Metric vs Imperial Units

kevin neville wrote: Personally I prefer yyyy_mm_dd, including leading zeros on month and day. Today is 2016_09_29. That way files and folders can be sorted alphabetically, presto change-o they're chronologic too.

You should use hyphens, not underscores:
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

Wow, this was more tongue in cheek, didn't expect such a response!

Fortunately, in college when getting my degree in geophysics all the science (physics, chemistry, and geophysics) used the metric system - it's crazy to use imperial units like "slugs"! But much of the geology was still in feet. But the mapping used UTM, which is in metric. I guess it pays to be "ambidextrous" in measurement systems if you live in the US.

And yes, I can multiply or divide by 3.281...

kevin neville wrote: Personally I prefer yyyy_mm_dd, including leading zeros on month and day. Today is 2016_09_29. That way files and folders can be sorted alphabetically, presto change-o they're chronologic too.

This. I typically ditch any characters between divisions (yyyymmdd). It helps avoid input errors and keeps the dataset a bit cleaner.

We don't do metric round these parts.
youtube.com/watch?v=S8LtffE…

Faulted Geologist wrote: Maybe you don't measure anything in your life. Maybe you avoid math. You will not know until you do extensive page long calculations on things in metric, then ponder how stupid it would be in 'Murican standard.

You use MathCAD like a normal person and set the units and it will convert it for you. Easy as pie.

FrankPS wrote:Our current system of measurement works just fine, thank you. I've never found myself saying, "If only this were in the metric system, it would be so much easier."

It really doesn't. Which is why the country passed an act to convert to the metric system. Pretty much every other country in the world has converted except the US.

FrankPS wrote: I was a machinist for many years, so I've measured a couple of things before. Tolerances in "thousandths of an inch," not metric units.

Congratulations. Measuring is fine, calculating is the problem.

Parker Wrozek wrote: You use MathCAD like a normal person and set the units and it will convert it for you. Easy as pie.

A normal person outside the US doesn't have to deal with that bullshit. And confusion between imperial units and metric doesn't cause cause whoopsie mistakes. (eg NASA)

FrankPS wrote:How about tremendous cost? There's one reason. A "single reason." Changing blueprints, manuals, street signs, software and Aerosmith songs would cost a bundle.

Didn't stop pretty much every other country in the world from converting and reaping the benefits.

patto wrote:Pretty much every other country in the world has converted except the US.

Pretty much the only reason...

patto wrote:calculating is the problem.

A computer neither has the concept of units nor are the computations performed in decimal. It really has made the whole thing pretty much irrelevant.

If calculation is such a problem, why don't we make everyone to use a metric/decimal based time unit as well?

reboot wrote:A computer neither has the concept of units nor are the computations performed in decimal. It really has made the whole thing pretty much irrelevant.

No. Really. It hasn't.

reboot wrote:If calculation is such a problem, why don't we make everyone to use a metric/decimal based time unit as well?

We do. It is called seconds.

Oh and days can't be metricized because that is fixed. Years are changing in length and are not whole number of days. Seriously does this really need to be explained?

patto wrote:This is a puzzling question that goes well beyond climbing guidebooks. The fact that a fair bit of engineering is still done in imperial units boggles the the mind. The rest of the world has moved to metric.... The US is stuck in the dark ages when it comes to measurement systems.... It has been over 40 years since the decision to covert was made... The Metric Conversion Act is an Act of Congress that U.S. President Gerald Ford signed into law on December 23, 1975.[1] It declared the Metric system "the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce", but permitted the use of United States customary units in non-business activities. (Oh and the increased difficulties imperial units give to climbers in inconsequential compared to engineering/science.)

Interesting read:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metri…

But I would love being able to enter and display units in meters on MP, it's overdue (as is the forum search).

FrankPS wrote: I was a machinist for many years, so I've measured a couple of things before. Tolerances in "thousandths of an inch," not metric units.

