucson, Arizona
    Posts
    1,820
    Because we are american.
    Woop?

  3. #3
    mov.w #$1337,D0 Jeremy G's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    704
    Yes, we adopted the Kelvin system because we wanted to entertain the smart-ass.

    God, what kind of dumb statement is that? Its a valid and more practical scale of all of them. At the coldest temperature possible you have 0. As in 0 heat. See the sense in that? If not just shut up any ways.



    No wait, shut up anyways, regardless
    c++->visualc++->directx->opengl->c++;
    (it should be realized my posts are all in a light hearted manner. And should not be taken offense to.)

  4. #4
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    Vancouver
    Posts
    2,212
    Change takes time, especially in such a conservative country.

  5. #5
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    MI
    Posts
    8,823
    You're pretty upset for a pretty stupid reason.

  6. #6
    Banned nickname_changed's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    986
    We use base 10 because we have 10 fingers. That's the only reason, and I'm sure you'd all agree we'd be more efficient using base 20 if we didn't have to wear shoes all the time.

    Now, people of ancient times weren't stupid and probably had good reasons for picking 12 inches as the length of foot. This leads to only one sane solution: humans of the past had 12 fingers and this is why a foot was 12 inches. Possibly, some inbre^H^H^H US politicians still have 12 fingers, and thus the decision to stick to base 12.
    Last edited by nickname_changed; 07-08-2005 at 04:48 AM.

  7. #7
    ... arjunajay's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Posts
    203
    One story goes that one NASA space mission failed simply because the scientists from diff. countries used diff. systems of units...
    The no:s 12 and such arbitray no:s depend on the size of feet and fingers of diff. kings and queens who invented them...

  8. #8
    erstwhile
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    2,227
    Quote Originally Posted by krak
    Our tempetature scale is retarded too. 32° is freezing and 212° is boiling? Don't be a smart-ass. Just use 0° and 100°. And whoever thought up Kelvin as a temperature scale was a real smart-ass too. "It's like Celcius, but you add 273°! And when you have 0° Kelvin, it's Absolute Zero." Don't be a smart-ass. That'd be like me inventing a temperature unit called Krak. It's like Farenheit, but you subtract 212. When it reaches 0, the temperature is boiling. That'd make me a real smart-ass.
    If you plot temperature v's pressure for an ideal gas (which doesn't exist ) and extrapolate back, the T-axis intercept gives the theoretical measure of 'absolute zero' in celsius (-273.15). The only arbitrary quantity is the definition of a 'Kelvin' which is taken to be the same as 1 degree Celsius for pretty much the same reasons that the metric system is preferable to using farenwidths and cubits - it's a lot simpler to work with.

    Explanation now in new, improved picture flavour.
    Last edited by Ken Fitlike; 07-08-2005 at 07:26 AM.
    CProgramming FAQ
    Caution: this person may be a carrier of the misinformation virus.

  9. #9
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    The edge of the known universe
    Posts
    39,660
    > Why use units that seem completely arbitrary?
    Perhaps through study, they would seem less arbitrary.

    12 is very common in ancient number systems
    - 12 signs of the zodiac
    - 12 months in a year
    - 12 hours in a day (ok, twice)
    - 12 inches in a foot
    Why 12?
    Well it has many more divisors than 10 for example (1,2,3,4,6), which makes it a lot easier to divvy up quantities of stuff into other quantities.

    > and that a mile is 5280 of those feet?
    That would be the Romans - A mile being a corruption of 'mille' (or something) meaning 1000 (paces of a Roman soldier). Hence by marching at a known rate (say 100 paces a minute), you could easily work out how long it was going to take you to get anywhere.

    > that 2000 pounds shall be called 1 ton?
    Your silly american tons maybe, but your classical imperial (British) ton is 2240 pounds (20 hundred-weight).
    Though I suppose it's pretty close to the Metric tonne of 1000Kg.

    > Our tempetature scale is retarded too. 32° is freezing and 212° is boiling?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit
    All very logical in the time in which it was invented - notions such as absolute zero not being known about.
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

  10. #10
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    MI
    Posts
    8,823
    > The no:s 12 and such arbitray no:s depend on the size of feet and fingers of diff. kings and queens who invented them...

    They based the system of measurement off a system of meaurement, huh? "Your foot is 12 yazzes long, so that will be a foot. Also, yazzes will be called inches!"

    > 12 months in a year

    That's only been true since Augustus, though. Besides, that only applies if you use our calendar, which many people don't.

  11. #11
    erstwhile
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    2,227
    All systems of measurement are ultimately arbitrary - a metre, for example, is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.

    The length of a Roman 'pace' is similarly arbitrary and, unfortunately, not even consistent: Longshanksix of Londinium probably has a bigger one than Welosttheolympicbidix of Gaul's, although that didn't seem to bother the Romans.

    edit: Anyone know why the Babylonians favoured sexagesimal (base 60)?
    Last edited by Ken Fitlike; 07-08-2005 at 08:23 AM.
    CProgramming FAQ
    Caution: this person may be a carrier of the misinformation virus.

  12. #12
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    MI
    Posts
    8,823
    They had 60 fingers?

  13. #13
    erstwhile
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    2,227
    Good answer that man!
    CProgramming FAQ
    Caution: this person may be a carrier of the misinformation virus.

  14. #14
    Toaster Zach L.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    2,686
    Well, the number 12 is as natural as the number 10 in terms of counting. You can count each of your fingers as 1 (and have a base 10); you can count each segment of a finger on one hand (three segments per finger, divided by two joints) using your thumb as a place marker (equivalent to holding up a finger counting the "normal" way), and end up with base twelve; if you combine thise with "normal" counting on the other hand, you get base 60.

    Most units were invented for convenience. For example, the nautical mile which is 6076 ft, may seem arbitrary, but it corresponds to the arc length on (an idealized spherical model of) a great circle on the Earth of 1 minute.
    The word rap as it applies to music is the result of a peculiar phonological rule which has stripped the word of its initial voiceless velar stop.

  15. #15
    erstwhile
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    2,227
    >>may seem arbitrary<<

    No, it's still arbitrary - what is 1 'minute'?
    CProgramming FAQ
    Caution: this person may be a carrier of the misinformation virus.

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. File System Implementation
    By dodgeviper in forum C Programming
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 11-16-2007, 01:04 PM
  2. Using system icons
    By @nthony in forum Windows Programming
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 01-13-2007, 07:56 PM
  3. Linux database system needed
    By BobS0327 in forum Tech Board
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 06-11-2006, 03:56 PM
  4. measuring system resources used by a function
    By Aran in forum C Programming
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 03-13-2006, 05:35 PM
  5. BIOS system and memory allocation problem
    By beely in forum Tech Board
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 11-25-2003, 07:12 AM