Metric system dumbs us down.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by K_V_B

Actually there is a beautiful logic behind the DIN paper sizes. And it makes perfect sense.

The reason for the odd size is that the aspect ratio is the square root of 2.
..

.

Although it makes perfect sense, it is also totally irrational.

(Hands up if you understand that comment! )

[Benz]

Originally Posted by pcmm

Actually 95% of the world has gone metric(in one form or another). Can you guess who the big hold out is/are??? The USA, Burma and Liberia!!!

If you were to travel a little, you would quickly see that although many countries have "officially" gone metric, much of the day-to-day measuring done by people is in standard. In Newfoundland they navigate in miles and fathoms, and measure in feet and inches (or "hinches" as they pronounce it). In central America, I bought gas in gallons more than half the time (should I say .5 of the time, so the metrophiles can understand?). As we've seen, the Brits still mostly think in feet and miles and stone. In Quebec I was asked my boat length in feet--though I had converted it to meters to try and make it easier on the language barrier!

This notion that 95% of the world is thinking in metric all the time is completely specious.
Ben
zartmancruising dot com

[Benz]

Originally Posted by K_V_B

Very nice straw man you are building there.

No really. Where is the confusion? I do not know of anyone who grew up in the metric system that is confused by the metric prefixes.

"deci" means one tenth, so that a decimeter is on tenth of a meter is immediately obvious. Converting just means moving the decimal point.



So you measure 6.475 m from here to there. A second grader can make that conversion. And why is that somehow silly, and measuring 21.245 feet not?

When I see 6475 mm I simultaneously see 647.5 cm, 64.75 dm, and 6.475 m, and can thus measure the distance with whatever metric measuring that I have handy.



Now explain why metric boatshops out produce non-metric boatshops by a huge margin...

Obviously you missed the flap a few pages back about Dl and dL. Those were two metric aficionados who crossed hawses about metric prefixes.

No one measures 21.425 feet when boatbuilding. We just measure in feet, inches and fractions of inches down to the nearest 64th, though I've worked with boatbuilders who measured to a 64th and a half.

Lastly, I'm not sure why you bring in production volume as an argument. First of all, have you really bothered to find out whether metric boatshops outproduce others? And then, volume can come (and does, in the case of Bavaria, Beneteau, Jenneau, Outremer, Lagoon, Fountaine Pajot, Dufour) at the expense of quality. High-volume builders, even in the 'States where we're using proper measuring systems, usually produce junk.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by StuM

Yes, the derived SI unit is the radian (rad). There are 2 x Pi of them in a circle, so one radian is just under 57.3°

I'd like to see how this plays out on paper. Can you link to a drawing?

So where do "grads" come in? If the 'rad' is standard, where does that leave the other? If I see two circles divided, one by rad and one by grad, how do I tell which one is which? Is there a standard label? Is there such a thing as a milligrad? a kilograd? a Leningrad? (that would be a Russian circle )Can I, using only a ruler, divide a circle into correct grads or rads like I can into degrees?

[Benz]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Err... actually we don't care. The premise of the thread is the Americans (meaning USA citizens) believe there is something amiss with the metric system so what is really on display?

As for the phrase "what Americans and other sensible people measure with", does this suggest you believe there is a correlation between the two groups stated or have I misinterpreted your point?

There is something amiss with the Metric System, which claims universal easiness across every aspect of human measuring, and it is this: Not everything can be crammed into a metric paradigm. Time being the most obvious, and along with that, celestial navigation, which is closely tied to time. I discussed this thoroughly on another thread, started long ago by one "Lars L", called "Convenience of the Metric System." search for it--you'll find it an instructive read.

My claim about sensible people was interpreted correctly: I find it stupid to the point of imbecility to take a perfectly well-working system, that of degrees, nautical miles, cables, fathoms, feet and inches, throw it out, and then re-print nautical charts with soundings in 'meters,' while the graticule remains of necessity in degrees, because a metric replacement for them has not been devised. At least not one that works. Many of these soundings that are being switched over were taken by Captain Cook--but switched not by surveying the area again, but by doing a conversion of his soundings in fathoms and re-printing. So now one must navigate in miles and minutes and degrees, but sound in meters? What absolute rubbish.

Summing up: it is completely insensible and irrespossible to take a perfectly well-working system and try to cram metric bits into it that don't fit. It's like Isaiah's bed: too short to sleep in, with a blanket too small to cover. The supercilious have claimed: "In an alternate, theoretical universe, you could navigate in metric." I agree, and the metric system, IMO, belongs in that faraway fairyland of theory, out of the way us who are getting things done.
Ben
zartmancruising dot com

[double u]

"...I find it stupid to the point of imbecility to take a perfectly well-working system....& throw it out..."
should have paid more attention in the history classes at school! only because they "threw out perfectly working systems" for better ones can you "imperial champions" sit in front of a computer & praise an imbecile system (the question is not "metric or nonmetric" - the question is "decimal or not") of ounces (fluid?...avoirduipois?...), pounds, stones, long/short tons...
but go ahead! make life difficult for yourselves (youall been doing that of lately with increasing abandon...)

