Art

We've had numerious questions re Europe and the Euro's, Languages etc. Why havn't we adopted the decimal system instead of measuring things by the length between knuclkes of a persons middle finger?? <BR>

elvira

Because feet, inches, pecks, bushels, acres and pints are more fun. No suppressed giggles anymore when someone says "which is smaller, 1/8 or 1/4?". <BR> <BR>And anybody who ever drove streetcars will never want to give up 1320.

james

Don't ever! The decimal system was the greatest loss to the UK. We still have our distances in miles and pints of beer. But does anyone understand filling your car up in litres? or the size of your kitchen in metres? or your garden size in hectares? ever boasted that your manhood is 18centimetres long? It's all rubbish - Napolionoc rubbish from Europe. Keep your feet inches pints gallons acres - I promise you, they mean SOOOO much more!!!

Ed

Ill education is what we should be giving up! <BR> <BR>It will come as a surprise to some, but we do use the decimal syste. That's why we right the cost of something that costs a half dollar as $0.50 rather than <BR>$50/100 <BR> <BR>Actually, we cold use the binary system, in which case a half dollar purchase would run <BR>$110010 <BR> <BR>Or, I suppose we could use the octal system where that same outlay would run <BR>$62 <BR> <BR>Your PC, though, may favor a hexadecimal system in which that cost would be <BR>$32 <BR> <BR>Oh, and yes, the US has already adopted the SI (which most folks hereeabouts call the metric system). Your cars and so many other manufactured goods are produced to metric specs. <BR> <BR>The only countries not officially committed to the SI are Liberia, Burma and the US. We should be proud of the company we keep. <BR> <BR>twenj

sciencegeek

Oh my god? we stopped using decimals? I better let my colleagues know!!!lol

xxx

First the German gaffe (never happened, Art.) <BR> <BR>Then this. No decimals anymore!? <BR> <BR>Art, you've been sucking up too long to Rex, and you've polluted your mind.

Steve Mueller

<BR>In many places, the US has adopted the metric system. <BR> <BR>In my field of physics, no one - absolutely no one - uses pounds, feet, gallons, etc. In introductory university science courses, whether in physics, chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy, etc., students use either the "mks" (meter-kilogram-second) system of the "cgs" (centimeter-gram-second) system. <BR> <BR>Although I have less first-hand experience with engineers, I believe that they overwhelmingly prefer the metric system as well. <BR> <BR>When I have my annual blood tests, the nurse always extracts so many "cc's" (cubic centimeters) of blood. <BR> <BR>Soft drinks are routinely available in 1/2, 1, or 2 liter bottles. <BR> <BR>Having said all of this, I readily admit it is still difficult for me to think of fuel efficiency in any terms except for miles per gallon. Also, NASA recently lost a Mars-bound spacecraft because one set of engineers was using Newtons (a metric measure of force) and another team was using pounds. Since one Newton does not equal one pound, the projected trajectories were invalid and the spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere at a non-optimal angle and burned up.

Steve Mueller

<BR>A typo above. I should have written "either the mks system or the cgs system." <BR> <BR>Also, I realized a corollary between something I just posted on the thread concerning whether or not English would every become the official language of Europe and my response to this thread. In the language thread, I stated that if English did become the dominant language of Europe, it would occur in an incremental manner, as English words and phrases unrelentingly creep into French, etc. It seems that the metric system is creeping into the US in the same manner. People educated in technical disciplines are familiar and comfortable with the metric system. Younger children are learning it in school.

Steve Mueller

<BR>One final thought. <BR> <BR>I wonder if globalization will expedite the adoption of the metric system in the US. It must be easier for Coca-Cola and Pepsi to produce 1/2, 1 and 2 liter bottles to be used anywhere in the world, and only change the labels for each country. As I mentioned above, this process has apparently already occurred. What is next? Doesn't it make sense for Ford and GM to start making all dashboard displays with km/hr rather than miles/hr (although, with the new digital displays, it would only be a trivial software change to indicate either). <BR> <BR>Regardless of what Congress might think about formally adopting the metric system, there must be countless subtle economic forces that will inevitably push the US toward the metric system.

John Bermont

The metric system (decimal system?) has been legal in the USA since 1866, about five generations ago. Gallons, pounds, and yards will be with us for a long time yet to come. The professions of medicine and science use it exclusively; engineers do not use it. <BR> <BR>John Bermont <BR>www.enjoy-europe.com

clairobscur

Actually, the spacecraft didn't even made it to Mars. That's a shame, since it was a major element in the projects of martian exploration.

richard j vicek

Hello dere, am a bit confused and <BR>is not the decimal system, part of the <BR>inch measurement system, it is another <BR>way of describing fractions nd into a <BR>much more precision method. Perhaps the <BR>biggest delay is caused by the screw <BR>systems that we use on e.g. common nuts and bolts as well as the screws used <BR>in most machine tools are made to the <BR>inch sustem and must be gradually replace with the metric..Art, how was <BR>the length of the meter determined??? <BR>Richard of LaGrange Park, Il.. <BR>

