Was that supposed to be an argument for or against the metric system?

It's a silly argument.

Look - the people who need metric, use metric. Folks who have to do a lot of quick math with measurements. Folks who have engineering tools instead of woodworking tools. This is a good thing. Folks who don't actually need to change the way they think use what they have always used - this is also a good thing because we don't have to spend a buttload of money (that would be two shitloads - two metric shitloads make nothing. A thousand make a Kiloshit, though.) changing signage and textbooks.

So why get worked up over this? It's really not very important.

Life goes on with or without the metric system, but it's a hell a lot of easier with it....

The Irish have just (20th January) changed all speed limits from Mph to Kph.

trib767, this is true. They also banned smoking in the whole country. There's a reason there are almost as many Irish jokes as Polish jokes.

In my engineering classes at school we use both English system units and metric units. Metric units are ALOT easier to work with because the conversion factor is simple a factor of 10.
Here is the unusual part though...
The English system uses pounds for weight, and a pound is actually a force measurement. Remember that there is a difference between weight and mass. Mass is always constant and weight depends on gravity.
As a result, a pound and a kilogram are not actually the same thing. Infact this is the one thing that really annoys me about the english system.
We have sort of a joke going about how the users of the metric system don't go into a store and buy a Newton of potatoes because that would be absurd. (The Newton being the SI unit of force and is 1 kg*m/s^2) A pound is 1 slug*ft/s^2 with a slug being the english system measurement of mass. This is of course in accordance with Newton's Second Law of F = ma.

To compensate for this the EE (English Engineering system) has developed two very odd units, the pound mass (lbm) and the pound force (lbf) I hate both of those units and I hate the EE system. Its a stupid hybrid between the old English System and the metric system. Its stupid and I hate it. Its very annoying to have to convert between its own units and metric units.

Unfortunatley we are forced to learn to use all sets of units because the industry in the US uses the English System units and when engineers do things for industry we need to be able to convert all of these units.

I think of the English System as the measurement system for the "common people" in the US and the metric system for math and science and of course...the rest of the world.

No, they are the same thing. You are just getting lbf and lb mixed up. The imperial system just uses two different units for mass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force#I...force_and_mass

Good luck in engineering school. Make sure you know your imperial units. Chances are pretty good that you will almost always use imperial and rarely use SI. That's how it is for me and most of the people I know.

Actually the pound that normal people use to measure things is a force measurement. You are correct that in the Imperial Engineering System or the English Engineering system there is a difference between a lbf and a lbm and I did say that in my topic.

However when you step on the scale and measure yourself in pounds you are finding your weight and not your mass and that means that pounds are a force measurement.

And so is the kilogram measurement you see on the scales. The factor g/gc is equal to 1 kgf/kgm or 1 lbf/lbm. As a result, on Earth an object with a 1kg mass weighs 1kg force. The f subscript is just dropped because for common everyday applications it doesn't need to be there. Read to the bottom of the link I posted previously, they briefly touch on kgf as if it is rarely used but when was the last time you saw a scale give a reading in newtons? They all say kg (meaning kgf).

Therefore, your mass and weight both have the same numeric value, even if the units are different. Kgf is not an si unit but it is a unit derived from the metric system is used more often in everyday life. It really causes havoc when you have to remember when to add in the gc factor.

It all works because we all live on the same planet and even though the acceleration due to gravity is higher in Death Valley than it is at the top of Mount Everest, it's not enough of a difference to make it a gross inaccuracy.

I rememeber back in my lab days we had an instructor that liked to screw with us. He had pressure guages that represented all sorts of units and he'd switch them around too. There might be 4 guages and they'd all have different units (psi, lb/ft2, kg/m2, kg/cm2).

Besides the United States, Liberia (Western Africa) and Burma (Southeast Asia) are the only other countries that have not officially converted to the metric system. So your ratio would be 190 to 3, depending on whose count of the number of countries on Earth you prefer.

I wish we would change to the metric system though.

Howdy!

Maybe some night we should all just go out and change the speed limit signs to furlongs/fortnight (or sumthin' like that) and force the issue!

Other than that, guess we'll just have to wait for the baby boomers to die out (or at least retire) and try again.

Your mass v. weight for kg all depends on whether you are stepping onto a spring scale or a counterbalance scale.

Trying to convert Imperial to metric is much harder when you don't know metric to begin with. That is the problem most people have - that is why the metric conversion act pretty much failed. How can you be expected to learn and know metric when you never have to practice metric measurements in everyday life. All of our companys make things in easy to remember imperial sizes like 1 gallon and 20oz and that leaves us with 4.5 liters, and 591ml which isnt as easy to remember and gives us more reasons not to use it. I'll just assume that metric using countries have nice rounded numbers on their products.

As the generation in the UK that is switching from imperial to metric (i went through school learning imperial measurments, with the odd bit of metric towards the end), i can say it's bloody confusing metric.

I have no idea how fast 100 kph is, or how far 100 meteres is, but i can do 100 mph and 100 yards.
Don't have a clue about volumes or areas, mainly because i'm bad with that type of thing, but for some reason little bitty scale (<1cm) i do in metric, but above in imperial.

Kind of a mish mash of everything, it's easier to go with imperial. It will take 2/3/4 generations for everything to fully convert from imperial to metric due to parents/grandparents passing on their sysem, and thats just too long for most governments these days.

AFAIK there is no intention in the US to switch. Arco ones tried it and it ended up in a desaster. People wanted gallons of fuel and not liters. My bet is, that it will never change. Too late.

I Love the Precision of Metric
 

Whenever I have a project around the house, I always measure using metric units for precise accurate measurements.

And in the kitchen I use my digital metric scale for baking.

However, I still do my temperature read-outs in Fahrenheit.

I agree with Jay Francis, I think it's more precise to use Metric when you are building a bookshelf or cutting floor boards. It's easier to add, subtract, multiply and divide using Metric as oppose to Standard. I know where to mark .3 cm or even mm, but 1/3 of 1/16" would have me guessing for a while.