Metric system
It would help sometimes is people stated the unit they are using, otherwise you get thins like "It's 25 degrees today so I've been out enjoying the sun.".
If it s 25 degrees outside, then I am gong to have on my boots, thermal underwear, jeans, flannel shirt & most likely insulated coveralls That's below freezing, temperature wise.
My mind refuses to function in metric. Have to convert to get an idea what it is. While I know metric has distinct advantages, I did not grow up using it and so just can't seem to function with it. Yah I know those who grow up using metric are the other way round.
I get what you mean... not everyone understands, kilograms, metres, litres... pounds, stones and pounds etc etc.
Should'nt be difficult for any decent webmaster to add a "convert" button to any measurments. Then we can all work in our prefered units, and everyone else can get it in theyre prefered units.
a simple prompt for system used would allow folks to enter whatever units they are comfortable with. also a line or two of code could convert whatever is entered and display both. But since programers the world over come up with excuses why they can't do things rather than just doing them neither of them will happen here.
As for me born and bred an American. But I do travel quite a bit out of the country and do try to think and converse in metric when abroad.
But I will have to say sometimes folks stump me. Like when I asked the whitewater rafting guide while on the river in Costa Rica with 4 folks who were from metric countries " how many meters did we drop?" and the Costa Rican guide answered " we dropped 800ft over 18 miles" I wanted to go huh? I asked in meters and you give answers in American.
Another time i overheard two Brits in the 50s giving directions. One said " You go 3 miles east and 2 kilometers north" I laughed out loud and called him out on that one.
I would agree with a lot of your points , I was born and raised in the UK prior us to joining the EEC , now EU everything was in Imperial measures after we joined in 1970 we converted to the metric system, or shoukd have so it's a bit of a mix I tend to still talk about a pint of milk and a mile in distance but younger people tend to use metric as they were taught the metric system at school , when talking about my weight it gets more its more confusing I stil use Imperial as used in the US however every 14 pounds is rounded up to 1 stone my weight is 140 pound or 14 stone UK , and 89 kilos in metric , confused so are we , lol
When it comes to temperature I always use celcius but often if I'm messaging with someone in the US , I'll convert and put Fahrenheit in brackets so they know if I'm freezing or enjoying the hot weather outdoors , I agree when it comes to personal statistics we should be able to convert , I'm on a wrestling website that does this so you can tell if you're being challenged by someone close to your height and weight or not
I agree. Despite being born and raised in the US, I work daily with people from countries that use metric measurements. Including MKS as an option would help everyone, and it should be fairly straightforward to link a converter to the site.
I have a conversion spreadsheet on my desktop that i can switch to any time I need it.
My bigggest problem is with pints and gallons as the US measure is 80% of the imperial one. It also annoys me when people post a temperature as "25 degrees" instead of 25C or 25F.
Actions
Back to TopicsReply to TopicShare this topic
Get paid just by sending us users/traffic.
Signup takes seconds, start now!
Signup as an affiliate!