Rex

Richard, <BR> <BR>You're seriously asking how the meter is defined? Forgive my arrogance, but I thought we all learned this in junior high school. The meter is based on the earth, and mass (the gram) defined on the density of water. The circumference of the earth is defined as exactly 40 million meters - - well technically, the quarter-arc from the North Pole to the equator running through Paris was defined as 10 million meters (10,000 km). This was all done under Napoleion's reign. <BR> <BR>Because the earth can (has already and will continue to) undergo change over centuries, the meter has since been re-defined as so many wavelengths of the light emitted by a cesium flame or something like that. But for all practical purposes, the earth is still 40,000 km around. <BR> <BR>A liter is exactly one one-thousandth of one cubic meter, and one gram is the weight of water (at 4 degrees Cntigrade) that occupies one-thousandth of one liter. Thus, one cubic meter of water weighs one million grams, or one thousand kilograms, also known as a (metric) ton. <BR> <BR>I have often wondered why there is no enthusiasm for the decimalization of the second, hour and day. <BR> <BR>Divide the day into ten hours, each of those hours into 100 minutes, and each of those minutes into 100 seconds. This would lead to the interesting unity of a (normal human adult) pulse rate of 1 beat per second (i.e, 69.4 beats per minute under current definitions). <BR> <BR>But I'm not holding my breath for any of this decimal time adjustment to happen in my life - - we haven't really adjusted to the loss of quarters, eights and sixteenths on the stock market yet! <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR>

xxx

Blather, blather, blather. <BR> <BR>Rex, you ARE the weakest link! <BR> <BR>The meter was originally proposed as one ten-millionth of the length of the earth's meridian along a a quadrant of the earth OR as the length of a pendulum having a half-period of one second. Thus, the meter was intended to equal one ten-millionth of the length of the meridian through Paris from pole to the equator. However, the first prototype was short by 0.2 millimeters because researchers miscalculated the flattening of the earth due to its rotation. Still this length became the standard. As Rex should know, the earth is an oblate spheroid so it's a bit difficult to say on forty-millionth of the circumference without specifying the circumference where. In fact, oblate spheroidity is something that many have attributed to Rex. <BR> <BR>The historical basis for the gram is actually to be one thousandth of kilogram, which was defined as the mass of water in the a cubic decimeter of water (at standard temperature AND pressure.) NOT, one thousandth of a liter. <BR> <BR>Rex, you're not only arrogant, you're ignorant, but so grossly arrogant as to accuse others of ignorance while blind to your own. <BR> <BR>Worse, it's the blather of synthetic pedants like you that erect pseudo-intellectual barriers to the adoption of a sensible system of measurement. <BR> <BR>Art and Richard are nearly as bad. The lack of enthusiasm for the SI in the US has nothing to do with screw standards ... more with screwballs ... among which you three prominently figure. <BR> <BR>It's no wonder so many Europeans think Americans are quaint at best, dangerous at worst. <BR> <BR>For anyone who has a real interest in the metric system, there are several very good websites. Among the best is the US government's own National Institue of Standards' at <BR>http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/index.html

clairobscur

AFAIK, the meter definition isn't any more based on a wawelenght, but on the speed of light (it's the distance covered in a given fraction of a second). <BR> <BR>

noname

I'm already confused enough. <BR> <BR>message to james: for your sake, i hope 18 cm is bigger than it sounds!

Art

Sorry I started this. Lets go back to how many fodorites does it take to change a lightbulb. I surely did not think that this would bring a coward like xxx out ot the closet. And Rex, I think you went a little over the edge with your response. <BR>Regards <BR>Art <BR> <BR> <BR>

Rex

I apologize to Richard - - I would have to assume that the inflammatory statement I made is that I thought we all learned this stuff in junior high school. Personally, I really did learn the metric system (along with its history) in junior high school, and I have had it as clearly in my head as the "English" measurement system ever since. There's all kinds of stuff that I assume, everyday, that people learned in junior high school. And I constantly make mistakes about who learned what, and who remembers what portion of it. <BR> <BR>What's amazing about xxx's post is that there is no material contradiction of anything I said. <BR> <BR>1 gram (water) = 1 milliter = 1 cm, cubed = 0.01 meter, cubed = 1 millionth cubic meter. <BR> <BR>1 kilogram = 1 liter = 1000 cubic centimeter = 0.1 meter, cubed, or 1 cubic decimeter, as xxx called it = 1 one-thousandth cubic meter. <BR> <BR>and <BR> <BR>1 (metric) ton = 1000 kilograms = 1000 liters = 1 million cubic centimeters = 1 cubic meter. <BR> <BR>To imply that we didn't both say the same thing is the TRUE ignorance. <BR> <BR>Or was I too obtuse with the (purely hypothetical) decimal time explanation? <BR> <BR>And one final footnote - - if the meter really is now defined on the speed of light, there may emerge various discussions of some other standard. In recent news reports - - http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/2001...laws_dc_1.html - - physicists have seriously proposed that c, the speed of light might not be a timeless constant. But then again, if that is true, maybe the very concepts of measured mass, distance or time aren't either. <BR>

Wow

<BR>Wish my questions rec'd such responses.

Mr. X

The metric system ought to be obliterated from the USA and hospitals should be forced to use gallons and pints rather than this space age ccs. The metric system is a relic of a dark age, that of the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon Buonoparte.