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US going metric?
I'm curious, has there ever been an attempt at going metric in the US? e.g.
using Celsius? How do people feel about it? jj |
#2
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US going metric?
"jj" wrote in message ... I'm curious, has there ever been an attempt at going metric in the US? e.g. using Celsius? How do people feel about it? jj Astronomer Carl Sagan (billions upon billions of stars in the cosmos....) was one of the biggest proponents in the 70's and 80's but it never took off. It's rather a non-issue among the general population. Metric and metric conversion are taught in public schools, for what it's worth. Chris |
#3
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US going metric?
I'm curious, has there ever been an attempt
at going metric in the US? e.g. using Celsius? How do people feel about it? Metric is widely used in scientific and engineering situations, in manufacturing, etc., but for everyday uses (such as temperature) most folks stick with the system they grew up with. Often there is dual labelling. For example, a can of Pepsi will list both ounces and mL; car speedometers give both miles per hour and kilometers per hour (although miles is in much bigger type). I doubt if we'll see much of a push from politicians to mandate metric for everyday use, as it woulnd't be popular with the general public. But I think folks are gradually becoming more comfortable with metric and we'll see a gradual changeover, although it may take decades. James ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Remove "NOSPAM" from my address when sending me e-mail. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ - |
#4
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US going metric?
In article , jj wrote:
I'm curious, has there ever been an attempt at going metric in the US? e.g. using Celsius? How do people feel about it? Well, there was an aborted attempt in the late 1980s/early 1990s for the highway signs; what killed it was a lack of funding to do the conversion fully due to some political lobbying by well heeled folks. The complaint from businesses can be generally summarised as being 'it's going to be prohibitively expensive'... well, the Canadians seemed to do ok on the whole with their own conversion not too long before that... I believe there's been several other attempts to convert the country into the metric system over the years, but significant opposition in the right spots managed to kill that idea completely. Some industries may already be using partial or completely metric measurements; U.S. aviation is used to some aspects of the metric system. For instance, all aviation weather reports are given out in degrees Celsius, and most folks are used to barometric pressure in either inches of mercury or millibars. For instance, a barometric altimeter pressure setting of 29.92 inches of mercury is equivalent to 1013 millibars. Then there's science, which commonly deals with metric units. In my high school honor physics course (years ago), the first day was an immediate introduction (or review, for the experienced) of the metric system which was firmly adhered to for the entire year of class. To this day, I still remember the gravitational "constant" 'g' was 9.80465 m/s^2 at the precise location where the high school was. Since the textbook assumed 9.81 m/s^2 for 'g', we went by that for the textbook exercises. I can't speak for others, but it wouldn't really bother me a whole lot; I'm already used to dealing with metric units with others such as Canadians, Europeans, etc... and regularly visit Canada and other spots in the world. I'd guess the split between acceptance and rejection would probably lie partially on age grounds; young(er) people seems to be more flexible in way of thinking whereas someone older (like the folks passing the laws or budget) might be less so inclined. And in this country, if you have sufficient amount of money, you can usually get favo(u)rable laws passed (or shot down)... In my case, there'd be a slight adjustment since I'm a little shaky with metric conversion at the really small level because I don't yet easily visualise the magnitude, but a little time and practice usually takes care of that. -Dan |
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US going metric?
jj wrote:
I'm curious, has there ever been an attempt at going metric in the US? e.g. using Celsius? How do people feel about it? In the early '70s, there were some Joint Resolutions which said, basically, that the US should begin thinking about getting ready to prepare for the possibility of considering a change to the metric system. In the mid '70s I worked a job in a place that had international sales and in light of the supposed atmosphere of metrification that was spreading across the land I made a remark one day about the firm's units of measurement. The foreman just about jumped down my throat. 'Why should WE change?!?' he demanded. 'We're number one! Let the rest of those countries [sic] change to OUR way!' And in my firm, as in America generally, that was that. cheers, Henry |
#6
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US going metric?
Dan Foster wrote:
Well, there was an aborted attempt in the late 1980s/early 1990s for the highway signs; what killed it was a lack of funding to do the conversion fully due to some political lobbying by well heeled folks. Why would anybody lobby on either side of the issue of road signs? Road signs would have to be the least important aspect of using metric measurement in any case. |
#7
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US going metric?
Originally posted by Rj Why would anybody lobby on either side of the issue of road signs? Road signs would have to be the least important aspect of using metric measurement in any case. Erm, not if you are driving along and you see a sign for "60", but dont see the small print at the bottom as you whizz by. In this hypothetical example, some of the signs across the nation have been changed to kmh, some are still mph, how fast should you be going? Changing all the signs at once would cost a lot of $$$, and requires a lot of political will, not to mention the logistical issues, so on a practical level, road signs would be a big issue. Not that there is a hope in hell of the US adopting the metric system anyway. my 2c Iain -- Posted via http://britishexpats.com |
#8
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US going metric?
In article ,
"jj" wrote: I'm curious, has there ever been an attempt at going metric in the US? e.g. using Celsius? How do people feel about it? I believe there was a half-hearted attempt to go metric in the '70's. Other than for scientific purposes, I don't ever expect the United States to officially adopt the metric system, although it would definitely benefit from doing so. |
#9
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US going metric?
"jj" wrote in message ... I'm curious, has there ever been an attempt at going metric in the US? e.g. using Celsius? How do people feel about it? jj Back in the 70's they took some early steps with some highway signs in KM's. That didn't last. Basically Americans like what's familiar. To me it would make sense for weights and distances. But, sorry, but for air temperature, Fahrenheit makes so much more sense, with zero to 100 being about the range of temps we see in a the northern US. Yeah, some places go below zero, and some go above 100. But it is so much more informative than the much more limited range on the Celsius scale. Celsius makes more sense for scientific work though. Scientists in the US do use only metric. |
#10
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US going metric?
"RJ" wrote in message
... Dan Foster wrote: Well, there was an aborted attempt in the late 1980s/early 1990s for the highway signs; what killed it was a lack of funding to do the conversion fully due to some political lobbying by well heeled folks. Why would anybody lobby on either side of the issue of road signs? Road signs would have to be the least important aspect of using metric measurement in any case. Well, if a road sign were to read "Gotham 167 kilometers" and American speedometers, odometers, fuel consumption computers and trip computers are all in miles, some people might feel more comfortable with the old system. KM -- (-:alohacyberian:-) At my website there are 3000 live cameras or visit NASA, play games, read jokes, send greeting cards & connect to CNN news, NBA, the White House, Academy Awards or learn all about Hawaii, Israel and mo http://keith.martin.home.att.net/ |
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