A machinist arguing for Imperial units! That is crazy talk to me. I am a machinist and I would love to see all prints (we don't call them blueprints anymore), models and tools convert to metric. Far fewer digits to remember. I could tell you all the tap drill sizes through 20mm but maybe only 3-4 in imperial. This is not from a lack of use but from the fact that the correlation between the two, in metric, is much easier to understand. And what good does TPI do when pitch is the information needed.

patto wrote: Measuring is fine, calculating is the problem.

Measuring and calculating go hand in hand. Measuring would be greatly improved by using the metric system.

patto wrote: A normal person outside the US doesn't have to deal with that bullshit. And confusion between imperial units and metric doesn't cause cause whoopsie mistakes. (eg NASA)

I wasn't making an argument either way. I was just telling him how normal engineering people take care of calculations. MathCAD or other specific software which can always handle a variety of units and conversions are easy. No one is doing pages of hand calcs.

patto wrote: No. Really. It hasn't.

Everyone who hasn't converted to using computers 100% should then, just like everyone who aren't engineers/physicists should convert to a system not of real benefits to them either. What's wrong w/ people.

patto wrote: We do. It is called seconds.

You should start scheduling meeting, plan project time, etc, etc, in seconds. Because, who cares about minutes, hours, days, years.

Canada was switching over just when I got to first grade and so I learned both.
Metric is way easier to learn, and makes way more sense. But if you learned imperial and now have to learn Metric, it's not that hard. Going the other way is brutal, especially if your my wife and after 36 years you still don't understand fractions.
That being said, everything up here was divided into 1/4 sections that are a half mile by a half mile, so kilometers suck when giving directions.

reboot wrote: Everyone who hasn't converted to using computers 100% should then, just like everyone who aren't engineers/physicists should convert to a system not of real benefits to them either.

How do imperial units benefit you in a way that metric units do not? They are better in all ways besides the fact that we grew up with a different system.

Johnny Kipp wrote: Going the other way is brutal, especially if your my wife and after 36 years you still don't understand fractions.

I have never understood this completely. I understand that the imperial system uses fractions as a rule but one still uses fractions in the metric system.

Mike Brady wrote: How do imperial units benefit you in a way that metric units do not? They are better in all ways besides the fact that we grew up with a different system.

What's 1/3 of a foot? 4 inches. What's 1/3 of a meter? 333.3333mm. How much water is in a cup? A cup. What's that in liters? What's the typical ceiling height? 8, 9 or 10 ft. What's that in meters? What's the typical ambient temperature range? 0-100F. In Celsius?-20 to 40.

Metric is a more convenient system for scientific purposes. But guess what? Most of the world population are NOT scientists.

reboot wrote: What's 1/3 of a foot? 4 inches. What's 1/3 of a meter? 333.3333mm. How much water is in a cup? A cup. What's that in liters? What's the typical ceiling height? 8, 9 or 10 ft. What's that in meters? What's the typical ambient temperature range? 0-100F. In Celsius?-20 to 40. Metric is a more convenient system for scientific purposes. But guess what? Most of the world population are NOT scientists.

what is half of one meter? 50 cm, what is that in feet...uhm 1.64 feet..
What is half a liter? 500 ml, what is that in cups or pints...?
What is the height of an European room? 2.4 meters, what is that in feet...oh it is 7.87 feet

Most of the world does just fine with metric

Faulted Geologist wrote: Allow me to add to the stoopid 'Muricans debate. We treat water by the gallon, sell by cubic yards I think, yet all chemical doses are done in mg/L. The conversions are nuts! Most water production employees can't add a column of three numbers together.

Really? You are concerned that folks can't do multiplication in their head (you would never be adding doses and volumes together anyway)? I am in the environmental industry, it is not that hard to deal with gallons of water with mg/L of chemicals. 3.8 is not a hard number to remember. I also work with CFM/ACFM/SCFM and ppmv/mg/L for air. That is why that great civil engineer in the sky invented spreadsheets.

Great - it's settled. We're not going metric. Glad we all agree on this. :)