[El Pinguino]

Back to the A4 paper debate...

In Chile any form you get printed by the marina office, the aduana, etc etc , is standard A4 width but about 3/4 inch longer .

So a total PIA to put in any binder or folder or whatever that you have ( I presume that their binders, folders or whatever are longer than 'anglo' ones).

Of course there is never anything on the lower 3/4 inch as their documents are sized to 'proper' A4.. its only the paper thats 'not quite right'.

Why is it so????

[deblen]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Aargh...."standardized" lumber sizes...another anamoly...why cant a 2x4" just ctually be 2x4" !!!

It is-if you don't mind the splinters

[deblen]

Originally Posted by buzzstar

I is very difficult to argue with the story, although the reason Nappy said right if the Romans had said left is not clear to me.

Napoleon kept his left arm stuffed in his jacket. / Len

[deblen]

Originally Posted by ramblinrod

My beef was that all Quicky Lube shops stayed with "5000" on the sticker for your next oil change.

Before metric conversion it was 5000 miles; after metric conversion it was 5000 km. Why did the effectiveness of engine oil suddenly drop 38% over night?

For the same (scam) reason our other liquid commodities are sold in odd sizes. 398ml can of peas,1.14L (40ouncer) of rum,355ml bottle of water,etc. / Len

[deblen]

Originally Posted by Bill Seal

When using the metric sytem, you must ONLY use millimeters, meters or kilometers, or the French will throw a hissy fit, stomp their pretty little feet, and fart in your general direction.

BTW, a millimeter is about 2/3 of a sixteenth of an inch, or 0.0395". Sort of stupid small to measure things like boats, cars and airplanes.

Metric was definitely a French conspiracy Len

[AiniA]

Looking at it more broadly, it seems that Americans are quite resistant to change, even when it makes perfect sense. Consider currency. Does it make sense to have bills that are different colours so it is easier to see what is what? yes, it does, but there was a fight in the US when even a little bit of colour was added. In this day and age do pennies make any sense? Not really, but the US continues to deal with them. Same thing with low denomination bills. Most countries have eliminated all bills below $5. When I travel in the US I end up with great piles of one dollar bills and think I my wallet is pretty full. Then I find out I have one five and eleven ones in there. When I am in a country with one and two dollar coins I know that the bills in the wallet mean something and if I have too many coins I look to spend them. Many years ago Canada had 25 cent bills. They disappeared because of inflation and were replaced by coins. Same thing more recently than with $1 and $2.

One problem in the US is that governments have tried to make changes to metric and to dollar coins but have been gutless and did not make hard changes, i.e. they kept the existing dollar bills. I found it very interesting that when we were in Panama and Ecuador (both use US currency) there were huge numbers of the Sacajawea dollar coins in circulation and in those countries, especially Ecuador, a dollar buys a lot more than in the US. I remember buying 70 lines for $1 in the market in Ecuador.

BTW, I think the title for this thread was at least somewhat tongue in cheek.

[ALAIN97133]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

This thought arises from another thread Metric system is too easy - dumbs down maths in the population due lazy brainwork. Just like paying people every week instead of monthly has bred a population that would starve if the shops weren't open 24/7. Just like fast foods has bred a population that can't put together a healthy meal. Just like GPS dumbs down nav skills. Thank God for public officials who make life so difficult for freedom hunters that our brains get all the exercise we need.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think NASA & your ubiquitous US army use metric system to send us dreaming across the cosmos* or to kill people who are peacefully killing each other in their garbage-countries...
*I was amazed, flabbergasted, bewildered etc... by the complexity of the flight of New Orizons & its pictures of Pluto & Charon... As usual the US gives us the best & the worst of humankind potential: 122 000 civilian death during the second Irack war... I'm sure Trump can do better

[conachair]

Originally Posted by StuM

Although it makes perfect sense, it is also totally irrational.

(Hands up if you understand that comment! )

If it was square root -2 then not just irrational but imaginary as well

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

This thought arises from another thread

Metric system is too easy - dumbs down maths in the population due lazy brainwork.
Just like paying people every week instead of monthly has bred a population that would starve if the shops weren't open 24/7.
Just like fast foods has bred a population that can't put together a healthy meal.
Just like GPS dumbs down nav skills.

Thank God for public officials who make life so difficult for freedom hunters that our brains get all the exercise we need.

Nice try. In the US public officials started the change to metric in the 1970's but opposition from the private sector killed the change.

You want to complain about government, find a problem it actually created to complain about first.