Quote:
Originally Posted by DRNewcomb
Even after you go metric you still have to remember there's 1852 m in a NM. That won't change until we can change the radius of the earth. I seriously doubt that land surveying will ever become metric because the whole system of property records was set up over 200 years ago. So kids in schools will still have to learn these units. The problem with the US and metric is that we're still a democratic country where old people have nothing better to do than vote in every single election and they don't want to change. No politician is going to risk his office to push metrification. Rather, we're engaged in creeping metrification. We now sell cans of soft drinks by the ounce but big bottles are 1 & 2 liters. All wine and liquor are sold in metric containers. OTHO, milk is sold by quarts and gallons. 40 years ago if your car needed metric tools you'd have to take it to a "foreign car" repair shop. I think that today most American cars are metric, except for the odometer and spedometer. With the exception of the use of strange units like "tons" and "BTUs" the electrical system has always been metric.
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First of all, nobody caught my big faux pas to show how unimportant it is...of course there aren't 1840 yards in a mile, there are only 1760 (although I did get the 5,280 feet correct)...
What an idiot I am.
As a math teacher, 30 years ago there were commissions formed to plan the metrification of the USA and of course it hasn't happened but sometimes, I am afraid, it behooves government to make unpopular decisions if it is for the good of all in the long run...many years ago, in April 1971, there were all sorts of discussions as Britain was being forced to go decimal on its currency how dreadful it is and how the great British tradition of 20 shillings to a pound and 12 pennies to a shilling was something that people understood and how they would be unable to cope with decimalization of the currency (which when you get right down to it is pretty much the same thing)..but of course the government of Britain forced it on the public and by a month later, people were wondering why it wasn't done sooner. Now I do understand one objection to metrification of the USA is the tremendous costs of changing all the highway signs...many of the states have just recently changed all their signs to renumber exits from arbitary exit 1 at one state line to exit whatever depending on how many exits there were namely exit 2 followed exit 1 even if they were 25 miles apart...now in many states exits on freeways are numbered as to the number of miles from one state line..it cost lots of money and to metrify all the highways in the country would cost mucho dollars (I think it is for this reason Britain has been able to resist Brussels on this matter and keep the distances in miles on the motorways)...and at least they had Brussels to fall back on when most other things were metrified and could tell the people it wasn't us..it was those damn eu bureaucrats.
But a start could certainly be to adopt the Celsius thermometer so our mental midgets will know how to dress when visiting 99% of the other countries of the world...and they can leave the imperial measures for liquids too..after all you still order a pint in an British (or Irish) pub..but they can do away with the 20 oz. bottles of soda and substitute 0.5 l and of course we all know the 12 ounce can should be what 330 ml..also if gasoline was priced in liters, it wouldn't sound so bad...all good starts that could be accomplished easily (but won't happen for the reasons that were cited)..
Of course, the other pet peeve of mine which is caused by the same inability to get some older people to enter the 21st century is the continued existance of the $1 bill which costs the Treasury millions to constantly replace them...all the other countries we deal with don't have a 1 unit banknote...Britain doesn't, euroland doesn't, Canada doesn't, Australia doesn't...but we do. Of course the excuse has been we tried to get people to use Susan B. Anthony dollar coins and others and the public wouldn't buy into it...the reason being, of course, how puny these coins were....now make a dollar coin nice and thick like a UK£ and tell the people that to save millions in continually replacing old tattered $1 bills, they will become non legal tender in pick a period of time...euroland did it in less than 2 months to change all the money over...Canada and Britain were able to do it...why shouldn't we...of course there will be howls of protest but a dollar ain't worth very much today (now is it)...
BTW the latest blow to the USD, do you know the Swiss Franc is now worth more than a US$...and they don't have a CHF1 bill or even a CHF5 bill, the smallest paper money is CHF10.
But this ain't going to happen either...unless, as some have suggested, there is an inevitable monetary union between the 3 countries in North America to try to compete against the euro (that will be the final blow but it might very well happen within 15 years...(and we will feel as badly as many in the UK will feel when inevitably they are forced to swallow their pride and use currency without the Queen's picture on it when the UK is forced to join euroland).
Just some rambling thoughts with nothing to do early on a Sunday morning.