The USA was supposed to be metric sometime in the late 70s. Cars had dual metric / English speedometers. Highway signs were posted with both M/H and KM/H, canned goods started listing both English weight and metric mass. The plan was to gradually get everything posted in both, then switch to metric with the largest lettering and gradually decrease the font for the English system until it was removed completely.
Then old fart groups started protesting that it was too difficult for older people to adapt. Congress bellied under and abandoned the plan.
All the people who complained are long gone and we are still using the English system.
I just looked in my cubbard and didn't see a single item that does not have both listed. I wish the industry would slowly switch the English to the second listing, and start making the font smaller.
Then old fart groups started protesting that it was too difficult for older people to adapt. Congress bellied under and abandoned the plan.
All the people who complained are long gone and we are still using the English system.
I just looked in my cubbard and didn't see a single item that does not have both listed. I wish the industry would slowly switch the English to the second listing, and start making the font smaller.
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At least now most of the hardware on a car is metric. In the 1980's you needed to have both sets of tools since you would find both metric and SAE hardware, often on the same engine.
Both of my US made Honda's are 100% metric. I would guess that my recently acquired Ford is metric since it was built in Spain, but I haven't dug into it yet.
While there’s sufficient anecdotal evidence herein to a convey that a large percentage of the age cohort we’re addressing have hard enough time with America SI units - or math, or fractions - can you imagine the brain farts when trying to learn a system based on the simple progression of decades.
Why is the US gallon still smaller than the Imperial unit? And as for BEV, have a Gen Zer explain to you MGPe - “But I thought you said your Tesla/Leaf/Ioniq doesn’t use gasoline - I thought it was electric? My brain hurts, man.”
Why is the US gallon still smaller than the Imperial unit? And as for BEV, have a Gen Zer explain to you MGPe - “But I thought you said your Tesla/Leaf/Ioniq doesn’t use gasoline - I thought it was electric? My brain hurts, man.”
There were several English gallons, about 10. The US uses one of them; IIRC, the Queen Anne Wine Gallon. It may have been the only pail we had; or we didn't fall for the trick of having 10 different things called "gallon".
Gallon - Wikipedia
Most countries used to have their own definition of all these measurements. IE the definition was usually the same, but the measurements being the basis of the definition was different. A furlong here does not equal a furlong there, a foot here is different from a foot over there. So when it's divided to inches and so on, and further used to calculate mass, there's a huge amount of variation.
We even had our Norwegian version of all these things, but by some insane stroke of deep profound insight, figured it was much better to agree on a common set of measurements. So that you didn't have to constantly convert yards to yards, inches to inches, gallons to gallons, stone to stone, the list was more or less unlimited in length.
I think the metric system is fantastic!
10cm*10cm*10cm=1 liter
100cm*100cm*100cm =1000 liters
Everyone knows just about how much volume a liter is
We even had our Norwegian version of all these things, but by some insane stroke of deep profound insight, figured it was much better to agree on a common set of measurements. So that you didn't have to constantly convert yards to yards, inches to inches, gallons to gallons, stone to stone, the list was more or less unlimited in length.
I think the metric system is fantastic!
10cm*10cm*10cm=1 liter
100cm*100cm*100cm =1000 liters
Everyone knows just about how much volume a liter is
Almost everyone in the USA knows the volume of 2 liters. Ubiquitous 2L Coke and Pepsi bottles. Stealth Metric.
Usually units systems discussing starts a war.
I accept both.
Some fun.
How much gas use your car.
Petrol in UK.
8 liter per 100km in France.
Go translate to miles per gallon.😕
I accept both.
Some fun.
How much gas use your car.
Petrol in UK.
8 liter per 100km in France.
Go translate to miles per gallon.😕
Let’s assume the median age of forum members participating in this particular thread is higher than that of the “youngers” at the core of the discussion - could they be blamed at passing a bored “OK, boomers” at reading the granular level at which we grouse over things they couldn’t care less about?
“Gramps, why do I need to remember that stuff, there’s an app for that. Hey, Alexa/Siri, WTF are those old guys going on about?” I would have said codgers, but ask your kids/grandkids what that is - will reply with a blank stare, I’m guessing.
“Gramps, why do I need to remember that stuff, there’s an app for that. Hey, Alexa/Siri, WTF are those old guys going on about?” I would have said codgers, but ask your kids/grandkids what that is - will reply with a blank stare, I’m guessing.
Yes, but as you respond in post 280 Gnobuddy, in relatively select subsects of society.
Back more on topic, and I mean no offence to anyone, can someone please explain the ubiquitous adoption of tattoos? I really cannot understand the desire to have one, or more generally, the phenomenon.
Back more on topic, and I mean no offence to anyone, can someone please explain the ubiquitous adoption of tattoos? I really cannot understand the desire to have one, or more generally, the phenomenon.
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The British Armed Forces and international military bands like one (with a capital T)!
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I still remember back in the gas crisis in 1979 in Boston,Ma-USA, when gas prices briefly surged to
over $4.00 a gallon . One gas station posted on their big sign over rt128 that they sell gas for a little over a dollar ( in small print " A liter".)
There was a big line. Every one else was posting their prices in gallons.
over $4.00 a gallon . One gas station posted on their big sign over rt128 that they sell gas for a little over a dollar ( in small print " A liter".)
There was a big line. Every one else was posting their prices in gallons.
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American Costco and Walmart online stores list soda portions in fractional ounces. Didn't know that. Without a history in metric the relationship probably isn't obvious. It does suggest that the global demand for soft drinks is so large that special accommodation for the domestic market is no longer economically advantageous.
It's a rare instance in which Jack Daniels might be a better learning tool, unconfirmed due to Google's insistence on returning optimized Canadian results for searches of American bottle sizes.
Monday I bought a quart of touch-up paint for my house at ACE Hardware, It's only 29oz and
labeled quart on the container. When did a quart become 29 oz?
labeled quart on the container. When did a quart become 29 oz?
That would be 29 fluid oz., which brilliantly measures volume. A quart is 32 of those, not 29.
They're probably hoping the google generation doesn't understand that.
They're probably hoping the google generation doesn't understand that.